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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
Collision Costs Byrne but Sorensen Improves at Dragon Edinburgh Cup
Royal St. George Commodore Martin Byrne's day got off to a tricky start on the second day of the 2011 Dragon Edinburgh Cup yesterday when he and his crew Pedro Andrade and Adam Winkelmann found themselves close to colliding with…
Murphy Stays in Top Ten at Youth Worlds
In spite of two thirtieth places scored in today's penultimate rounds Irish sailor Sophie Murphy stays in the top ten of the ISAF Youth Worlds in Zadar, Croatia. The Royal St George Yacht Club and Quoile Yacht Club Laser single-hander…
Tiger Takes Corinthian Quarter Ton Title
The 31 boat international fleet competing at the 2011 Coutts Quarter Ton Cup were treated to three excellent races sailed in moderate northerly winds on the third and final day of the regatta. The shifty breeze, combined with strongish tides…
Byrne Second, O'Leary and Burrows third at Dragon Edinburgh Cup
Irish crews are to the fore - inlcuding a new crew combination at the Dragon Edinburgh cup – the British national championships – in Abersoch this week. Irish National champion (and Royal St.George YC Commodore) Martin Byrne lies second overall…
King One Sails Home with a Win in Howth
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. WEDNESDAY SERIES 2 (RACE) 13/07/2011 Class 1 IRC: 1, Trinculo M Fleming; 2, Crazy Horse Reilly/Chambers; 3, Tiger Hughes/Harris; Class 1 HPH: 1, Tiger Hughes/Harris; 2, Crazy Horse Reilly/Chambers; 3, Trinculo M Fleming; Class 2 IRC: 1,…
Clifden Under Full Sail for WIORA Regatta Week
Clifden Boat Club's long awaited staging of the West Coast of Ireland's big regatta, WIORA week, kicked off today in perfect Atlantic conditions. It's the third time the event has been sailed at the boat club and the first since…
Top Ten Results for Irish Youths Moves Murphy into Eighth Overall
Irish Laser Radial sailors Philip Doran and Sophie Murphy tackled unfavourable variable light wind conditions in Day 4 of the ISAF Youth Worlds in Zadar, Croatia to produce four top ten performances, results that move Murphy up three places to…
J Cup Sets Sail off Guernsey
While the Irish J109 just sailed its national championships as part of last weekend's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta the international J Cup 2011 has kicked off in Guernsey. The cup, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year is being hosted by…
British Paralympic Hopeful Secures Bronze at the IFDS Worlds
The IFDS World Championships held at the 2012 Games Venue came to a close on Friday. The championships, the second qualifying event for the upcoming Olympics also provide a valuable indication for the contenders for next year's Games. The Weymouth…
Tiger Fourth and Anchor Challenge Fifth at Quarter Ton Cup
Ireland's challenge at the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup is living up to expectation with Tiger (George Kenefick) fourth and Eamon Rohan fifth in Anchor Challenge as the event enters the final phase today.  Ireland's interest in the event increases with…
Deilginis Sails Home as Top Howth 17
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. TUE + SAT SERIES 2 (RACE) 12/07/2011 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Deilginis Deilginis Group; 2, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan; 3, Rita Curley/Lynch; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Zaida T Houlihan; 2, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan; 3, Deilginis Deilginis Group TUESDAY SERIES 2…
McKenna Sails to Victory in Light Wind DBSC Fireball Race
There were light winds for the resumption of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club season after last weekend's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta last night. And some of the winners of that regatta were back in form again on Scotsman's bay. Goodness…
Kenefick's Tiger Fourth at Cowes Quarter Ton Cup
With two races completed at the end of Day 1, only 7 points separate the top 6 teams at the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup . Rob Gray's 'Aquila' holds the overall lead with a total five points, tied with Louise…
Murphy Closest to Top Ten as Youth Worlds Reach Half Way Stage
Laser Radial Girl Sophie Murphy is closest to Ireland's goal of sailing to a top ten result at this week's  ISAF Youth Worlds in Croatia where conditions at the halfway stage continue to be light and tricky. The event has…
Celtic Mist to Berth in Kilrush Creek Marina, Co Clare
Ireland's newest research vessel Celtic Mist will arrive at Kilrush Creek Marina on 16 July. The yacht was a gift to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) from the Haughey family and was made famous by former Taoiseach Charles…
Sailing to Success on Supernova
She maybe old but she's still a fast one. Don't let the fact that a 33-year old local yacht took top prize from a combined fleet of 420 competitors at Ireland's biggest sailing regatta, the Volvo regatta in Dun Laoghaire…

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]