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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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
Afloat.ie: Stop-Start-Stop to Hobart
The Rolex Sydney-Hobart race fleet leaders stalled and stopped in calms off the far south coast of New South Wales earlier today. The smaller boats came up on a developing coastal sea breeze while the maxi leaders and 50-60-footers were…
Afloat.ie: Tricky Start to Sydney-Hobart in Prospect
The low pressure system remnant of a tropical cyclone crossing the continent is setting up a tricky wind pattern for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, for its Boxing Day start. While the scenario is still changing, pockets of light breeze…
ICAP Leopard preparing for Boxing Day Race Start
Round Ireland record breaker ICAP Leopard, the 100ft supermaxi racing yacht owned by Helical Bar CEO Mike Slade, is now training hard in Sydney ahead of her assault on the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race. Her crew inlcudes Wexford's Justin Slattery. This…
Afloat.ie: RORC Announce Change to the Class Bands for Commodores’ Cup
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) today announced a change to the class rating bands for the 2010 Rolex Commodores’ Cup.  The lower limit of Class 1 has been lowered by 10 points from 1.120 to 1.110.  The rating bands…
Afloat.ie: Cork Reaches Australia then Retires
Following a dramatic start to their race from Cape Town, South Africa, when Cork collided on the start line with Hull & Humber, the team has arrived in Geraldton, Western Australia at the end of the Southern Ocean leg of…
Afloat.ie: Hyde Crosses the Line in St. Lucia
Royal Cork's Stephen Hyde sailing A Lady (Avoidng the Recesssion in Style blog here) was among 200 yachts arriving at Rodney Bay Marina, Saint Lucia over the past two and a half weeks, and the celebration on Saturday 19 December,…
Afloat.ie: End of Southern Ocean leg for Cork, Ireland in the Clipper Race
Following a dramatic start to their race from Cape Town, South Africa, when Cork,Ireland collided on the start line with English entry Hull & Humber, the Irish team has arrived in Geraldton, Western Australia at the end of the Southern…
Afloat.ie: Prelude to Boxing Day Classic Down Under
The two near sister Reichel/Pugh designs Alan Brierty's Limit and Stephen Ainsworth's Loki, finished first and second, just one point apart, in the Rolex Trophy Rating Series regatta, the major warm-up for the Rolex Sydney Hobart race which starts this…
Annalise Murphy was second in this morning's medal race in Sail Melbourne leaving the National YC Laser sailor fourth overall in the event giving he overall victory in the 'Down Under Series,' the combination of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne race…
Afloat.ie: RORC Opt Out of Lifeline Change
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) has made a decision to ban Dyneema® lifelines for the 2010 RORC race programme that includes the Round Ireland race. At the ISAF annual conference in Busan Korea in November Dyneema® fibre was approved…
Galway Hooker Association – Cumann na Húicéirí History The GHA was established in 1978 for the purpose of promoting the restoration and preservation of traditional boats in Ireland, especially the Galway Hooker in its various forms (gleoiteog, púcán, leathbhád and…
Afloat.ie: Outstanding Turnout for SCORA Prizegiving
There was an outstanding turn out for the SCORA AGM and prize giving at the Royal Cork Yacht Club writes Claire Bateman. Representatives attended from all the South Coast clubs. The highly experienced executive committee under Commodore Derry Good had…
The word on the week... We put our ear to the ground – online, in print and elsewhere – to hear what the hordes had to say about sailing in this Year's Cork Week... Kawalski – Sailing Anarchy – If…
How old is Cork Week? Was this year (2008) the 30th anniversary of Cork Week, or will it come in 2016? To many of the sailing competitors enjoying Crosshaven’s sunshine this year, it might seem irrelevant when the event started.…
Playing the numbers – Cork Week 2008 (reprinted from Afloat September/October 2008) Both on and off the water, it's the numbers that make Cork Week what it is. Louay Habib explains the math of Ireland's premier regatta, and how some…
Cork Week 2008 Preview 380 boats and a fleet packed with quality  (reprinted from Afloat June/July 2008) Markham Nolan previews ACCBank Cork Week that has announced a new Cup for the amateur cruiser-racer It’s now 30 years since the concept…

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]