Club History

In early 1990 a meeting was called in Whitegate Village in relation to the setting up of a rowing club in the village.  At this meeting a committee was formed and thus began the birth of Whitegate Yawl Rowing and Swimming Club.

Initially due to a lack of boats and funds Cobh rowing club came over to assist us with training.  Once enough money was raised we purchased our first training boat.  This required a lot of work to get it sea ready and this was done by a combined effort of locals.

With the club growing rapidly it was time to go about purchasing a Racing Yawl.  We approached Rob Jacob and Mark Richards and we enlisted them to design and build a 21ft racing yawl.  In june 1991 The 'Geata Ban' was blessed and launched at the Sawmills in Whitegate and a new era of our club began.

In 1997 a decision was made that we required a second racing boat and as a result we placed an order for a second 21ft yawl which was named 'Corkbeg'.

In 2001 an initiative was set about by the Irish Coastal Rowing Federation to introduce a new one design boat for all the clubs to compete in.  We then had to look to fund this proiject and with the assistance of the National Lottery we placed an order in early 2002 for our first one design boat.

In 2003 the club made the very brave decision to launch a bid to host the 2004 All Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships.  In late 2003 the club were informed that their bid had been successful and so the greatest challenge that the club had ever taken on was about to begin.