Kinsale Yacht Club

Ireland and the sea are synonymous - boats and an island go hand-in-hand. The long maritime history of Ireland bred a coastal population that through trade, smuggling, fishing, defence, sport and leisure, has developed a deep understanding and culture in the ways of the sea and the requirements for using it safely and efficiently for its needs.

One of the most strategically positioned and sheltered harbours along Ireland’s coast, the Bandon River estuary, saw the development of a settlement hundreds of years ago that has been visited, not always peacefully, by just about every contemporary European maritime power since the Vikings. The settlement took the name from its location - Kinsale (Ceann tSáile, head of the salt – the highest point up the Bandon River that salt water could be tasted at low tide), and it grew to a village before becoming Ireland's first official town.

The world order changing Battle of Kinsale in 1601 gave the town two significant harbour defence forts Charles Fort and James Fort and a military legacy. Nowadays Kinsale has a population of nearly 3000 in the winter and significantly more in the summer. An all-year round tourist destination Kinsale, the gourmet capital of the country, is renowned for its restaurants, pubs, walks, Arts, Food and Jazz festivals and amongst sailors the world over for the welcome it gives to other like-minded people.

Kinsale Yacht Club (KYC) as it exists today was established in 1950. The first Commodore of the club was John H. Thuillier. The club was first located in two cottages opposite the slip at Scilly, across the harbour from the current location. By the mid-1950’s, there were six boats racing in the club comprising of a dragon called ‘Sleuth’, two colleens, ‘Pinkeen’ and ‘Spalpeen’, an Uffa Ace, Dick Hegarty’s cruiser ‘Bedouin’ and a jollyboat sailed by the 70-year old Commodore Brigadier General Dorman. Jeanot Petch made an exotic addition to the already varied fleet when he built a Prout catamaran in 1957. Races started off the pierhead sailing to the Bulman Buoy at the entrance to the estuary and back via the harbour marks.

The fleet would leave the Bulman Buoy to port or starboard according to the wind, as the Commodore did not want to gybe that far out to sea! Later a 45 gallon drum was placed upriver and used as an upwind mark until the new bridge was built in the 1970’s. All the boats at that time were kept on swing moorings in the river.

In the early 1960’s, Dick Hegarty, in his capacity as the club's solicitor, purchased the present clubhouse on behalf of the Club. Over time, dinghy fleets of Albacores, Mirrors, Flying Fifteens, Fireballs and Enterprises developed and junior sailing instruction began. The Cork Harbour Dragon fleet also moved from the Royal Munster Yacht Club in Crosshaven, now the Royal Cork Yacht Club, to Kinsale.

In the 1970's, the Club started hosting Regional and National Championships and hosted the World Fireball Championships in 1977. In the same year, the Club also held the Dragon Gold Cup (to be held again in 2012) and started to develop it’s widely recognised race management teams. In 1978, the Club and its members funded and built the first marina.

In the 1990’s, the Club embarked on three separate extensions to the clubhouse, by which time it had become one of the leading yacht clubs in the country. Junior sailing now encompasses Optimists, Lasers and 420's. One design racing takes in International Dragons, Squibs and A-Class Catamarans. The Club also supports three very strong Cruiser Classes (Class I, II and III) who are also now joined by a more relaxed White Sail Fleet. There is now also a nascent powerboat movement.