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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
Tough conditions take their toll at Squib Nationals
Heavy winds and big seas played a major role on the second day of the SIAC Construction Squib National Championships at Howth Yacht Club with almost a third of the 37-boat fleet forced to retire with gear damage during the…
McCann Leads Irish Optimist Challenge in Wales
Cork's Peter MCann Leads Irish hopes against some of the best of Britain's up and coming young sailors who are ready for a full week of racing at the 2011 Volvo Gill Optimist Open and National Championships, Pwllheli Sailing Club.…
Bon Depart as 2011 Solitaire du Figaro Heads for Dun Laoghaire
The 42nd edition of La Solitaire du Figaro race got off to a good start on Sunday in Perros Guirec, despite the light five-knot westerly breeze and unusual downwind start.  Hundreds of fans lined the cliffs and crowded onto the…
Derry Londonderry Sets off on Clipper Round World Voyage
Irish entry 'Derry Londonderry' is among a fleet of yachts that set out from the Solent this afternoon on a unique yacht race around the world. The Royal Navy's helicopter carrier, HMS Illustrious, and a fleet of hundreds of spectator…
Tight at top of Squib Nationals after first day
It’s tight at the top of the leaderboard after the first three races of the SIAC Construction Squib National Championships at Howth Yacht Club today (Sat.30th), which saw three different race winners, each representing the three main Squib fleets. PHOTOS…
The Royal Yacht Squadron Launches Biscay Race
The Royal Yacht Squadron is delighted to announce the inaugural Biscay Race that forms part of the Atlantic Ocean Racing Series (AORS) in which competitors are required to take part in three races, including the Transatlantic Race (TR 2011), to…
Maureen O'Hara Enters the Irish American Hall of Fame in the New Dunbrody Visitor Centre
The Dunbrody visitor centre and Famine Ship experience played host to Maureen O'Hara's entry into the Irish American Hall of Fame by the President of Ireland and Former President of the United States. President of Ireland Mrs. Mary McAleese and…
No Excuses for Overall Winner Crosbie in IRC 2
The last race in the Royal Cork Timberland League was another excellent night's racing writes our Cork Harbour Correspondent. The weather gods were with us three Thursdays in a row! The breeze was coming from the North 8 to 12…
British Sailor Nigel King's Ready for Solitaire Du Figaro Start This Weekend
Seasoned Beneteau Solitaire du Figaro sailor Nigel King, from Lymington UK, is currently in Perros-Guirec, Northern Brittany, preparing for the Solitaire du Figaro, which starts this Sunday. King who is no stranger to this annual, French 1,695-mile marathon, having competed…
UK Boats Take Nine of Top Ten Places at Flying Fifteen Worlds
After finishing fifth in the penultimate race Graham Vials and Chris Turner were able to head back to HISC for an early shower after winning the 2011 Flying 15 World Championships at Hayling Island SC. The Championships closed yesterday with…
Bon Voyage to the crew of the Derry-Londonderry yacht
The Port and Harbour Commissioners are wishing "Bon Voyage" to the crew of the Derry~Londonderry yacht which this Sunday will leave Southampton to begin a 40,000 mile Round the World Race as part of Clipper 11-12. "We know this is…
WOW Makes Her Mark in Breezy DBSC Thursday Race
In a great turnout for the Dublin Bay fleet prior to the August Bank holiday, George Sisk's new J111 WOW chalked up another win in IRC Zero in Cruisers One.  Vincent Farrell's Tsunmai was second. Sisk's club mate Colin Byrne…
Keel Fin Materials

Keel Fin Materials

28th July 2011 RORC
At a recent meeting of the IRC Technical Committee, the subject of the rating cost of different keel fin materials was discussed. Specifically, the Committee addressed keel types 10, 11 and 12. The Committee noted that in recent years IRC…
RORC Channel Race Preview
Sunburn rather than windburn could well be a factor for this weekend's RORC Channel Race writes Louay Habib, Ninety eight yachts are entered and no doubt valuable experience will be on offer prior to the biggest race of the RORC…
SORC Success for 'Dinah'
The annual Solo Offshore Racing Club's 'Channel Week' was held last week in a varying mix of conditions. Seven offshore legs over eight days took the fleet from the Solent to the Channel Islands, and on to three French ports,…
Irish Squib Championships 2011 Preview
The 2011 championship in Howth, North County Dublin, sponsored by SIAC Construction promises to be the largest Irish Squib Championship for many years, with 38 entries from fleets throughout the country, including 2 boats from Kinsale on the south coast,…

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]