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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
Founded in 1894 by a group of boating enthusiasts, the Portrush Yacht Club has grown to be one of the biggest and most successful clubs of its kind in Northern Ireland. Organised by a dedicated committee of members, the activities…
History – 1968 to 2009 The Club now based in its clubhouse at 38-40 Shore Road, Portaferry started as Cooke Street Sailing Club in 1968, named after a previous sailing club in the town which ceased operating in 1956. The…
Newtownards Sailing Club was founded in 1964, following a public meeting in the Town Hall, chaired by Stanley Woods, JP and ex-Mayor of Newtownards, who became the first Vice Commodore, with Lady Mairi Bury as Commodore. The late Angus Jardine,…
Newcastle Yacht Club, South Promenade, Newcastle, Co. Down BT33 0EY, N. Ireland. Tel: +44 (0)28 4372 6515 Have we got your club details? Click here to get involved
The Club premises were formally leased ot the Club in 1954 by the Allen family, together with the rights to all relevant sailing activities in Kircubbin Bay.  Kircubbin Sailing Club, Ards Peninsula, Strangford Lough, Co. Down, N. Ireland. Email: [email protected],…
Holywood Yacht Club is a Recognised Teaching Centre (RTC). As such it is permitted to run RYA Courses using qualified RYA Instructors and standards are maintained by regular inspections. Qualifications gained on RYA courses are widely recognised. The Club welcomes…
Left: Sunday Juniors at Greystones SC, 2009 Founded in 1968, Greystones Sailing Club has established a reputation as one of the top dinghy sailing clubs in Ireland. Its sailors have competed successfully in many open events over the years, both…
East Belfast Yacht Club was founded by workers from the Belfast Shipyards in 1904, and has enjoyed both the high and the low years through its existence. From the high points through the 1920s/30s/40s and '50s when the Club hosted…
Down Cruising Club is a small, friendly club of approximately 100 members, who are interested in all aspects of boating and cruising on Strangford Lough. The club is fortunate to be based at Ballydorn, on Strangford Lough, and to enjoy…
Located on the edge of Larne Lough in East Antrim Northern Ireland, we believe our club to be situated on some of the best sailing waters in the UK. With members of all ages and ambitions, we have a healthy…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) is the largest yacht-racing organisation on the Irish east coast You'll find all the latest Dublin Bay Sailing Club News here. With sixteen hundred elected members, the Club provides regular weekly racing for upwards of…
Donaghadee Sailing Club is located in the seaside town of Donaghadee on the east coast of Northern Ireland. Donaghadee comes from the Irish - Domhnach Daoi meaning 'Daoi’s Church'. Donaghadee has a long history with many of it's prominent features…
Courtown Sailing Club is a family orientated and vibrant club where new members are always welcome. Left: 'Cul8r' rounding mark at the Kilmichael Challenge 2009   Post: Courtown Sailing Club, c/o Aine Stafford, South Pier, Courtown Harbour, Co. Wexford. Tel:…

Bray Sailing Club

17th July 2009 Clubs
Bray is a seaside resort a few miles South of Dublin. The sailing club overlooks the harbour, which is at the North end of the promenade. Left: Wicklow and Bray We cater for both cruisers and dinghies, with a full…
History 25 October 1902 – Formation of Club at John Wylie’s residence. Present – Robert Todd, William Craig, Robert Auld Snr, Robert Auld Jnr, John Wylie (1st Captain), H.E. Wylie and A. Wylie. Decision taken to form Whitehead Sailing Club.…
History The club, founded in 1960 by a small group of people with an interest in boats, provides a service to people boating, with changing and toilet facilities, a secure boat storage park, social areas and a bar, also by…

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]