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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
Royal Cork Counts Down to National 18 Sailing Championships 2011
At Royal Cork Yacht Club there is a great air of activity and a palpable excitement in the air writes Claire Bateman. SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS BY BOB BATEMAN. Hacksaws were sawing at a great rate, fittings were being screwed…
Sisk's Wow Sails to Victory in DBSC Race
George Sisk's new Wow sailed to success in the Crusiers Zero divison of the Dublin Port sponsored Dublin Bay Sailing Club race this afternoon. The new J111 that sailed its first race in July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta beat Vincent…
Sun Shines for RCYC Thursday Racing
Last night the sailors in the Royal Cork Timberland League were saying "What's happening in the world, nice weather two Thursdays in a row?". The breeze was coming from the North 8 to 15 knots. Full main and a light…
Roland Jourdain To Visit Dublin With New MOD70
Renowned yachtsman Roland Jourdain will be visiting Ireland next month to show off his new vessel ahead of the Fastnet Race. http://www.afloat.ie/sail/events/fastnet-race/ A veteran of 60-foot monohulls, Jourdain will be in Dun Laoghaire from 4-5 August to test his new…
100 Days and Counting to Race Around the World
The clock is ticking down for the teams in the Volvo Ocean Race, with Thursday, July 21 marking exactly 100 days to go before the first points are awarded in the opening in-port race in Alicante. All the teams are…
The Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Co. Dublin plays host to the second annual International Match Racing Challenge over this coming weekend, the 23rd and 24th July.  Ireland’s top five Match Racing Teams will go head to…
More Mischief on Dublin Bay
National Sigma 33 Champion White Mischief was up to its old tricks winning races on Dublin Bay last night. The Royal Irish yacht sailed by Timothy Goodbody beat Paddy Maguire's Gwili Two. Third was Enchantress (Michael Larkin et al). Full…
Dolan and Lambe Must Take Repechage Route
Sarah Dolan and Claire Lambe finished fourth in their heat of the lightweight double sculls at the World Under-23 Championships in Amsterdam and must compete in a repechage tomorrow. Austria, Germany and Canada headed the field through the race, with…
Goacher and Evans are Flying 15 UK National Champions
After several hours of waiting and one race start for the gold fleet, which was abandoned before they reached the windward mark. PRO Roger Palmer signalled the end of racing and the British Championship was officially over. An anticlimactic end…
A Fleet of Over 30 Boats Expected for the 10th Transat Jacques Vabre
Raced every two years by duos – crews of two – across the Atlantic retracing a route traditionally taken by the coffee trade, the formula for the Transat Jacques Vabre has proven a durable and popular ever since the first…
Sailing boats of any kind are being invited to take part in a fun pursuit race on Dublin Bay this Friday to help raise funds for Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. The organisers have set a goal of €5,000 and…
Volvo Ocean Race
The Volvo Ocean Race is an exceptional test of sailing prowess and human endeavour which has been built on the spirit of great seafarers - fearless men who sailed the world's oceans aboard square rigged clipper ships more than a…
Galway Man, Frankie Leonard, Appointed as Media Crew Member to Team Sanya
Team Sanya announced today the selection of Frankie Leonard, from Galway, Ireland, as their media crew member who will join the sailing team as they travel around the world competing in The 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. Frankie, who comes from…
Tough Conditions On Day Two Of The 2011 Panerai British Classic Week
Cowes, UK – 18 July 2011 - The crews of the 71 classic yachts competing at Panerai British Classic Week 2011 were delighted when they awoke this morning to discover that yesterday's strong winds had abated somewhat for the sailing…
Howth 17 Rita Sails to Another Win off Howth
DBSC Tuesday + Saturday Series 3 sees Howth Yacht Club domination... 19/07/2011 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Rita Curley/Lynch; 2, Hera M & J Duffy; 3, Deilginis Deilginis Group; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Sheila HYC Inst. Team; 2, Hera M &…
Ruffiian Alias Rises to the Challenge on Dublin Bay
On the eve of the class National Championships at the National Yacht Club this weekend David Meeke skipper of Alias stated his intentions with a win in last night's Dublin Bay Sailing Club Ruffian 23 race. Second was Bruce Carswell'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]