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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Sailing in Ireland. Sailors, Yachting, Clubs, Regattas
Howth's Rocco Wright Wins Sail Sydney Optimist Regatta
Optimist ace Rocco Wright of Howth Yacht Club has won the 2019 Sail Sydney Optimist Open Championships this weekend, just ten days before his father starts the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. It completes a remarkable season for the youngster, back in July Wright…
DBSC Race Committee vessel Freebird
Overall results for the DBSC Turkey Shoot have been updated after a miscalculation in the final scores on Sunday. The Trapper Eleint has now been declared the overall winning entry from the 66-boat turnout for the seven-race series on Dublin Bay.…
Under 25 sailing deadline - the closing date for all  U25 2020 supports is the 19th December
For clubs considering establishing an ICRA Under-25 sailing programme and clubs with existing U25 programmes, there are only a few days left to submit your “Expression of Interest” or make your “Existing Programme” application to join the ICRA U25 Support…
HYC Breakthrough, the First 40 which is the Howth entry for the 75th Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race of 630 miles in twelve days’ time
Back in 1991 when the world seemed a much simpler place, a three-crew Irish team - using shrewdly-selected offshore racing boats chartered in Australia - took part in the then-popular International Southern Cross Series, which was built around a programme…
Ian McCormack (right) and Ciara O’Tiarnaigh (centre) at the Sutton Dinghy Club AGM earlier this week
Sutton Dinghy Club’s end-of-season prize-giving this coming Sunday 15 December from 3.30pm is also an opportunity to welcome new Commodore Ian McCormack and Vice-Commodore Ciara O’Tiarnaigh, who were elected at the club’s AGM on Monday night. With the recent news…
Transatlantic success - Paul Fagan, Paul Barrington, Brian Uniake, David O’Reilly, Alan Daly, Barry O’Sullivan, Teddy Murphy (all NYC members) and Olly Cotterell (Skipper).
A National Yacht Club crew from Dublin Bay have finished fourth in class and fourth monohull in the 2019 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC).  As previously reported on Afloat, the NYC crew made the crossing in the 80-foot Swan yacht…
There are a maximum of 20 entries for the World Championships
World Sailing has recently announced the criteria for selecting teams for the Offshore World Sailing Championships scheduled to be held in Malta from 10 – 22 October 2020. This is a newly established event for a double-handed mixed crew. There…
Volunteers from Seagate in Derry took part in a bank clean-up downstream of the Strabane Canal, removing close to 30 bags worth of rubbish
In recent weeks the Loughs Agency has been working with groups of volunteers to clean up the banks of the River Foyle in Northern Ireland. The Foyle Ambassadors, a group of young environmentalists, completed a clean-up on the upstream bank…
Kilkeel Harbour in Co Down
Co Down woman Danielle Rooney has started her “dream job” as harbour master at Kilkeel, as The Irish News reports. The 28-year-old is believed to be the first woman to hold such a role within the Northern Ireland Fisheries Harbour…
Smoke haze has cut visibility on Sydney Harbour to 0.1 nautical miles
Sydney to Hobart officials are scrambling to formulate a plan for the 'worst-case scenario' as bushfires threaten to cause the postponement of the St.Stephen's Day race start reports the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. Following the cancellation of the Big Boat…
The 1720 Optique is the overall leader of the 2019 Turkey Shoot going into Sunday's final race
No race last weekend means the 1720 sportsboat overall leader after five races sailed will be the boat to watch this weekend in the final race of the 2019 Citroen South DBSC Turkey Shoot on Dublin Bay. Handicaps and Starts will…
Conor Totterdell (left) with Pata Negra crewmates in Grenada
Dubin Bay sailor Conor Totterdell of the National Yacht Club has just completed his first transat race on a Lombard 46, Pata Negra in the 2019 RORC Transatlantic Race. The race proved to be a test of competence in many…
(Right) Richard Palmer's JPK 10.10 Jangada, racing two handed with Jeremy Waitt (left) receive the magnificent  RORC Transatlantic Race Trophy from Dr Clarice Modeste-Curwen, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Grenada
Jangada, the smallest boat in the RORC Transatlantic Race was also the overall winner. Richard Palmer's British JPK 10.10 Jangada was presented with the RORC Transatlantic Trophy in Grenada at a ceremony and prize-giving banquet held at Camper & Nicholsons…
The spirit of San Francisco, relaxed but effective. Imp at the start of the 1977 RORC Channel before she went on to be overall winner of that year’s Fastnet Race. Her intriguing stern is much in evidence – it tried and succeeded in finding the balance between upwind speed and downwind power
There’s boats. There’s great boats. And then there’s Imp. Our story at the weekend about how George Radley of Great Island and Cobh in Cork Harbour was bringing home his fabulous 1976 Ron Holland-designed 40-footer has drawn a global response…
The Sun Fast 3600 Bellino raced by Rob Craigie & Deb Fish
The RYA is on the hunt for sailors and boat owners interested in the new double-handed mixed offshore event that will debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This exciting discipline will see mixed pairs battle it out over a 4-day…
The first time the 29er class will be joining the Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, 420, Topper and Optimists
Entry is now open for Irish Sailing’s Annual Youth National Championships, taking place 16-19 April 2020 and hosted by Howth Yacht Club in County Dublin. As Afloat reported earlier, this year, for the first time, the 29er class will be joining…

How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]