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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
The successful racing yacht Pearl, designed and built by Philip Sainty at Colchester in Essex in 1820 for the Marquess of Anglesey, who became the donor in 1848 of the trophy which - in 1851 - became the America's Cup
The tension is building in Barcelona as the 37th America's Cup series works its tortuous way towards a dramatic conclusion, with the expenditure of what war historians enjoy describing as "much blood and treasure". But while we might like to…
The crew of INEOS Britannia celebrate with the Louis Vuitton Cup trophy
Inches and hard yards were fought for in Barcelona on Friday (4 October) in a classic final race at the Louis Vuitton Cup. And when the dust settled from the on-water fireworks, it was INEOS Britannia that emerged as the…
Royal Ulster Yacht Club will once again celebrate its links with Sir Thomas Lipton and the America's Cup when the Belfast Lough Club presents The Sir Thomas Lipton Memorial Cup (above) in Barcelona
Next week in Barcelona Belfast Lough's Royal Ulster Yacht Club will once again celebrate its links with Sir Thomas Lipton and the America's Cup. Sir Thomas Lipton famously challenged for the America's Cup in his five yachts, each named Shamrock…
The TS Sørlandet, which arrived in Dublin Bay this morning and took anchorage in Scotsman’s Bay off Dun Laoghaire Harbour with trainees going aloft and out on the yards
After visiting Dun Laoghaire Harbour last April, the Tall Ship Sorlandet, the oldest full-rigged ship in operation in the world, is moored in Scotsman's Bay again on Friday, October 4th. Built in 1927 in Kristiansand, Norway, as a training ship…
Optimist training at Dun Laoghaire. The Royal St. George Yacht Club expects 100 boats to participate in 2024's National Training Week this October
The upcoming National Training Week (NTW) at the Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire is expected to have over 100 boats participating. Often referred to as "Cork Week for kids," NTW is an event where young sailors in…
The rescheduled DMYC Kish Race will set sail this Sunday, October 6th
The rescheduled DMYC Kish Race, supported by Leinster Boats, will be sailed this Sunday 6th, October from Dun Laoghaire Harbour. "The current forecast suggests that Saturday 5th is almost a repeat of last Sunday, whereas Sunday looks much more reasonable",…
The GBR IRC Committee's recent meeting heard the popularity of offshore and two-handed racing remains strong, and the 2024 IRC National Championships saw a great entry in Poole
The GBR IRC Committee's recent meeting focused on its 2025 calendar, which includes the IRC Nationals in Cowes, which will coincide with the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) centenary celebrations. The committee, which includes members representing owners from around the…
The J Class yacht JK7 Velsheda
The J Class yachts which will compete at next week's J Class Barcelona Regatta and their crews will assemble over the next few days in the heart of the Catalan capital, host city for the 37th America's Cup as final…
INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in close quarters on Day 6 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final
As the tense ‘duel in the sun’ between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli continued on Wednesday (2 October), it was the British who sailed supremely to break the deadlock with two race wins that leave them 6-4 up…
Waterways Ireland logo
Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels on and users of the Erne System that the World Championship Predator Lure angling competition will take place from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 October. The event will take place at the Share Discovery…
The RS 400 is the selected boat for the coming weekend's Helmsman's Championship of Ireland with Royal North of Ireland YC at Cultra on Belfast Lough, but even if it can be staged the precedent is that the bowsprit spinnaker will not be used
All weather forecast models are agreeing that the coming weekend is going to be very wet and windy at some stage in Ireland, with some suggesting that the unfavourable sailing conditions will persist through both Saturday and Sunday. It's a…
Villa Vie Residences' refurbished cruise ship Odyssey remains at anchor off Bangor on the southern shore of Belfast Lough. Above the ship on Monday night having departed Harland & Wolff is seen approaching the Belfast Cruise Terminal as Afloat is highlighted to enable embarkation.
A residential cruise ship which finally departed on its inaugural around-the-world voyage on Monday after months of delays, however as Afloat highlighted yesterday only reached Belfast Lough where it still remains today. As BBC News reports, the US operator, Villa…
Two-time Olympian Finn Lynch is looking to defend his  Irish Sailing Champions’ Cup title
The Irish Sailing Champions’ Cup makes its return this weekend, the 5 – 6 October, at the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club in Co. Down. This annual event, renowned for showcasing Ireland’s top sailing talent, marks its 77th year.…
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia racing in Barcelona on Tuesday 1 October
The Louis Vuitton Cup Final between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is starting to resemble the most tense of penalty shoot-outs. Every time one team feels they have the upper hand, the other responds and at the end…
James Dwyer and Thomas Chaix of the RCYC / NYC competing in the 49erFx in Weymouth
A real resurgence has emerged in the UK in the last months or so, following on from several initiatives such as the Crew for Gold Programme run by the RYA and the British Sailing Team has injected a number of…
The best of 2024's mixed summer days at Howth, with Squibs returning to port after racing. The regularly-watered window-boxes in the lighthouse accommodation avoided the relative drought that has been affecting the peninsula during 2024
The steady approach of last weekend's Sunday storm provided a sailing weekend of two halves in Howth. The third stage of the six Saturday Autumn League fixtures was sailed in an interesting mainly southwest breeze which increasingly heralded the approaching…

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]