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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
Cotter continues to  lead in Italian waters
Just past the halfway stage in the 2009 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the frontrunners are beginning to show their colours. The jostling for pole position is entering the decisive phase. Only two days of racing left and if you…
Cotter leads Maxi Worlds
Dun Laoghaire's Mick Cotter leads the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2009 in Porto Cervo, Italy. His  80–foot yacht Whisper took her second bullet in the Mini Maxi Racing/Cruising division followed by Brian Benjamin’s Aegir (GBR) yesterday. The leaders of the…
Howth Yacht Club Autumn League starts this Sunday
The 2009 Howth Yacht Club Autumn League is scheduled to start its 30th year this Sunday, September 13th. With the forecasters predicting better weather than we’ve had all summer, it represents an ideal opportunity to get some excellent end-of-season racing.…
The SB3s big sister made a return to popularity at its birthplace on the Cork coast last month and now we have video to prove it!  Nearly 20 boats raced for national championship honours and Nicholas O'Leary turned the tables…
Cork Clipper arrives in Hull
The Irish Yacht, Cork, one of ten stripped-down 68 foot ocean racing yachts sailed past The Deep, the iconic ‘submarium’ visitor attraction in Hull, North Yorkshire, UK, in readiness for the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. “The crew…
Mini interview: O'Connell on Match Racing
Sailmaker Maurice O'Connell took part in the Dublin Match Racing Open at Howth in July and the Leinster Championships in August. Here he answers a few questions about the new circuit that is winning fans around the country. Prof, You're…
Murphy is Sailor of the Month
Annalise Murphy is the Irish Independent/Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for August after her impressive showing in the Laser Radial Worlds in Japan. Racing in the first week of August, the 19-year-old National Yacht Club sailor was advancing a potential…
Mini Wednesday results from Howth Yacht Club
HOWTH YACHT CLUB – SEPTEMBER MINI WEDNESDAY (RACE) 2/9/2009. Class 1 IRC – 1 Tiger, Hughes/Harris, 2 Makutu, Doyle/Others, 3 Crazy Horse, A. Chambers. Class 1 HPH – 1 Makutu, Doyle/Others, 2 Tiger, 3 Crazy Horse. Class 2 IRC –…
King One flew HYC flag high at Half Ton Classic Cup in Belgium
Eventually finishing fourth at the Half Ton Classic Cup in Nieuwpoort, Belgium, out of a fleet of 23 comprising boats from the UK, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Spain and Holland, the crew confirmed the myth having won the initial practice…
'No pro' rule to be enforced at Cork Week
Cork week 2010 will strictly enforce its no pro rule next year to ensure only 'Corinthian' sailors helm in the bulk of competing sailing classes. Measures are also being taken to ensure the week is to become less expensive according…
Hard work pays off at Clifden Regatta 2009
After hosting the West Coast Championships for two consecutive years, Clifden Boat Club were well prepared for their 2009 local regatta on the 8th and 9th of August. The organising team worked hard in the months coming up to the…
Baptism of fire for Topper sailors at Laser Nationals
The Irish Laser Nationals at Lough Derg YC surpassed expectations of entry numbers to host four days of racing for 160 Laser sailors from all over Ireland last week. Shifty and gusty conditions on the lake provided challenging tactical conditions…
Howth Yacht Club Mini Tuesday Racing
HOWTH YACHT CLUB, SEPTEMBER MINI TUESDAY (RACE) 1/9/2009  Puppeteer Scratch – 1 Harlequin, D. Clarke, 2 Yellow Peril, N. Murphy, 3 Trick o'Treat, A. Pearson. Puppeteer Handicap – 1 Ghosty Ned, D. Harkin, 2 Mr Punch, Ni Bhraonain/Wilson, 3 Haemoglobin,…
Sligo crew make most of local knowledge
Sligo Yacht Club duo Tim Corcoran and Brendan Brogan made the most of their local knowledge to win the ESB sponsored GP14 Championships of Ireland held at Rosses Point on Sligo Bay this weekend. The event received a bumper turnout…
CH Marine 1720 Nationals 2009
Sailing was the big winner at the CH Marine 1720 Nationals, held in Baltimore from the 27th–29th August, with varying conditions from 25/30 knots in the first two days followed by a sunny 10/12 knots on the Saturday. It proved…
ISA express concern over Dun Laoghaire bye-law
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has expressed its concern over Beach Byelaws that limit boating on Dublin Bay introduced by Dunlaoghaire Rathdown County Council last July. The Association says that considering the worth of water based amenity to the community…

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]