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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
Figaro Gossip from Caen Before Departure for Dun Laoghaire
Over the course of the first leg there is the sport of sailing and competition on the water to talk about.  There is however, a life at sea we only find out about once the sailors relax and are back…
Calves Week 2011 Attracts 60 Boats for 27th Edition
Over 60 boats signed up for the 27th Calves Week in Schull this week writes Oonagh Buckley. The first few days of the week long racing event benefited from a late burst of summer conditions with light winds and blue…
Who Will Be July's Sailor of the Month?
What a month! The judges are making up their minds for July's Sailor of the Month Award to be made at the weekend. Who would they have in mind? We can think of Anthony O'Leary who was just one point…
Dun Laoghaire's Hyland in Good Form on the Baltic
Dun Laoghaire's Adam Hyland finished strongly at the Optimist German National Championships yesterday finishing a 19 (his discard) (a bad start followed by a wrong decision on the first beat), 2 and 4. The results put him in strong position…
60% of the Figaro Fleet Finish Within 60 Minutes
Today in Caen, the day after the finish of the first light and demanding leg of La Solitaire du Figaro it it time to review the race standings; there is plenty of hope as 60% of the fleet remain within…
Irish Optimists Make the Grade at British and German National Championships
Following on from the success of the IODAI European team in Portugal last month where Royal Cork's Peter McCann finished in 7th place and Tralee's Sophie Brown had an overall win in the Girls section of the French Nationals, Irish…
McCaffery's Pterodactyl Wins Glen Race
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 2 AUGUST 2011 CRUISERS 3 - 1. Asterix (Counihan/Meredith/Bushell), 2. Upd8 (Whelan/McCabe/Carey), 3. Papytoo (M.Walsh/F.Guilfoyle) Ensign - 1. NYC 1 (Olivier Prouveur), 2. NYC 2 (Helen Cooney) GLEN - 1. Pterodactyl (R…
Delahaye wins on Home Waters and Britain's Phil Sharp Seventhth
At 13:14:36 on Tuesday 2nd of August, Fabien Delahaye crossed the finish line to win the first leg of La Solitaire du Figaro between Perros-Guirec and Caen in first place.  The Normandy skipper sailing on Port Caen Ouistreham took just…
Cultra duo retain Squib national title at Howth
Ross Nolan and Gordon Patterson from the Royal North of Ireland YC are the 2011 Squib National Champions, retaining their title at Howth Yacht Club by five points in a 7-race series (sponsored by SIAC Construction) in which they were…
O'Beirne's Finish in Gold Fleet at Feva Worlds
Conor and Dab O'Beirne from Dun Laoghaire's's RSGYC had a 7 and an 11 to finish in 29th overall in the Gold fleet at the RS Feva Worlds. They were the only Irish boat to make the Gold Fleet after two…
La Rochelle Laser Results Show Progress
Promising results came young Irish sailors came from the World and European Laser Radial Youth Champs in La Rochelle that ended at the weekend. Wexford and the National Yacht Club's Philip Doran finished 11th in Worlds (8th in Euros). Blessingtonn's…
Ni Shuilleabhain Third After Light Air Oppy Opener
Light fickle winds on the first day of the Volvo Gill Optimist Open and British National Championships in Pwhelli prevented top Irish top challenger Peter McCann from Royal Cork making an early breakthrough but other Irish sailors have prevailed in…
Fickle Winds Prevail for RORC Channel Race
From Cowes on the Isle of Wight on Sunday the RORC fleet set off east under spinnaker for the start of the 122 mile race. Harry Heijst's Winsome, got probably the best start of the entire fleet hugging the island…
Kirwan's Ruff'n'Ready to the Fore on Dublin Bay
July's last Dublin Bay Sailing Club race on Saturday produced a win for Ann Kirwan's Ruff''n'Ready in the Ruffian class. Second was Michael Cutliffe's Ruffles and third Derek Mitchell's Derek Mitchell. Full results for the DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing…
Figaro Fleet Inches Forward to Dun Laoghaire
Thirty hours into racing on the first leg of La Solitaire du Figaro, 320-miles from Perros-Guirec in Northern Brittany to Caen,  lower Normandy, and the leaders are positioned just 5 miles from Fairways, off the Needles, on the western tip…
Squib National title stays in the North
Ross Nolan and Gordon Patterson from the Royal North of Ireland YC are the new Squib National Champions, winning the title at Howth Yacht Club by five points in a 7-race series (sponsored by SIAC Construction) in which they were…

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]