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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
SailGP will head to South America for the first time next season, racing on the iconic waters of Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay
The fast-approaching 2025 Season is set to be SailGP's most expansive yet, with new teams and events taking place across five continents. Unfolding over a 12-month period, the 2025 Season will start and finish in the United Arab Emirates, with…
Sir Ben Ainslie
An unnamed party has lodged a complaint with the Arbitration Panel for the America's Cup over the exchange between INEOS Britannia skipper, Ben Ainslie and a New Zealand television commentator reports Sail World. The case, which has been published on…
INEOS Britannia had the edge on Emirates Team New Zealand all day in the waters off Barcelona on Wednesday 16 October
A warm and humid Wednesday (16 October) in Barcelona yielded southerly thermal breezes of 7-11 knots for two absorbing races in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match that saw INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, take back-to-back victories to…
Hibernia to Iberia: Sail trainee tall ship Sørlandet visited Dun Laoghaire Harbour as seen from the Lexicon Library with its splendid panoramic view of the waterfront and piers. Also the expanse of Dublin Bay and beyond Howth Peninsula as framed with its 'map'—to see why? read below.
The world’s oldest operating full-rigged ship, Sørlandet, which anchored off Dun Laoghaire as Afloat reported, subsequently entered the harbour, where it visited for almost a week, writes Jehan Ashmore The Norwegian trainee tall ship Sørlandet, previously called to Dun Laoghaire…
Crosshaven RNLI crew welcomed Royal Cork Yacht Club coaches into the Cork Harbour station for an overview and tour
The Crosshaven RNLI Station recently hosted a group of coaches from the Royal Cork Yacht Club for a special briefing and tour in Cork Harbour. The RNLI team, including Patsy Fegan, Daryl Hughes, Hugh Mockler, James Fegan, Ian Venner, and…
Howth YC Commodore Neil Murphy pushing his co-owned Puppeteer 22 Yellow Peril above hull speed in lively sunshine at the weekend
The meteorological gambling chips haven't quite been falling Howth's way in this Autumn of 2024. For in fast-moving weather, where one sailing area can experience markedly different conditions from those occurring at other not-so-distant places, the less favourable deal has…
File image of Howth RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat
The volunteer crew of Howth RNLI launched their all-weather lifeboat late on Saturday night (12 October) following a call from the crew of a fishing trawler which observed a flashing beacon floating in the water three miles east of Howth…
File image of Bangor RNLI’s inshore lifeboat
Bangor RNLI in Northern Ireland came to the aid of four people in two separate call-outs over the weekend after a yacht and boat got into difficulty. The first call came at 5.54pm on Saturday (12 October) when the volunteer…
Malahide Yacht Club Clubhouse during the launch of dinghies for the 2024 regatta on the Broadmeadows
'Waiting for Godot' is the title of a Sam Beckett play and the term is often used to describe a situation where you're waiting for something that may never happen writes Malahide Yacht Club Dinghy Sailing Secretary, Paul Quinn. This…
Some close downwind racing at the Squib Irish Inland Championships on Lough Derg with 241 'Durt', Rob Stanley, 35 'Ruby Blue' Aidan O'Connell, Behind him 89 'Klipbok' Mikey Carroll, 25, 'Crackers' Sean Murphy and 51, 'Mucky Duck' Michael O'Suilleabhain
You can tell the health of any keelboat class by the numbers attending open events. Despite the autumn weather being expected to be cold, forty-four owners packed up their Squib keelboats and towed them to Dromineer on Lough Derg for…
The defending IRC ICRA Boat of the Year champion, the James Dwyer-driven Half Tonner Swuzzelbubble, lies third in her class after five races sailed at Royal Cork's October League and tops the ICRA Boat of the Year rankings
With this month's Autumn Leagues in Cork and Howth still to count, the overall winner for IRC and ECHO ICRA Boat of the Year 2024 remains undecided. The defending IRC champion, the James Dwyer-driven Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble, lies third in…
Emirates Team New Zealand’s performance continues to make things difficult for INEOS Britannia in the waters off Barcelona
In a closely fought race that rewarded the most marginal of gains, Emirates Team New Zealand took one more point in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match on Monday afternoon (14 October) in Barcelona, with a fourth consecutive victory…
Ian Budgen (left) and Peter Burling aboard the Baltic 115 Nikata, leading at The Rock during the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017
With Emirates New Zealand now 4-up today (Monday) in the 37th America's Cup at Barcelona, there's no denying the trend even if challenger IneosBrittania is going that little bit better in each succeeding race. For it seems that so too is…
Olympic sailor Micky Beckett has raised over £18,000 to help kids get on the water by raffling the boat he raced at Paris 2024
Olympic sailor Micky Beckett has raised over £18,000 to help kids get on the water by raffling the boat he raced at Paris 2024. Beckett, who represented Team GB this summer in the men’s dinghy class, sold tickets for the…
Underwater Photographer Nigel Motyer diving with a seal on Dublin Bay
Unseen footage of basking sharks filmed from the seabed below their extraordinary mating ritual, and orca whales in pursuit of herring are among images which international marine photographer Nigel Motyer will be showing in Dublin this week. “An Odyssey of…
A fleet of 29 boats are contesting Royal Cork Yacht Club's 2024 Autumn League 2024 in Cork Harbour. See the photo gallery below
After three races were sailed in medium winds for the 29-boat cruiser-racer fleet last Sunday, a further two were raced in Royal Cork Yacht Club's Autumn League 2024 on Sunday (October 13th) to give a discard after five sailed so…

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]