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
Derry-Londonderry arrives in Madeira at end of Clipper Race Leg
Derry-Londonderry has arrived in Madeira at the end of the first stage of the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race which began in Southampton on 31 July. The team crossed the line outside of Quinta Do Lorde Marina at…
Murphy Drops to Fifth in Weymouth
Lighter winds brought trouble for Annalise Murphy in Weymouth today as her scores of 16 and 18 in the Laser Radial dropped her three places from second to fifth overall in the Olympic Test event. Still the Dun Laoghaire 21-Year…
Australian Victory in Clipper as Gold Coast Australia Arrives in Madeira
Gold Coast Australia, one of two Australian teams competing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race, has secured victory in the first race from Southampton to Madeira, crossing the finish line at 1237 local time (1137GMT). For the…
Goodness Gracious Wins it on Dublin Bay
Louise McKenna's Fireball dinghy Goodness Gracious was first home in tonight's Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) race. The DMYC sailor beat Elevation (N.Colin/M.Casey) across the Scotsmans Bay line. Third was Licence to Thrill (Louis Smyth). Results for 9 AUGUST 2011are…
Figaro Leaders Expected in Dun Laoghaire Wednesday Morning
The ETA in Dún Laoghaire for the La Solitaire du Figaro yacht race is tomorrow morning. The first arrivals of the 46 competitors of La Solitaire du Figaro yacht race and accompanying French Naval Patrol Ship (PSP Cormoran) and the…
Figaro Set to Restart in the Irish Sea
A new start in the Celtic Sea? It's sounds incredible, but that is the La Solitaire du Figaro race! Efforts invested in the past 48 hours could come down to very little for the 46 skippers participating on the second…
First Athletes Selected for Paralympics GB for London 2012
With just over a year to go to the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, the British Paralympic Association (BPA) today announced the selection of the first athletes who will compete for Great Britain at London 2012. The athletes are…
Strangford's Gilmore Finishes Sixth in British Topper Nationals
Strangford's Laura Gilmore lead going into the last day but had a tough time in the strong conditions however she persevered to finish a credible sixth and first Girl, a great achievement. The other Irish persevered in the conditions and…
Thousands Enjoy Champagne Sailing at Cowes
The thousands of competitors at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week enjoyed another glorious sunny day, with a brisk west-north-westerly wind providing spectacular sailing. Winds in the morning were more moderate than yesterday, at 10-15 knots, but a short shower that…
Solid Performance Moves O'Leary and Burrows up to Second
A very sold performance from Cork-Dublin pairing Peter O'Leary and David Burrows has produced second overall at the halfway stage of the Olympic Test event in Weymouth today.  The pair are racing in a 21-boat fleet, a fleet size that…
Jean-Pierre Nicol slips through into Figaro Lead
There has been plenty of action in the first 24 hours of racing on the second leg of La Solitaire du Figaro from Caen to Dún Laoghaire, Dublin.  Jean-Pierre Nicol, racing on board Bernard Controls moves into the lead following…
Sanderson Unveils 'Discoverireland' on Team Sanya
This morning, Mike Sanderson, CEO and skipper of Team Sanya, the Chinese entry into the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race stood proudly as he unveiled the new look boat to the press. Team Sanya are working in close partnership with 'Lets…
Investigation Launched as Cruiser Collides with Tanker at Cowes Week
A collision occurred on Saturday at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week between the Class 4 boat Atalanta and an incoming tanker. SEE VIDEO BELOW. One member of the crew was knocked overboard and is OK. A further crew member has…
Racing update: Olympic, Figaro, Optis,Mermaids, Toppers and Howth 17s.
Annalise Murphy lies Second and Peter O'Leary and David Burrows are Third at a Windy Olympic Weymouth test event. The Figaro Sailors are having a Windy race to Dun Laoghaire. They'll be hear on Wednesday. Sean Donnelly was Best of…
Duffy's Hera Wins Victorian Styled Howth 17 Title
The Howth 17 Class battled a closely fought contest to be deemed the Class Champion at the weekend. The event began on Friday evening at 19:00hrs from the East Pier in Howth and continued into Saturday for a further four…
Not your Average Summer Holiday
Most people are content to board a plane or jump in the car to go somewhere nice on holiday. But for three Orkney Islanders only a jet ski will do. Colin Gregg, Dugy Ward and Gary Forber have just completed…

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]