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
First youth title decided
The first title of the ISA Youth Nationals & Junior Pathway Championship has gone to Cork sailor Seafra Guilfoyle who took the Optimist title with four wins from six races over the last two days. Blistering sunshine rained down on…
Freedom of Galway for VOR team?
Enda O'Coineen, John Killeen and Eamonn Conneely are in line to receive the freedom of the city of Galway, but the timing of the award is making waves. A row is brewing over when the mayor proposes to bestow the…
Junior title fights nearing conclusion
Very light and variable winds provided tricky sailing conditions but close racing at the ISA Youth Nationals & Junior Pathway Championship in Schull, Co Cork. Although entering the competition as the ‘hot favourite’, fleet leader Finn Lynch - the world’s…
Puma announces return to VOR
Ken Read and the Puma team have formally thrown their thermal beanie hat in the ring for the next Volvo Ocean Race, pinching a Green Dragon sponsor in the process. 'Il Mostro' will partner with Berg Propulsion for the race,…
Kiwi team for VOR?
Prompted, one can only assume, by the finish being in Galway in 2012, new Volvo Ocean Race teams are coming out of the woodwork thick and fast at the moment. The latest rumour is that Team New Zealand will field…
Youth Winners decided in Schull
The final results from the ISA Youth Nationals and Pathway Championships in Schull were finalised over the weekend, with 151 sailors enjoying a full series of racing in near perfect conditions on Roaringwater bay. Results are over the fold and…
Lambay Rules HYC OK
Lambay Rules was the winner of Howth Yacht Club's Spring Warmer Series in the Etchell's class. Second was Kootamundra and third Jabberwocky. Click 'Read More' for results. SPRING WARMER SAILING SERIES (O'ALL) 10/04/2010 Etchells: 1, Lambay Rules Quinn/Dillon HYC (3.00);…
April league Photos from Kinsale
Kinsale was buzzing yesterday with lots of yachts, blue skies, light winds and a great atmospere for the start of the Club's Spring Series. Report later but we're kicking off this morning with a great gallery of images from yesterday…
Kinsale Kicks Off

Kinsale Kicks Off

20th April 2010 Racing
Following the blow out of last Monday’s racing at Kinsale the series got underway today in a light north easterly wind that strengthened somewhat for the second race of the day under a glorious blue sky and it was just…
UCD Sailing reclaim Colours Trophy
UCD Sailing Club win in the annual Colours match this year, denied Trinity a fifth successive win at the event. The annual Sailing Colours Match took place last Easter Saturday 3rd April in Dun Laoghaire harbour, hosted by Trinity College…
Youth regatta discount extended
The discounted entry deadline for the Mitsubishi Youth Regatta in Dun Laoghaire has been extended to tomorrow, Friday April 16. Entrants can now get their entries in online to avail of the lowered price. Click here for more.
Full writeup of IUSA match nats
it was DIT that eked out a round robin victory in this year's IUSA Match Racing Nationals, and over the fold we have the full writeup of an event that saw Marty O'Leary and his crew take a major scalp…
Gilmore tops in Garda
Strangford 15-year-old Robbie Gilmore was the top Irish finisher at the 193-boat Europa Cup in Lake Garda at the weekend, one of 11 Irish boats in the Laser Radial fleet. The Irish contingent made a storming start, with Philip Doran…
Container may have sunk Asgard II
There has been no conclusive decision on what sunk the Asgard II, a draft report has shown, but all evidence points to a collision with a cargo container on September 11, 2008, the morning that it sank. Lorna Siggins has…
Clipper Round the World Race
Spirit of Australia ay have won the race to Scoring Gate but Cork is back in the hunt. Cork, Ireland, crossed the gate in second place to take two points, moving them up one place to fifth on the overall…
Afloat.ie: Who Will Be Sailor of the Year 2009?
As in previous years, Afloat magazine is asking the public to decide who should be crowned Ireland’s Sailor of the Year for 2009. The overall national award will be presented to the person who, in the judge’s opinion, achieved the…

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]