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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
Galway Hooker Sails into Abu Dhabi
#GALWAYHOOKER – Nora Bheag, a near century old Galway Hooker boat, has arrived safely into Abu Dhabi after an historic voyage that set out from the city on Ireland's West Coast by container ship more than six weeks ago. Nora Bheag…
ARC 2011 Cruise Draws to a Close
#ARC – The 26th Atlantic Rally for Sailing Cruisers (ARC) finished in fine style on Saturday 17 December with a spectacular prize giving ceremony at the Gaiety Nightclub in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.  2011 was a vintage ARC, with most…
Irish RS Fleet Publish Six Fixture Dates for 2012
  #RS – There’s a busy year afloat in prospect for the rapidly expanding Irish RS400 and RS200 dinghy sailing fleets with six events scheduled for the 2012 season. A five event traveller series kicks off with the Inlands at…
Cork Week 2012 Launches New Website
#CORKWEEK – Preparations for Cork Week 2012, one of the biggest and most succesful of Ireland's sailing regattas is well underway and this week the Royal Cork Yacht Club has launched a dedicated Cork Week 2012 website. The event Chairman,…
Rumball and Moran Win Final Frostbite of 2011
#SAILING – The last race of the 2011 season for Irish Fireballs started under clear blue skies but with a cold aspect to the breeze which came from a westerly direction. As the afternoon progressed a distinct change in weather…
RS Boat Builder Reveals New Women's Skiff
#SKIFF – Testing of the production specification RS900, RS Sailing's contender for selection as the new women's Olympic skiff, is underway. It's a sleek looking affair as you might expect that will take women's sailing into a whole new area…
Rig Damage Forces Chinese-Irish Yacht Sanya Ashore
#VOLVOOCEANRACE – Team Sanya is heading for shore again, the second time in as many legs. This time the Discover Ireland backed yacht in the Volvo Ocean Race has suffered rigging damage. The 70-foot Chinese-Irish entry reported into race headquarters…
Three Irish Boats Qualify for London Olympics
Irish sailing officials are celegrating 'a strong start to the London Olympic campaign' for the Irish team at the end of the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth today. Three campaigns finished in the top 12 overall of the two week…
Scheidt and Prada Retain Star Crown in Perth
#PERTH2011–  Today's Star medal race gave an invaluable glimpse at the make up of next Summers Olympic fleet. It's a point that won't be lost on Irish pairing Peter O'Leary and David Burrows who, although they didn't make the medal race…
Black Flag Rules Out Espey's Perth Qualification Hope
#PERTH2011 – A black flag result for Ireland's Laser sailor James Espey ruled out any chance of Olympic qualification in Perth today even though the Belfast single-hander was on the cusp of qualifying going in to today's final rounds. He finished…
Seaton and McGovern Take Their Place in 49er Medal Race
#PERTH2011 – A 'personal best' performance, eighth overall in the world championships and a chance to shine in tomorrow's medal race plus the all important ticket to the London Olympic regatta. Is it any wonder Belfast's 49er dinghy duo Ryan…
Irish Optimist Dinghies Go From Strength to Strength
#OPPY – In these recessionary times, there is good news for the future of sailing among our youngest sailors, as the Irish Optimist fleet grows from strength to strength writes Joan O'Sullivan. 21 Optimist sailors, aged from 11 to 14,…
Irish Star Makes Olympic Qualification
#Perth2011– Star keelboat sailors Peter O'Leary and David Burrows have qualified for the 2012 Olympics and finished 12th overall after a thrilling fight for the last qualification slot between the Irish, Italian, Swiss and Spanish boats. Given the string of…
Irish 49er Pair Stay Tenth as Gold Fleet Heads for Final Three Races
#PERTH 2011 – Ireland's newest Olympic team pairing Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern from Belfast were 19th in today's single 49er race in Perth today. They stay in tenth overall and discard today's placing in the 49er Gold fleet. They…
Perth Serves up a Tight Finish for O'Leary and Burrows
#PERTH 2011 – Missed opportunities on a crucial day afloat in the Star keelboat means Olympic qualification for Ireland's Peter O'Leary and David Burrows now goes 'to the wire'.  Disappointingly, the pair scored a 16th and a 24th today in…
Irish Skiff Pair Qualify for London Olympic Games
#PERTH 2011 – Belfast pairing Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern are on their way to the London Olympic Games thanks to another solid performance in Perth today in the crucial closing stages of the 49er World Skiff Championships. It's Ireland's…

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]