Ger O'Rourke, who sails under the flag of the Western Yacht Club has distinguished himself worldwide by winning many prestigious yacht races and in particular now that he has become the first Irish person to win the Fastnet Race.
He has brought great honour and prestige to Ireland and more especially to a Yacht Club that in the very early days of yacht racing was at the forefront of yacht race organisation and development with an international membership. The Club's history has shown it to have been involved in the development of yacht racing all around the coast of Ireland in the 1830's and it had a very large membership with 57 yachts based along the west coast between Galway and Cork.
A brief history of the Club is as follows: The Club was founded in Kilrush on Corinthian traditions (amateur sailing) over 180 years ago on the 6th February 1827 as the Western Yacht Club of Ireland and it was given Royal Patronage and a Royal Warrant establishing itself as the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland in 1832. The Club was relocated to Dublin with an office in Grafton Street and a floating Club House in Dun Laoghaire. The Club ran very successful regattas in Dun Laoghaire until the late 1850's when it went into decline. Some of the membership formed what was to be known as the Royal Alfred Yacht Club which has been at the centre of yacht race management and organisation in Dublin Bay to the present day.
The Royal Western Yacht Club lay dormant for many years and was re-activated in 1984 in Kilrush where it was originally founded.
One unique feature is that the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland has at least two families as members who are direct descendants of the original founding members. The Club's Flag is the Irish Commercial Ensign, Blue Flag with the Irish Tricolour in the hoist and a Crown surrounded by a wreath of Shamrock in the Fly. The original 1832 Burgee which is use by all members is the Cross of St. George on a White Background with a Crown surrounded by a wreath of Shamrock in the centre.
www.westernyachtclub.com
Kilrush 16th November, 2007: At the 2007 AGM of the Western Yacht Club held in Kilrush on the 16th November a proposal from Ger O'Rourke (yacht Chieftain) that the Club should revert to its original name of Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland was passed by a majority vote.