Longevity
Although the record of pleasure sailing on the waters around Athlone goes back to 1731, organized club sailing did not commence before 1770. And notwithstanding the change in name and premises during subsequent years, Lough Ree Yacht Club is said to be the second or third oldest club in the world. Ultimately this claim relies upon the Club's own assertions on its origins. On the other hand, it has never been publicly challenged.
Whether the Club is second or third oldest in the world depends upon whether an organization described as the Flotilla of the Neva, St Petersburg, Russia, is a Yacht Club by modern or historical standards. It has been claimed that the Flotilla was established in 1718. However there is little presence of the club on the World Wide Web, and one visitor in September 2005 described it as "not quite a yacht club" . Although all old yacht clubs could be described thus at some point during their histories, not for their entire duration.
Accordingly, Lough Ree Yacht Club is arguably the second oldest yacht club in the world. The eldest, as it happens is also Irish, the Royal Cork Yacht Club.
Read more about this topic: Lough Ree Yacht Club
Famous quotes containing the word longevity:
“Every thing teaches transition, transference, metamorphosis: therein is human power, in transference, not in creation; & therein is human destiny, not in longevity but in removal. We dive & reappear in new places.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)