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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
Irish Mini 6.50 Campaign in Prospect
Double and Solo Racing Group member Michael McKeon is organising an Irish Mini 6.50 campaign. Following the success of the Mini open days sailing on his boat 'Hypomene', McKeon has made a call to all interested parties to ensure the boat…
O'Shea Fourth in Moth Worlds Silver Fleet
Ex-Pat Michael O'Shea has finished fourth in the silver fleet of the Moth world championships staged in Belmont, Australia. The class promises to be the next hot thing because of its high speed through the use of foils that keep…
Ireland's Dragon Team ends World Championships in Top Half
Dun Laoghaire trio Andrew Craig, Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews finished in the top half of the 70-boat Melbourne based Dragon World Championships at Port Philip yesterday after a six race series of predominantly light winds. Hopes of bettering Ireland's…
Kearney Takes 2011 Mirror World Title
Irish sailor Ross Kearney came out tops in the 2011 Mirror World Championships in Western Australia last week. After a bad start that included a capsize in 20-knot winds on the opening day, Kearney and crewmate Max Odell climed ahead…
Gutkowski Second in Spring Leg
Polish solo sailor Zbigniew Gutkowski took second place in ocean sprint two of the VELUX 5 OCEANS solo round the world race. The 36-year-old skipper from Gdansk crossed the finish line in Wellington, New Zealand, on his Eco yacht Operon Racing at 6.27am…
Kellegher Leads Howth Yacht Club's Laser Standard Fleet
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. LASER FROSTBITE SPRING (O'ALL) 16/01/2011 LASER STANDARD: 1, Daragh Kelleher SSC (5.00); 2, Daragh Sheridan HYC (9.00); 3, Evan Dolan NYC (10.00); LASER STANDARD APPRENTICE: 1, Conor Murphy HYC (4.00); 2, Darach Dineen HYC (7.00); 3, Conor…
National Award for Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA)
In the three decades and more of the Mitsubishi Motors/Irish Independent "Sailing Club of the Year" assessments, there has never been an organization only seven years old winning the title. In fact, seniority has often won the day, though in…
Downturn Hits Dining at Royal Cork Yacht Club
The Royal Cork Yacht Club has announced that its dining facilities will close until late spring at the earliest due to a slump in business over the last year, the Irish Examiner reports. http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/historic-yacht-club-forced-to-close-dining-facilities-141975.html The club recently put its chef…
Opportunity Knocks for Antigua Sailing Week
With less then four months until the start of Antigua Sailing Week, entries are coming in fast and plans are well underway to make the most famous regatta in the Caribbean, a truly memorable event. If you want to take…
Foghorns Fall Silent

Foghorns Fall Silent

12th January 2011 Ilen
Yesterday lighthouses around Ireland ceased sounding fog signals. Lorna Siggins has a piece in the Irish Times this morning complete with a slideshow. We've also been covering the story here on afloat.ie over the last couple of days, and many…
Sailing Opportunities on 115-year French Tall-Ship
An exciting sailing opportunity for Irish amateur sailors to learn the ropes onboard the Belem, a 115-year French barque, is to take place when the vessel set sails from Lorient in Brittany on 27 June, writes Jehan Ashmore.  The vessel…
Dun Laoghaire Dragon Trio are 29th in Melbourne
After three races in the Dragon World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Dun Laoghaire trio Andrew Craig, Mark Pettit and Brian Mathews are 29th overall counting a 19, 36 and 28 in the 70-boat fleet. The event is being led by…
Preparations Underway for Team Racing Worlds
With the advent of 2011, preparations are now well under way for the holding of the ISAF World Team Racing Championships at Schull from August 27th, 2011 to September 23rd, 2011 writes Claire Bateman. It is a major triumph for the…
Ireland's Fog Signals to Fall Silent
The Commissioners of Irish Lights has said it consulted widely about discontinuing the last remaining fog signals around Ireland's coastline, The Irish Times reports. Nine lighthouses operated directly by the authority in the Republic and Northern Ireland, along with several…
Dun Laoghaire Trio Stay Mid-Fleet at Dragon Worlds
Andrew Craig, Brian Mathews and Mark Pettit sailing Chimaera have posted a 36th to add to their 19th at the Dragon World Championships in Melbourne yesterday. The second windward leeward race of the series was sailed in six to eight…
National 18s Aim for Big Turn-Out
Royal Cork YC aims to host the largest ever gathering of National 18's. The 2011 class championship, better known locally as the 'Cock O' The North', will take place at Crosshaven from Sunday 24th to Friday 29th July 2011. The…

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]