The Royal Cork Yacht Club could have been named the Royal Irish, but for the reluctance of the British political establishment and its advice to a King!
Researching for my weekly column in Cork’s morning daily, THE ECHO, I thought that the Secretary of the Royal Cork Yacht Club seemed to be in a rather peeved mood in October 1831 when he replied to a letter from Mr.John Patterson of Dublin who had contacted him about a new yacht club about to be formed in then Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire).
Thomas Hewitt, Esq., the Royal Cork Secretary, told Mr. Patterson that the Cork club had “requested that the King would permit us to assume the appellation of the ‘Royal Irish Yacht Club’ as being the only yacht club exclusively composed of Irish members and consequently the only one qualified to adopt such a National appellation.”
In the year before, 1830, the then ‘Cork Yacht Club’ had received the granting of royal patronage to become the ‘Royal’ Cork Yacht Club. William IV, a keen sailor known as ‘the Sailor King,’ had ascended to the throne in England and granted the royal prefix.
However, the use of the title ‘Royal Irish Yacht Club’ was postponed for what were stated to be ‘certain reasons,’ that were not then explained.
The club to be formed in Dun Laoghaire was originally to be called the ‘United Yacht Club,’ but this was changed to the ‘Royal Irish Yacht Club.’ On its website it declares itself at Dun Laoghaire as “A home in the harbour since 1831.”
The official history of the RCYC records, somewhat wryly one could conclude, about the ‘Royal Irish’ club: “Its first commodore was the Marquis of Anglesey who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a prominent member of the Royal Yacht Club (known as the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Isle of Wight), so it is likely that there were political reasons for the title not going to the Cork club.”
The original RCYC title was ‘The Water Club of the Harbour of Cork,’ from 1720, but there were several eviscerations over later years. During these it was shortened to the ‘Cork Harbour Water Club’ then the ‘Cork Harbour Club.’
“As the term ‘yacht’ developed into fashionable use in the early 19th century it began to be used by the Cork club,” according to the RCYC history. “In 1829 the signals of the club were published under the title of ‘Cork Harbour Yacht Club,’ although the title ‘Cork Yacht Club’ also appears in the signals and the club burgee had the letters CYC appearing in yellow on a red background. The name ‘Cork Yacht Club’ had been assumed in the previous year during the re-organisation of the club.”
In 1830, the club's title issue was finally resolved when it received royal patronage. In 1831, when Hewitt wrote his letter, it was known as the ‘Royal Cork Yacht Club’ and no change was subsequently made to that title.
“The Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) had found a title which has stood the test of time,” according to its history, written by Dr. Alicia St.Leger.
So, “what’s in a name?” In this instance, ‘Cork’ rather than ‘Irish’ denotes the oldest yacht club in the world as being on Leeside, which bestrides the ‘Irish’ in Dun Laoghaire.
Secretary Hewitt wrote into the RCYC records in 1832, underlining its then history as “sufficient to entitle the Royal Cork Yacht Club to claim the honour of being the parent of all Yacht Clubs.”
Going back to 1720, that history trounces even the highly self-elevated Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes in the Isle of Wight, which was not founded until June 1, 1815, in London as "The Yacht Club.’ It was re-named the ‘Royal Yacht Club’ in 1820 by King George IV and did not become the ‘Royal Yacht Squadron’ until 1833 ‘by command of King William IV’ – who, though he had given ‘royal’ designation to Cork three years earlier, did withhold ‘Irish’!
