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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
Ellida Wins Cork Harbour Class One
The fifth race in the Royal Cork O'Leary Insurances sailing League was a quiet affair weather wise in Cork Harbour last night writes our Cork Harbour Correspondent. The highlight of the evening was watching the 92,000 tonne Cruise Ship Costa Deliziosa…
West Kirby Team on Top at Schull ISAF Worlds
At the end of racing on day two of the Sailing World Team Racing Championships in Schull Harbour top ranked British team West Kirby Hawks finished first in the pecking order. In an exciting head to head they smashed the…
Mansfield Leads 1720 Euros in Baltimore
Current 1720 National Champion Mark Mansfield leads the 1720 Corona Euro Championships in Baltimore after a long opening day of close sailing in steady 10-14 knot conditions. The 28 strong fleet completed three races off Sherkin Island and Mark Mansfield…
RORC Season Finale in Cherbourg This Weekend
After a record breaking Rolex Fastnet Race, the final race of the RORC Season's Points Championship takes place this weekend writes Louay Habib. After a scintillating season of racing with the Royal Ocean Racing Club, current weather models pAfter a…
O'Leary and Burrows Face Home Waters Test
Olympic keelboat duo Peter O'Leary and David Burrows face one of the sternest tests of the summer season but this time its on waters st least. All 32 boats for the Star European Championship (2nd-10th September) have arrived in Dun…
British Water Polo Team to Train in Ireland for London Olympics
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar has announced that the British water polo team will travel to Ireland to train for the London Olympics in the run-up to the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown. Minister Varadkar said today…
Round Ireland Yacht Race 2012 Starts from Wicklow on Sunday, June 24th
Wicklow Sailing Club is comtemplating a mid-day start for the 2012 Round Ireland yacht race on Sunday, June 24th. Plans for the 31st offshore race are underway and will follow the successful pre-start 'Wicklow Sailfest' formula held in the town…
ISAF World Team Racing Gets Underway in Schull
Full championship racing got under way in Schull Harbour yesterday as twelve international sailing teams contest the ISAF Open World Team Racing Championship and eight compete for the Youth Worlds. The first day of full competitive racing took place in…
Irish J24s practise for Europeans at Easterns
Ten Irish boats from the 41 international entries for the forthcoming BMW J24 European Championships at Howth are availing of the opportunity to practise in the same race area this weekend by competing in the J24 Eastern Championships hosted by…
Cushendall Play Host to Flying Fifteen East Coast Sailing Championships
30 boats will travel to Cushendall this weekend for the East Coast of Ireland regional sailing championships in the Flying Fifteen class.  The two-day championships will be the penultimate major event in Cushendall Sailing and Boating Club's 2011 sailing season,…
McCarthy and Davis Sail to a Win at Skerries GP14 National Championships
A healthy forty seven dinghies competed for the Irish GP14 National Sailing Championships title last weekend and Greystones sailor Shane McCarthy, now UK based, with crew Andy Davis took the title, winning the last four races. Class president Richard Street…
Volvo 70 Team Sanya Heading for Dun Laoghaire
The Volvo Ocean Race Chinese entry, Team Sanya, backed by Discover Ireland, is coming to Dublin Bay this Sunday afternoon. She will berth alongside the Royal Irish Yacht Club according to the promoters. At 4pm the Mike Sanderson skippered boat…
Roll Over Rambler... How to Right a SuperMaxi
Here's video of the salvage and righting operation after the capsize of the super maxi ocean racing yacht Rambler 100 during the Fastnet race 2011. The 100-foot yacht capsized shorthly after rounding the Fastnet rock, the result it appears of…
Dolan Third in Repechage at World Rowing Championships
Sarah Dolan took third place in her repechage of the lightweight single sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Bled in Slovenia today. The 21-year-old Trinity student could not make it into the top two which would put her into…
Green Dragon Sailing for Kinsale then Rotterdam
Galway's round the world yacht, the Volvo 70 Green Dragon, sailed from Galway Port this morning. Her first port of call is Kinsale and on Thursday she will sail for Rotterdam. From there she will go on a low-loader for…
Green Dragon Sails Again
Ireland's Volvo 70 the Green Dragon was back on the water again yesterday, two years after she had finished fifth out of seven entries in the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race. Attempts to sell it for two million euros in 2009…

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]