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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
Twomey, Hegarty and Costello Sailing in Top Ten of IFDS Worlds
Competitors battled through fluky winds and torrential rain at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on day three of the RYA run-IFDS World Championships 2011 today writes Claire Bateman. After 6 races and one discard John Twomey and his…
Oona Wins in Howth
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. TUE + SAT SERIES 2 05/07/2011 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Oona P Courtney; 2, Leila R Cooper; 3, Aura I Malcolm; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Leila R Cooper; 2, Oona P Courtney; 3, Zaida T Houlihan TUESDAY…
WIORA Race Week Shaping up at Clifden Venue
With a week to go to the first gun of the West Coast Championships in Clifden Co. Galway, the 35th Anniversary event of the West of Ireland Offshore Racing Association (WIORA), is shaping up to be one to remember at…
Strong Winds Confine DBSC Dinghies to Harbour Course
No sooner had the Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) dinghy fleet sought the refuge of Dun Laoghaire harbour for tonight's racing than the strong southerly winds that swept the bay abated. Racing however continued in the confines of the harbour,…
ISAF's Nod of Approval for Dublin Bay as 2012 ISAF Youth Worlds Venue
As nearly 400 sailors descend on Zadar, Croatia for the 41st ISAF Youth World Championships, representatives of Dublin Bay, the 2012 ISAF Youth Worlds hosts will be on site in Croatia to learn all they can, having recently had a…
Students Take Part in the Tall Ships Race
Marine Academy students from Plymouth in the UK are riding high on the crest of a wave - taking part in the 2011 Tall Ships Race.Eighteen of the St Budeaux School's 14-19 year olds are involved in the international event…
Irish Champion Tiger Heading for Cowes Quarter Ton Cup
Recently crowned ICRA IRC Three Champion, Tiger (George Kenefick) is travelling to Cowes for next week's 2011 Coutts Quarter Ton Cup hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Cowes, and with only a week to go, anticipation is building…
IWDG's 'Celtic Mist' Research Vessel Represents Ireland in the Tall Ships Race
The Celtic Mist, the new flagship of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, was berthed in Waterford city for the Tall Ships weekend writes Shay Fennelly.  Gifted to the IWDG in May 2011 by the family of a former Irish…
Famine Ship Needs €100K to Get Seaworthy
The Jeanie Johnston will need €100,000 to be made seaworthy again, it has emerged. The three-masted barque - which not long ago sailed across the Atlantic - was missed at the weekend's Tall Ships festival, which attracted half a million…
Tall Ships Will Sail to Dublin in 2012
It's official - the Tall Ships Races will be coming to Dublin in August next year! As the Evening Herald reports, the successful four-day festival in Waterford this past weekend will be repeated in the capital from 23-26 August 2012,…
Racing Round Up: Lasers, E Boats, Puppeteers,DBSC, VDLR, Royal Cork, Cove and Sailor of the Month
Ruigrock, Murphy, Guilfoyle and Flannigan Sailed to Laser Glory on Dublin Bay in the best conditions of the Summer so far. Across the bay in Howth Harlequin took the Puppeteer Nationals title. In a build up to Thursday's Dun Laoghaire…
Ruigrock, Murphy, Guilfoyle and Flannigan Sail to Laser Glory on Dublin Bay
In his first event sailing in the full rig boat Rush Sailing Club's Alan Ruigrock won the Laser Leinster Championships at the Royal St. George Yacht Club yesterday in some of the finest sailing conditions of the summer so far.…
Harlequin takes Volvo Puppeteer Nationals title
The Volvo Puppeteer National Championships, sponsored by H.B. Dennis Airside and sailed at Howth Yacht Club over the weekend, had an exciting finish, with bookies’ favourite Dave Clarke in ‘Harlequin’ snatching first place on the last day with emphatic wins…
O'Neill Sails to E Boat National Championship Win
Sailing on the north shore of Dublin Bay this weekend Pat O'Neill's Octopussee won the 2011 E boat Champion hosted by Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club. Second was O'Neill's Clontarf club mate, Pat Gilmore and third was Anthony Hourigan's Eejit…
Tall Ships Parade of Sail Photos 2
More of Gary O'Mahony's images of the Tall Ships fleet leaving Waterford. View Waterford's Parade of Sail Photo Gallery Here
Waterford Tall Ships Parade of Sail Photos
Thousands bade farewell to the 45 tall ships departing Waterford this afternoon. Afloat Photographer Gary O'Mahony captured the scene. Scroll down for the photos. View the full Waterford Parade of Sail Photo Gallery Here

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]