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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
East Antrim's Tom Coulter (222547) leads a bunch of ILCA 7s after a race start at the national championships on Dublin Bay
Several Northern Ireland ILCA sailors gained podium places at the National Championships held last weekend at the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay. In the six-race series and with four second places, Dan McGaughey of Ballyholme became the new Irish…
An F18 multihull leads at the first mark in a breezy edition of the IMA Open National Championships at Galway Bay Sailing Club
The waters of Galway Bay Sailing Club saw a thrilling showdown as the Multihull fleet gathered for the IMA Open National Championships on the weekend of August 24th and 25th. Despite an ominous forecast, 21 boats from four club centres…
Hal Sisk racing his Water Wag Good Hope, new-built for him in 1976. Since then his historic projects have included restoring the 1884 Fife Cutter Vagrant, reviving interest in the 1796 Bantry Boat with many sister-ships built on both sides of the Atlantic, re-creating the 1663 Dublin Bay catamaran Simon & Jude, restoring/re-building the 1894 37ft Carrickfergus-built Watson cutter Peggy Bawn and, with Fionan de Barrra, giving the 1902 Mylne-designed Dublin Bay 21 class a completely new lease of life
While it would be something of an exaggeration to say that it has taken the Dublin Bay Water Wags 147 years to become an overnight success, there's no doubting the increasing vigour of the world's oldest One-Design class as we…
Max Klink's Botin 52 from Switzerland competing in the 2023 Rolex Middle Sea Race passes the Strombolicchio Lighthouse, a sea stack one nautical mile to the north-east of Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands
The Palma-based X37 Chillax skippered by Paul Sheahan is the only Irish entry so far into October's Middle Sea Race as entries continue to roll in for the 45th edition. Starting from Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta, on Saturday, 19 October, the 2024 edition is…
Red Bay RNLI in County Antrim completed a nine-hour callout in rough weather conditions
Red Bay RNLI in County Antrim completed a nine-hour callout in rough weather conditions to rescue two people and their two dogs after their 55-foot yacht got into difficulty off the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland in the early hours…
Puppeteer 22 40th Anniversary National Champions 2024 – Paul and Laura MacMahon's Shiggi-Shiggi (Puppeteer #1, built 1978)
Howth is a foreign country. They do things differently there. Last week's turbulent weather looked set to disrupt some of the final (and of course extra-important) Tuesday (Aug. 20th) and Wednesday (Aug. 21st) evening races of the 2024 programme. So…
The sun sets on 2024 DBSC Tuesday dinghy racing at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Tuesday 27th August saw the sun set on last Tuesday's AIB DBSC night racing for ILCAs. Deciding to race in the harbour due to the forecast and drawing in of evening light allowed RO Declan Traynor to get two great…
2024 Irish J24 Champions Cillian Dickson, Sam O'Byrne, Ryan Glynn, Marcus Ryan and Louis Molloy at Lough Erne Yacht Club
Cillian Dickson, Sam O'Byrne, Ryan Glynn, Marcus Ryan, and Louis Molloy, as reigning European champions, continue to dominate J24 racing, winning the Lough Erne Yacht Club-hosted Irish Championships from 23rd to 25th August in style. Entries came from throughout Ireland,…
ILCA Chairman Sean Craig (left) reviews the Paris Olympic Regatta with Irish reps Eve McMahon and Finn Lynch at the National Yacht Club during the 2024 ILCA National Championships hosted by the club
Ireland's two ILCA representatives at the Paris 2024 Olympics reviewed their performances in front of their peers at a question-and-answer session at the ILCA National Championships last weekend (August 25th). ILCA Chairman Sean Craig posed the questions at the National…
Belinda, James and their Porsche 911 with Newcastle RNLI’s volunteer crew and the D class inshore lifeboat Eliza
A married couple in a Porsche 911 travelling the coast of Ireland and the UK, attempting to visit all RNLI lifeboat stations recently met volunteers from Newcastle lifeboat station in Northern Ireland as they continue their journey. Belinda and James…
Portaferry RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat arrives at the Killyleagh Yacht Club pontoon
Portaferry RNLI’s volunteer crew were paged at 1.10pm on Sunday afternoon (25 August) at the request of Belfast Coastguard following a report that three kayaks had been spotted, possibly in difficulty, by a member of the public walking their dog.…
Enniskillen RNLI’s inshore lifeboat at sunset
Enniskillen RNLI’s inshore lifeboat, the John and Jean Lewis, was launched on Saturday evening (24 August) at the request of Belfast Coastguard following reports that two people had come off their jet ski on the north side of Inish Davar.…
La Solitaire du Figaro Race leader Alexis Loison (GROUPE REEL)
Ireland’s Tom Dolan is nicely poised in fifth at 1800hrs this evening having been as low as 13th during today in the first stage of the 55th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro Parec. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan is one…
Is this the coolest TradBoat ever? With stylish grey spars, this new hooker in Rossaveal is a fashion icon
When a usually ultra-reliable source of information about the west in general - and Galway Bay in particular - admits that the stylish new hooker St Katherine glimpsed in Rossaveal is a complete mystery to him, then anyone's interest would…
Darragh O'Connor and Brian (Teddy) Byrne were the winners of the 2024 Melges 15 National Championships held at Howth Yacht Club on Saturday
Darragh O'Connor and Brian (Teddy) Byrne were the winners of the 2024 Melges 15 National championships held at Howth Yacht Club at the weekend. After four great races on Saturday, the 19-boat fleet kept fingers and toes crossed for sailing…
Droleen 'Windyridge sailed by Vincent Delany of RStGYC, who won the Droleen championship at the Bray Sailing Club hosted 2024 12-Foot Dinghy Championship
For the first time in its recent history, The Irish 12-foot Dinghy Championship moved 12km away from Dun Laoghaire to Bray Sailing Club on Saturday, 25 August. Four different 12-footers competed: (a) International 12-Foot Dinghies (b) DBSC 12-Foot Dinghies (same…

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]