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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
Castillo de San Julian in Cartagena, Spain
The city of Cartagena will become the Spanish stopover for The Ocean Race Europe late next summer, along with shoreside activities in the Port of Cartagena focussed on ocean health. Located in the Region of Murcia in southeastern Spain, Cartagena…
NYYC American Magic clashes with Alinghi Red Bull Racing off Barcelona in round-robin action on Thursday 5 September
After Wednesday’s weather-enforced cancellation of racing, the Louis Vuitton Cup schedule got right back on track on Thursday (5 September) with five races completed in a shifting 6-10 knot thermal southerly breeze that challenged the sailors. The big story of…
Lawless will be 66 at the time of the start of the 2026 Golden Globe Race
Pat Lawless has registered his entry for the fourth edition of the Golden Globe Race, to start in two years' time – on September 6, 2026. With two years remaining, 29 sailors from 12 countries, including two women and the…
Jacob Ziemkiewicz from Poland and his 5.8-metre yacht, Bibi, from Aghada in Cork Harbour are now in Camarinas, Spain en route to compete-in the solo Mini Globe Race 2024
Jacob Ziemkiewicz from Poland, whom I wrote about when he built his own 5.8 metre yacht, Bibi, at Aghada to compete in the solo Mini Globe Race 2024 sailed from Cork Harbour a fortnight ago to head for the race…
Robotic marks (i.e. 4 Gipsy marks supplied by Kenny Rumball) were used for the first time in the 140-year-old history of the Water Wag class at Dun Laoghaire on Wednesday, September 4th
26 Water Wags turned out for the AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) race on Wednesday, September 4th. Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly set a three-round Windward/Leeward course in a 5 to 7-knot WNW’ly breeze. In a case of old technology meeting…
The ILCA Summer Sprint Series was held in front of Bantry House on Bantry Bay in West Cork
The ILCA Summer Sprint Series, which brings ILCA sailors to some great sailing areas around County Cork, lands in Iniscarra this Sunday, Sept 8th. After a bad start, when the Glandore sprint was cancelled due to weather, the series had…
That winning feeling - Ireland's Tom Dolan becomes the first ever non French skipper to win a stage of La Solitaire du Figaro in two successive races after his victory on Stage 1 into Kinsale last year
Crossing the finish line off Royan at 14:06:20 hrs this afternoon, Ireland’s Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) won the 515 nautical miles of Stage 2 of the 55th La Solitaire Figaro Paprec, which started from Gijón, NW Spain, on Sunday afternoon.…
Louis Vuitton America’s Cup logo
After Tuesday’s electric weather that prompted the abandonment of the second race of the day between Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Cup’s second round robin, it was more of the same on…
Ewen sailed with daughters Aifric on Saturday and Thea on Sunday at Royal Cork Yacht Club's 'At Home
Last weekend's Royal Cork Yacht Club 'At Home" Regatta for dinghy classes broke with tradition last Saturday by starting their racing at Monkstown Bay in Cork Harbour.  As Afloat reported previously, the 304th edition of the event also saw the…
Light southerly winds last Saturday resulted in a delayed start to the 2024 Cong-Galway Race, as the fleet of 38 boats was becalmed at the start at Lisloughrey for at least 90 mins
Sailors with Blessington Sailing Club (SC) and Galway City Sailing Club (GCSC) won the cruiser and dinghy classes in this year’s Cong-Galway race. Conal and Aoibheann McGuire of Blessington SC led the cruiser fleet in their Hawk 20, finishing in…
David and James Dwyer's Swuzzlebubble from Royal Cork Yacht Club has a two-point lead in the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Boat of the Year (IRC) competition
Reigning Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Boat of the Year (IRC), David and James Dwyer's all-beating Swuzzlebubble looks on target to retain the cruiser-racer accolade after the latest update on the Boat of the Year Award scoreboard on September 3rd. …
Entries from seven clubs will contest the Royal St George Yacht Club hosted Squib East Coast Championship
The Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire will be hosting the fourth Squib Championship of the season over the weekend of 7-8 September. Twenty-one entries have been received from Lough Derg YC, Royal North of Ireland YC, Killyleagh…
With just 30 miles to go to the finish line at 0930 hrs local time this Wednesday morning, Tom Dolan has a lead of just over six miles
Ireland’s Tom Dolan remains firmly on course to win the second stage of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, the 515 miles leg from Gijón to Royan. With just 30 miles to go to the finish line at 0930hrs local time…
Reigning Dragon Gold Cup Champion and British Olympian Lawrie Smith, who will be racing for Glandore Yacht Club at this weekend's Dragon Gold Cup in Kinsale
Kinsale Yacht Club is on standby for the arrival of 62 International Dragon Teams, representing 14 countries and four continents from across the globe, to compete in the 80th Dragon Gold Cup, which gets underway with a practice race on…
A lightning strike hits the water just a few hundred metres ahead of Luna Rossa on their way to the finishing line
Rain clouds coming off the mountains to the north of Barcelona produced some challenging and dynamic conditions with enormous shifts in the wind on day one of the Louis Vuitton Cup’s second round robin — the stage of the Challenger…
Tom Dolan has led the 36-strong fleet of solo racers since Monday afternoon
With a clear lead of over five nautical miles on a course which should now be a straight line to the La Solitaire du Figaro finish off Royan, Ireland’s Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) will be hoping above all else that…

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]