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Ireland: Yacht Clubs

Cork Harbour Yacht Club
National Yacht Club
Royal Cork Yacht Club
Royal Galway Yacht Club
Royal Irish Yacht Club
Royal St George Yacht Club
Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland

Cork Harbour Yacht Club

The Water Club of the Harbour of Cork was established in 1720, and by 1759 had become the Cork Harbour Yacht Club. In that year the Lords of the Admiralty granted William, Earl of Inchiquin "a Union flag with the Royal Irish harp and crown on a green field in the centre" for the club. After 1765 there are no records of the club being anything other than a Water Club, presenting prizes for fishermen and rowing-boats at an annual regatta. The Cork Yacht Club was revived in 1828 when Water Club members combined with the Little Monkstown Club which had been established on Haulbowline Island in 1822.
David Prothero, 26 December 2005

Royal Cork Yacht Club

Burgee

The Dumpy Book of Ships and the Sea (1957) shows the burgee red with a harp surmounted by a crown.
James Dignan, 12 February 2008

Royal Galway Yacht Club

Sometime ago while heading off in a round the world race the Late Lord Killanin presented me with the burgee of the Royal Galway. He asked me to fly the flag and continue the tradition. We are rebuilding the club on the back of a syndicate who are building a boat for the Volvo round the world race in 2009.
Enda O'Coineen, 30 December 2007

Flying the burgee of a defunct yacht club should not be a problem, though I suggest that it should be flown as a personal or house flag, and not in the position that a club burgee would normally be flown. Reviving the club and using the same burgee is a slightly more doubtful proposition. The title 'royal' was granted to the Galway Yacht Club in 1882. What a yacht club in the Republic of Ireland cares to call itself is no longer of any concern to the British Home Office. There are still 'royal' yacht clubs in the Republic of Ireland so presumably the Irish government would have no objection to the use of an historic title by a revived club. Using the same burgee should not be a problem as long as it does not contravene any Irish regulations. The crown is still used on the burgees of three Irish yacht clubs. A record of which clubs have been granted the title 'royal' should be held by the Home Office in London. The title 'royal' does not in itself have any significance as far as flags are concerned. Most British yacht clubs that had/have the title 'royal' have also been granted, quite separately, the right to have a special club ensign. The Royal Galway was one of the very few royal clubs that did not have this right.
David Prothero, 31 December 2007

Royal Irish Yacht Club

image by Martin Grieve, 21 December 2005

Details of the ensign were reproduced in "Papers Relating to Yacht Clubs" published by order of the House of Commons, 22 July 1859.

"By the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c.

Whereas we deem it expedient that the vessels belonging to the Royal Irish Yacht Club shall be permitted to wear a burgee and ensign, as described on the diagram opposite, on board their respective vessels : We do therefore by virtue of the power and authority vested in us hereby warrant and authorise a burgee and ensign as described on the diagram to be worn on board the respective vessels belonging to the Royal Irish Yacht Club accordingly.

Given under our hands and the Seal of Office of Admiralty the 17th day of October 1831.
(signed) G.H.L.Dundas. S.J.B.Pechell
By command of their Lordships. (Signed by a Secretary)"

The diagram was an asymmetric cross on a rectangle, as reproduced in the image above. The word 'red' had been printed on each arm of the cross, with the quarters one to four marked 'Union Jack', 'White', Arms of Ireland, and 'White' respectively.

David Prothero, 21 December 2005

Burgee

The Dumpy Book of Ships and the Sea (1957) shows the burgee blue with a harp surmounted by a crown.
James Dignan, 12 February 2008

Royal St George Yacht Club

image by Clay Moss, 5 October 2007

Also used for the Royal Windermere Yacht Club. If I'm not mistaken I believe we collectively agreed that the Windermere ensign also once served the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Ireland.
Clay Moss, 23 February 2006

The crown was moved to the fly in 1895, so a Tudor crown would not have appeared in the Union canton.
David Prothero, 26 February 2006

As I understand it, the crown appeared in the Union canton until 1895. I assume, therefore, that this would have been the Victorian crown with the "flat" arches. In 1895, this crown would have migrated to the fly and would have been superseded by the "Tudor" crown in 1902 or so. This, in turn, would have been replaced by the current St. Edward's crown in 1952 or thereabouts. I assume, too, that this is still the position today.
Peter Johnson, 27 February 2006

