Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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
The 25ft community-built Shannon hooker Sally O'Keeffe of Querrin and Kilrush in County Clare has successfully completed three long open sea passages to join the huge traditional fleets taking part in the current Festivals of Sail & the Sea at…
Howth's Daragh Sheridan won the RS Aero Westerns on Lough Derg
12 RS Aeros joined the RS400, 200 & Feva classes as part of RS fest for their Western championship in Dromineer on July 6/7th. Three races were held in challenging blustery conditions on Saturday. Sunday was a complete contrast, and…
Racing was held under Charles Fort in Kinsale Yacht Club's staging of round two of the ILCA summer sprint series
On a very pleasant day for sailing, the ILCA summer sprint series fleet arrived at Kinsale Yacht Club for round two. (Unfortunately, round one at Glandore Harbour was cancelled due to lack of wind).  John Stallard was the Officer of the…
Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Annamarie Fegan officially opened the 2024 Volvo Cork Week Regatta on Sunday afternoon with local dignitaries and politicians at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour
The fleet is in! With over 100 boats competing in the first races on Monday, Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral Annamarie Fegan officially opened the 2024 Volvo Cork Week Regatta on Sunday afternoon with local dignitaries and politicians at Crosshaven…
Hook Sub Aqua Club prepare to dive on the SS Lismore as part of the 100th anniversary commemoration - see vids below
The Hook Sub-Aqua Club, based in the Hook Peninsula 20 miles south of New Ross, Co.Wexford, has laid a memorial plaque on the wreck of the SS.Lismore, which sank off Hook Head on July 11, 1924. As already reported by…
Testing in-harbour conditions for the 2024 National Yacht Club Junior Regatta at Dun Laoghaire
The mid-week medium to strong misty northerlies presented a challenge to the organising team of the 2024 National Yacht Club Junior Regatta. Although the decision to run all the fleets inside the harbour was validated the previous evening, it presented…
Pickie to Pier Swim winner for a third time, Jessika Robson from Hillsborough
Jessika Robson from Hillsborough has won the annual Open House Festival Pickie to Pier Swim in Bangor on Belfast Lough for the third time. Previously winning in 2022 and 2021, Jessika was pipped to the post at last year's event…
Graham Vickers from Kinsale YC is racing in the all-black X 4.3, Onyx II in Volvo Cork Week's Coastal Division
Volvo Cork Week organisers have added a coastal racing division to Monday's regatta in Cork Harbour. The move follows contact from competitors expressing a preference for coast racing formats.  Regatta organisers responded on Friday by introducing a nine-boat coastal racing…
The Shanahan family J/109 Ruth is sitting pretty in the IRC Overall winner position and first in Class 2 in the K2Q Race
K2Q Day Two (Saturday) 1830 hrs  - The sea breeze in Cork works by its own rules, but it doesn't necessarily suit the home fleet when it does so. In closing our earlier update on the Dublin Bay to Cork…
Edinburgh Cup 2024 Abersoch Overall first place winner Alfie GBR 815 Lawrie Smith (with trophy), Martin Wrigley (Goncalo Ribeiro, Ruaridh Scott not pictured) with officers of the host club, South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club in North Wales
Lawrie Smith, sailing under the burgee of Glandore Harbour Yacht Club in West Cork, has claimed his fourth Dragon Edinburgh Cup win at Abersoch, surpassing Graham Bailey's three titles and placing him within the prestigious group of most wins along…
First look - Sir Roger Casement
K2Q Day Two 1600 hrs Frank Whelan's impressive Elliott 57 Opal took line honours in the K2Q at the entrance to Cork Harbour at 15.43 hrs this (Saturday) afternoon, and it was a slow conclusion to an often slow 160-mile…
The youthful crew of J/109 Ruth, skippered by Tom Shanahan of the National Yacht Club who conquered the first cross-channel race of the ISORA season in May are in the running in the closing stages of the 2024 K2Q Dublin to Cork Race
K2Q Day Two Saturday 13:30 hrs: The Shanahan family's J/109 Ruth (National YC) has seldom been out of contention for a podium place in this stop-go Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour Race. And now, with the line honours leader, Frank…
Mark Thompson's J/97 Jac Y Do from Wales holds the handicap lead on the morning of day two of the K2Q Dun Laoghaire to Cork Race
K2Q Day Two, Saturday at 08:30 hrs: After spending more time than they might have wished in the Tuskar Rock area during a dead period in the small hours, struggling with adverse tide and light winds, the K2Q fleet got…
George Radley III of Cobh at the helm of the veteran Holland 39 Imp at the start of the K2Q yesterday (Friday) in Dublin Bay
The idea of an offshore race from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour around the middle of July seems a no-brainer when you look at how sailing types spend their summers. Many cruiser-racers appear to move along that Leinster-to-Munster axis around…
The remarkably varied fleet of 17 boats racing from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour in time-honoured style in the K2Q Race
K2Q Day 1 21:30 hrs: Frank Whelan's Elliott 57 Opal is at the Tuskar Rock, leading the K2Q on the water at the halfway stage. But the fact that the big boat from Greystones is making only 3.6 knots over…
ILCA 7 Paris representative Finn Lynch with his McWilliam Sailing Bag
Irish Sailing and McWilliam Bags have today announced a partnership that will see McWilliam, a leading provider of high-quality bags, as the official kit bag supplier for the Irish Sailing Team in the upcoming season. This collaboration represents a significant…

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]