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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
Race officer Brian Bird and assistant Tim McCarthy were able to find a sweet spot for the race course to run the ILCA Summer Sprint Series at Inniscarra Sailing and Kayaking Club
Fresh breeze played its part on the flat water behind Cork's famous Inniscarra dam for the ILCA summer sprint series on Sunday. The River Lee Reservoir hosts a diverse community of clubs, including the National Rowing Centre. This weekend, however,…
An ILCA 6 Start at the RYANI Youth Championships on Strangford Lough
Ninety five dinghies from Northern Ireland and the Dublin area gathered at Strangford Lough Yacht Club at Whiterock on the western shore of the Strangford Lough for the annual RYA NI Youth Championships last weekend. Jordan Conway, Charlie O'Malley, and…
A Viking ship for our times? Karl Kwok's TP 52 Beau Geste from Hong Kong is hoping to round out the European Double in Dublin Bay this week
So far, so good. Truck-racing sailors in Ireland have got themselves successfully as a group - and hyper-successfully in individual boat cases – through a plethora of cruiser-racer championship titles recently. These emerged from the multiple interpretations of a healthy…
Australia's Peter Gilmour, sailing a Japanese entry, continues to lead with his crew of Yasuhiro Yaji and Sam Gilmour by two points at the Dragon Gold Cup off Kinsale
After three races of six sailed at the no-discard Dragon Gold Cup in Kinsale, Australia's early leader Peter Gilmour, sailing a Japanese entry, continues to lead with his crew of Yasuhiro Yaji and Sam Gilmour by two points from Britain's Lawrie Smith on 14. Lying in…
Paul Cayard and Frithjof Kleen won race three of the 2024 Star World Championship, their second bullet in the series off San Diego
Out of three races of the 2024 Star World Championship, two were won by the American-German team Paul Cayard and Frithjof Kleen, the other one, yesterday’s, by Will Stout and Danny Cayard, Paul’s son, so every race so far was…
The crew led by Ken Read on Karel Komarek’s V took the opportunity blast around in the lively conditions
Anticipation was high for the second day of racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup after the cancellation of day one of the world's premier maxi yacht regatta, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, in conjunction with the International…
File image of Carrybridge RNLI’s inshore lifeboat
Carrybridge RNLI’s inshore lifeboat Douglas Euan & Kay Richards diverted from a planned course to neighbouring Enniskillen RNLI lifeboat station on Saturday afternoon (7 September) to assess a six-metre vessel with engine difficulties some 2.5 miles downstream from Carrybridge. Winds…
Bangor RNLI's Atlantic 85 class lifeboat Ruby Robinson
Bangor RNLI came to the aid of three people in consecutive call-outs yesterday (Monday, 9 September) after a report of a sailing boat with engine difficulty close to Bangor harbour and again later that evening to a sailor in distress…
A Midnight express ride through the English Channel might decide 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. Victor Le Pape is pictured at full chat in the Channel this afternoon
After a relatively straightforward climb up the Brittany coast, the solo racers on the final stage of the 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec are getting into the most difficult part of the monster 710 nautical miles stage from Royan…
Ireland was represented by a team skippered by the National Yacht Club's Nicole Hemeryck in the Danish stage of the 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour
Danish skipper Camilla Ulrikkeholm and team made it a home win on Sunday, winning the Danish stage of the 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour season in which Ireland was represented by a team skippered by the National Yacht Club's…
Max O'Hare of RStGYC took home the top honours from the IODAI Leinster Championships, sailing an impressive and consistent series with three first-place finishes and a final net score of 7 points at Malahide Yacht Club
The 2024 Optimist dinghy season concluded with the IODAI Leinster Championships at Malahide Yacht Club. A strong fleet from around the country saw 160 enthusiastic sailors competing across four different fleets, making it one of the standout events of the…
Have you ever wondered what the ocean-facing
Everything you've ever heard about County Clare is true, yet no matter how much info you've taken on board about the Banner County, it will only ever be the half of it. Boatbuilder Steve Morris of Kilrush may hail from…
Australia’s Peter Gilmour, sailing for Japan in YRed (JPN 56) is leading the Dragon Gold Cup after two races sailed at Kinsale Yacht Club
Racing has been postponed this morning (Tuesday) at Kinsale due to more strong winds ahead of the third race of the Dragon Gold Cup 2024. International Race Officer Con Murphy told the fleet this morning: "The forecast wind is from 270…
Will Stout and Danny Cayard (USA) were the best at interpreting the shifts on the racecourse
Four start attempts for Race Two at the 2024 Star World Championship in San Diego, California, were a frustrating beginning of a day that the the fleet will remember as a very difficult one, during the two laps of the…
Basile Bourgnon (EDENRED) checks jib trim
Into the second day of the final leg of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec and the 33 remaining solo skippers are pressing hard as they climb north along the Brittany coast. But most are trying to stick to a regime…
Orient Express Racing Team duels with INEOS Britannia in their last-chance battle on Monday 9 September
It was a day of tie-breaks and heartbreaks on Monday (9 September) as the round robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup drew to a close. For INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, it was unbridled joy as they secured…

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]