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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
RStGYC leaders of the Dragon East Coast Championships at Kinsale Yacht Club, Martin Byrne, Adam Winkelman and John Simms, (left) approach a windward mark with Serafina Alistair Kissane, Ronan Murphy and Pedro O'Reilly on the first day of the three-day championships
Redress awarded for Friday's first race and a win in Saturday's fourth race has moved Royal St. George's Jaguar Sailing Team to the top of the Zurich Dragon East Coast Championships leaderboard at Kinsale Yacht Club in County Cork. Martin…
Imoca MACIF Santé Prévoyance skipper Charlie Dalin (FRA) is interviewed after he takes first place in the New York Vendee sailing race, in Les Sables d'Olonne, on June 8, 2024
After leading the 28 boat IMOCA fleet since last Monday morning, and today holding a margin of over 300 miles over second place, French skipper Charlie Dalin tonight completed an emphatic victory on the 3200 nautical miles New York Vendee…
David Gorman’s Flying Fifteen Fomo in the 2022 NYC Regatta
Entries are still open for the National Yacht Club Regatta on Saturday 15 June. The NYC promises and exciting day’s racing followed by amazing entertainment onshore with its biennial regatta next weekend. So as the club says, “get your boat…
Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin Royal Irish Regatta 2024 logo
The Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin Royal Irish Regatta 2024 takes place on Saturday 29 June. The Royal Irish Yacht Club says it looks forward to a great event of sailing, dining and entertainment for members, their crew, friends and family…
A 1,2 in the two races sailed gave Barry Cunningham's Royal Irish J109 Chimaera the DMYC regatta win in IRC One by a single point
12-15 knot northwesterly winds and sunshine produced a strong turnout for Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's biennial Regatta on Dublin Bay on Saturday. The one-day competition got the local regatta scene underway as the first of the four waterfront clubs’ regattas at…
Satellite image of Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the island of Ireland
Belfast Live reports that an eagerly awaited action plan for Lough Neagh is to go before the Northern Ireland Executive in Stormont in the coming days. It follows last week’s questioning of DAERA Minister Andrew Muir by his own department’s…
Royal St. George Yacht Club trio Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Conor Byrne in Phantom (IRL225)  lead the Zurich Dragon East Coast Championships off Kinsale
Royal St. George Yacht Club trio Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Conor Byrne in Phantom (IRL225) lead the Zurich Dragon East Coast Championships after two races sailed off Kinsale, Co. Cork. The Dublin Bay boat has the same five points tally…
New York Vendée Les Sables d’Olonne Solo Race leader Charlie Dalin can anticipate Sunday morning triumph
After leading the New York Vendée Les Sables d’Olonne solo race across the Atlantic since Monday morning, top French skipper Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) is expected to cross the finish line during Saturday night to take a resounding victory…
An interesting course was set for the DBSC Flying Fifteens: Harbour – Pier – Poldy – Pier – Poldy – East – Molly – East – Finish
Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Race Officer John McNeilly certainly had a challenge on his hands on Thursday night past as Mother Nature decided she initially wasn’t going to play ball with his plans for the one-design fleet, SB20s, Flying…
Kenny Rumball (foreground) of the Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School is holding a Sea Survival Course on Tuesday, 11th June
Kenny Rumball of the Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School is holding a Sea Survival Course on Tuesday, 11th June, from 6-9 pm and Sunday, 16th June, from 9.30 am-5 pm. Experience what it is like to board a liferaft…
Kinsale Yacht Club deploys robotic marks for the first time this weekend when it stages the Dragon East Coast Championships, a forerunner to the club's staging of the Dragon Gold Cup in September
The Dragon Eastern Championships witnessed a first for host club Kinsale Yacht Club on Friday (June 7th), when the club deployed robotic marks for the first time for the three-day event. The move to the new marks follows their success…
After being blown out previously, the Melges 15 dinghies' first race night in Howth Yacht Club last night went well. There were testing enough conditions, but the fleet of eight got around the course
Eight of the 13 M15 dinghies made it to the start line for the first-ever Melges15 race last night at Howth Yacht Club. Race Officer David Sargent ran two races for the new fleet alongside the other HYC dinghies in…
The 143-year-old, unique wooden boat Barnabas flying Celtic flags on her way to Crosshaven in Cork Harbour for June's annual Traditional Sail festival
A 143-year-old, unique wooden boat, the only one of its kind in the world, is heading for the Crosshaven Traditional Sail festival. Maintaining traditional boats is demanding, and when it’s the only one of its kind in the world, the…
The canting keel Elliott 56, Opal, from Greystones Harbour will be the biggest yacht in a 15-boat fleet contesting Saturday's ISORA cross-channel race ten from Holyhead in Wales to Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
Despite the absence of some top Dublin Bay performers, Saturday's ISORA race ten from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire will still provide a strong test in the last offshore fixture before the season highlight of the 700-mile Round Ireland Race in…
The overall DBSC IRC Zero division leader, Rockabill VI, won her fourth race of the summer Thursday series last night in Dublin Bay. The Paul O'Higgins JPK 10.80 is one of several bay entries that will miss this weekend's ISORA race from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire. The ISORA champion will compete in the Round Ireland Race from Wicklow on June 22nd
Paul O'Higgins's JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI is now five points clear at the top of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club AIB Thursday Summer Series IRC Zero division leaderboard after scoring his fourth win last night on Dublin Bay. The Royal Irish yacht finished in a…
British Sailor Sam Goodchild was dismasted in New York – Vendée Race, 150 miles from the island of Santa Maria in the Azores
At 5:15 pm today, while in fourth position in the New York – Vendée race, the sailboat Vulnerable, skippered by British sailor Sam Goodchild, was dismasted, bringing an end to his transatlantic race bid. While the IMOCA monohull was dismasted,…

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]