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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
Ireland’s Tom Dolan leads by 57 minutes and 52 seconds into the final stage of the 2024 La Solitaire du Figaro
Just as the course for Stage 2 of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec was shortened because of a forecast for light winds, so now the final, decisive Stage 3 has been lengthened to a massive 710 miles because the predictions…
The start of the 2023 Cobh Blackrock yacht race. The 2024 edition run by Cove Sailing Club is next Saturday, September 14th
Cove Sailing Club is running its annual Cobh to Blackrock yacht race next Saturday, September 14th. "We are hoping for a good turnout, and thankfully, we have over 20 entries so far, the club's Niall Hawes told Afloat. Hawes says…
The overall winner of the RORC Cherbourg-en-Cotentin after IRC time correction was Sun Fast 3200 Cora raced Two-handed by Tim Goodhew & Kelvin Matthews
The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s finale for the 2024 RORC Season’s Points Championship was the traditional race to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The 71 boat fleet was an impressive sight, starting to the east off the Royal Yacht Squadron Line, Cowes. Combined with…
A race start at the Squib East Coast Championships 2024 at the Royal St. George Yacht Club
Kinsale Yacht Club's Ian Travers and Keith O'Riordan won three of four races at the Squib East Coast Championships 2024 at the Royal St. George Yacht Club on Saturday, leading the 21-boat fleet by four points. The Royal Irish's Aidan O'Connell and Ben O'Donoghue lie second on…
Brian and John Hall's National Yacht Club J109 Something Else (file photo) leads at the J109 Europeans on Dublin Bay
Brian and John Hall's National Yacht Club J109 Something Else leads the J109 European Championships after two races sailed on Saturday at the J Cup Regatta at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay. The Hall's score of 1,2 puts…
Mikey Carroll's Kinsailor (file photo) tops the eight boat J24 fleet at the Northern Trust J Cup on Dublin Bay
 Defending Northern Trust J Cup Champion Pat O'Neill, sailing Mojo from Howth, leads in the six-boat J80 national championship fleet on four points after two races sailed on Saturday at the J Cup Regatta at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on…
John and Suzie Murphy's J109 Outrajeous leads the Northern Trust J Cup IRC division by two points
National IRC One Cruiser Champion John and Suzie Murphy's J109 Outrajeous leads the Northern Trust J Cup IRC division by two points after two races sailed at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay. Howth clubmates Michael and Richard…
Shane MacCarthy and Hugh McNally of the National Yacht Club (IRL4116) lead the Flying Fifteen National Championships after two races sailed in light winds and strong tides at Waterford Harbour
Shane MacCarthy and Hugh McNally of the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, sailing Mr. Potato Head, lead the Irish Flying Fifteen National Championships after two races sailed in light winds and strong tides at Waterford Harbour.  The former GP14…
62 Dragons berthed at Kinsale Yacht Club marina after the cancellation of Saturday's practice race of the Dragon Gold Cup
Saturday's practice race of the 80th Gold Cup for the International Dragon class could not be staged today due to a lack of wind off Kinsale Harbour. The 62-boat fleet representing 14 countries and four continents went out to race…
Commodore Keith Carr (third from right) and guests aboard his Sun Dream 28
Last weekend seventy five members of East Down Yacht Club on the west shore of Strangford Lough made the trip either by boat or car to the annual gathering at Strangford Sailing Club on Audleys Roads near the Narrows at…
The National 18 Fingal enjoying a new lease of life as she makes her restored debut at the National Yacht Club. The hull design may be 86 years old, but you might be minded to build a 30ft cruiser-racer version of that sweet hull, and see how it goes with a modern fin keel
Our headline photo breaks nearly all the blogspot’s pictorial rules, preferences and protocols. Are there any sails set in it? Not a one. Is there any presence of sea, lake or river? Yes, but it’s vanishingly small. Is there any…
Flying Fifteens are racing for National Championships honours at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club this weekend
Anticipating three races, the first day of competition at the Flying Fifteen National Championships produced none after fickle light winds and strong tides spoiled Friday off Dunmore East in County Waterford. One race was started in four to six knots of shifting wind from…
The National Championship for the foiling Moth dinghy took place with seven boats participating on Dublin Bay
The foiling Moth dinghy National Championship saw seven boats take to Dublin Bay on the 31st of August and 1st of September and a new Handicap System was trialled with promising results. The last weekend of the Irish summer saw…
Aussie arrivals in Kinsale - Australia's Grant Alderson (right), no stranger to Irish waters in past Flying Fifteen campaigns, will race for Australia with his crew at the 80th Dragon Gold Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club from Saturday
Kinsale Yacht Club in County Cork is welcoming 62 International Dragon Teams, representing 14 countries and four continents from across the globe, to compete in the 80th Dragon Gold Cup, which gets Cork underway with a practice race on Saturday,…
The Irish crew for the Maxis Worlds onboard David Leuschen and Chris Flowers' Wally Galateia are Johnny Mordaunt, Rory Harrap, Simon Johnston and Nin O'Leary
Cork's Justin Slattery heads an Irish crew onboard David Leuschen and Chris Flowers' Wally Galateia for the Maxi World Championships, which begin in Italy on Monday and are followed immediately by a Maxi 100 event in Barcelona. New for this 34th edition…
Three Dublin J109s that will contest the class European one design championships this weekend at the Northern Trust J Cup Ireland at the Royal Irish Yacht Club are (from left) IRL1141 Storm skippered by Pat Kelly of HYC/RSC; GBR1242R White Mischief Richard & Timothy Goodbody of the RIYC and  clubmate John Maybury in IRL1206  Joker 2
The Royal Irish Yacht Club is set to stage its second annual J Cup Ireland this weekend (September 7/8), the second of three big cruiser-racer events the Dun Laoghaire Harbour club is staging this September. Three champions from last weekend's IRC…

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]