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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
RCYC October League 2009
The Royal Cork Yacht Club are getting all revved up for their 2009 October League, being held over five weekends. It's great practice for Harbour Course Day at Cork Week 2010 (July 12th to 16th)! With racing for IRC, Echo,…
Clipper entrant raising funds for Irish Guide Dogs
Jacqui Browne, who joins the crew of Irish entry 'Cork' for five of the ten month Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, is doing so to raise money for the Assistance Dogs Programme for families of children with autism. The…
Record-breaking teen finishes solo sail
British teen Mike Perham sailed into the record books today, becoming the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. Perham bumped American Zac Sunderland off the top spot. Sunderland finished his solo sail just last month, but Perham is…
Howth Yacht Club Autumn League secures three-way sponsorship
For the first time in its 34-year history, Howth Yacht Club’s Autumn League, one of Ireland’s longest running annual events, will have a three-way joint sponsorship; with Crystal Holidays, Irish Life Investment Managers and Today FM providing the necessary support.
Glenafton storms West Highland Yachting Week
Helensburgh sailor Brian Young lifted the top prize at Tennents West Highland Yachting Week, taking home the Peter Cocks Memorial Trophy for the best overall performance of the 157-yacht regatta in Argyll Fleet Class 6. Young’s well known Mylne ketch…
Howth Yacht Club Series 3 for Wednesday
HOWTH YACHT CLUB WEDNESDAY SERIES 3 (RACE) 26/8/2009  Class 1 IRC – 1 Equinox, R. McDonald, 2 Tiger, Hughes/Harris, 3 Off the Wall, Walls/Cawley. Class 1 HPH – 1 Joslim, J. Connolly, 2 Storm, P. Kelly, 3 Equinox, R. McDonald.…
Irish Fireballs move up board
The Irish Fireball crews are moving up the leaderboard in La Rochelle, with a race win for Francis Rowan and his English helm Tom Gilard, and placings inside the top ten for the Rumball/Moran and Butler Moore pairings. Final sailing…
Puffin gets both Squibs at Howth Yacht Club Tuesday
Howth Yacht Club Tuesday and Saturday Series 3 (Race) 22/8/2009 – 17 Footer Scratch – 1 Deilginis, Massey/Others, 2 Eileen, Finnucane/O'Byrne, 3 Oona, P. Courtney. 17 Footer Handicap – 1 Eileen, 2 Deilginis, Massey/Others, 3 Bobolink Walsh/Doyle. Tuesday and Saturday…
Pippa IV first Sigma at DBSC Tuesday
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 25 AUGUST 2009  Cruisers 1 – 1 Powder Monkey, C. Moore/M. Byrne, 2 Lula Belle, Liam Coyne. Cruisers 2 – 1 Borraine, Ean Pugh, 2 Red Rhum, J. Nicholson. Cruisers 3 –…
O'Leary unmatched on home turf
RCYC sailor Nin O'Leary was the clear winner at the Match Racing Southerns last weekend in Crosshaven, sailed over two days in the ISA Sailfleet J80s, writes Claire Bateman. Round Robin 1 was completed in full on Saturday and in…
Stylish win in ISORA M2
Ross O'Leary's Sunfast 3200 Big Hillie Style emerged the victor of the Frenesi Cup Race from Dun Laoghaire to the MR Weather Bouy at the weekend, edging out ahead of J92 Just Enough. O'Leary and crew added the overall win…
No Gold for Lasers
Neither of Ireland' two entries have made the gold fleet of the 2009 Laser World Championships, an event that has lost one day of racinging to high winds from Hurricane Bill, and another in the airless conditions that followed in…
Dragons fire up South Coast
The 2009 Dragon South Coast regatta, hosted by Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, took place last weekend (August 21st to 23rd). Five races were scheduled – two Friday afternoon and two Saturday, with the final race set for Sunday morning. Racing…
Howarth/Townend lead Fireball Worlds
The Fireball World Championships is four races in at La Rochelle, and UK team Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend are stamping their dominance, with three wins from four races so far. Once again, European bronze medallists Tom Gilard and Francis…
Less than 10% of VOR suppliers unpaid
Let's Do It Galway, the organising body for the Galway stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, has issued a statement in response to reports that suppliers to the event remain unpaid. The company says that the vast majority of suppliers…
Galway Stopover seeking discounts on debt
The company set up to run the Galway Stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, Let's Do It Galway, has yet to pay several suppliers and is looking for discounts on monies owed. Report via Barry O'Halloran of the Irish Times.

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]