Does a modern Irish YC really fly a defaced Red Ensign? Not only is that implausible for political/national pride reasons, I would have thought that it would also be illegal, since the yachts presumably would be Irish registered. Or would the defaced Red Ensign be a purely ceremonial/historical flag and never used at sea?
André Coutanche, 3 February 2006

A member of the Royal St George Yacht Club who is British and has a British registered yacht is entitled to apply for a special British ensign, in this case a Red Ensign defaced by a crown on the fly.
David Prothero, 3 February 2006

A photo at http://www.rsgyc.ie/gallery/CruiseToFrance/pages/Richard%20Hooper.htm shows the RSGYC actually flies an Irish Yacht Ensign (possibly defaced with the club badge although not identified on our page).
Christopher Southworth, 3 February 2006

The R St. George YC is listed on the Navy List as being eligible to have its qualified members apply for warrants to fly the Red Ensign defaced with the club badge, which is the Royal Crown. As with other British special yacht ensigns, the club member must own a British-registered yacht. While this may seem to be an unlikely situation for a club situated in a country outside the Commonwealth, given the provisions of the Republic of Ireland Act, 1949 (UK), there were greater opportunities for citizens of the Irish Republic to access the British register than others as they were still accorded privileges of Commonwealth citizens. So access to the British registry by Irish members would not be unknown, and any such yachts would wear British colours. Of course, this is not to deny the existence of the Irish register and its predominance among the Irish; the British register is simply an option.

In addition to the British ensign, the R St. George YC ("the George") has adopted (perhaps been granted by the Minister of the Marine) an Irish yacht ensign, which is navy blue, with the Irish tricolour in the first quarter, and with a depiction of the Crown in red in the fly. This is an Irish version -- albeit in blue, not red -- of the
club's special British Red Ensign. The samples I have seen depict the Crown in a solid red colour (not in its full natural colours, as it is on the British ensign), but otherwise, the pattern of the two flags resemble each other.
James Liston, 9 April 2006

image by Clay Moss, 23 February 2006

If I am reading their history page correctly, www.rsgyc.ie/about/history/default.asp, the image here is the yacht ensign of the Royal St. George Yacht Club.
Clay Moss, 3 February 2006

Burgee

The Dumpy Book of Ships and the Sea (1957) shows the burgee red with a white cross, with a crown over its centre.
James Dignan, 12 February 2008

Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland

image located by Valentin Poposki, 3 September 2006

The Western Yacht Club is based at Kilrush Marina in Kilrush, Co. Clare on the Shannon Estuary. The ensign is located at http://www.westernyachtclub.com/ensign.jpg, the burgee at http://www.westernyachtclub.com/burgee.jpg.
Valentin Poposki, 3 September 2006

The Western Yacht Club at its AGM in Nov. 2007 voted to re-adopt its original name of the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland which was founded in Kilrush in 1827 and received its Royal Warrant in 1832. Members in the 1830s were all allocated distinguishing flags if they owned boats. If a member had 2 boats he was allocated 2 flags, if there were shared owners of one boat then each owner was allocated his own flag. Distinguishing flags permitted ease of recognition at sea. The club had its own Flag Signals Book and we have an original copy in our possession.
Please see our website (http://www.westernyachtclub.com) for our current flags. I have attached a spreadsheet of original members which specifies their distinguishing flags for your info.
Randal B. Counihan, 19 January 2008
Rear Commodore RWYCI

I am a bit confused about the current RWYCI flags. Above we show resized images from their web site:
http://www.westernyachtclub.com/ensign.jpg
http://www.westernyachtclub.com/burgee.jpg
However, these images are not used on the web site itself, apparently, but other contradicting images are:
http://www.westernyachtclub.com/c76faa90.jpg
http://www.westernyachtclub.com/c73c87f0.jpg

Now, the ensign seems to be more or less the same, difference being the inscription below the defacement. The other difference is colouring, that must be result of different artwork, I guess, and the usual "Irish colours" are probably used. Also, I guess that the actual ensigns would not have the inscriptions, but would be, more or less the same as the 1832 Union Jack ensign, where the UJ is replaced with the Irish tricolour. (Although I do wonder about the blue shade - the site at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Sparta/1648/flags.htm seems to imply that the "Irish standard blue "is in lighter shade, while the RWYCI site seems to have it much closer to the UJ blue.) But, regarding the burgee - the two show much difference - namely one is white with red cross, the other red with white cross - what is actually used?
Željko Heimer, 20 January 2008

The current burgee and the original burgee were both red cross on white burgee.
David Prothero, 20 January 2008