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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
Race day three at the ILCA 6 European Youth Championships at Ballyholme Thom Touw
Factor 50 was still needed on Wednesday, but the northeasterly breeze played ball and held, allowing the ILCA 6 European Youth Championships at Ballyholme on Belfast Lough to launch 366 boats in 36 minutes. The Beach Team is reported to be going for…
The three-masted barque Belém as seen in Cork on Sunday 28 July
The tall ship Belém is continuing its tour of Irish ports, as RTÉ News reports. Afloat.ie previously highlighted the visit of the three-masted training barque, which earlier this year carried the Olympic torch from Athens to Marseille. The world-famous vessel…
Sean and Heather Craig's Water Wag 'Puffin' leads the 2024 DBSC AIB Summer Series
Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Race Officers were forced to cancel Wednesday night's weekly Water Wag racing due to a lack of wind on the Dun Laoghaire Harbour race course.  Racing continues next Wednesday.
The MacSweeney Family's Sigma 33 'Scribbler' was the overall RCYC Friday League winner on 16.5 points
The Royal Cork Yacht Club's Thursday and Friday evening June/July Leagues concluded with Friday night's whitesail having had the biggest fleet racing, with 28 cruisers entered. The MacSweeney Family's Sigma 33 'Scribbler' was the overall Friday League winner on 16.5…
Cutting a dash in Brittany - Sally O'Keeffe brings a flavour of the Shannon Estuary to Douarnenez
The 25ft Shannon cutter Sally O'Keeffe, community built in Querin, County Clare in 2012, has successfully returned to Kilrush Marina after a remarkable out-and-back voyages which took in hundreds of miles of open ocean. While members of Seol Sionna rotated…
The Lambay Experience – sunshine, boats and seabirds, with Pip, Gerry Sargent's LM Vitesse 33, on left
The Cruising Groups in several clubs are an expanding world unto themselves. It's only when a couple of the leading ones get together afloat, as they did in a muster at Lambay last weekend (27th July) in the form of…
Irish sailor Paddy Moran (on extreme left) on hand to pop the champagne while Sir Robin Knox Johnston prepares to hand skipper Bob Beggs the trophy for winning the 2023-2024 Clipper round world race on Ha Long Bay Vietnam
Irish sailor Paddy Moran was on board the winning yacht for a “nail-biting finish” to the 2023-2024 Clipper Round the World Race. Moran is one of the crew of Ha Long Bay Vietnam which secured the overall win of the…
Having competed at the 2023 championships in his Sunfast 3600 Searcher, Pete Smyth of the host club has entered the Ker 46 Searcher II, in which he has already taken second overall, first IRC 1, and first Irish in June's SSE Renewables Round Ireland 2024 from Wicklow
All four reigning IRC cruiser-racer national champions are among a fleet of nearly 50 boats already entered to defend their national titles at the 2024 Unio-sponsored ICRA National Championships at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay in less than…
Andrea Recordati's 93ft Bullitt was last year's Rolex Middle Sea Race overall winner
J ClassThis year’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will feature the very first World Championship for ‘Maxi 1’. Taking place out of Porto Cervo over 8-14 September as part of the main event, the IMA Maxi 1 World Championship will be…
Ireland's Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) (right)and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) speak to reporters about how they have held second overall for a third consecutive day at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Wednesday's final day of open fleet racing will be a crucial one in deciding medal race places
Wednesday is the last day of the opening series races in the Paris Olympics men's skiff class, and with their consistent showing since Monday, Ireland's Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) appear certain—barring any further setbacks such as race six—to earn one…
The start of a boy's race on day two of the ILCA 6 European Youth Championships at Ballyholme Yacht Club
Day two was definitely a Factor 50 day on Belfast Lough, and a lack of any breeze forced the ILCA 6 European Youth Championships Race Team at Ballyolme Yacht Club to postpone racing until 1400 hrs. Patience paid off and…
Ireland's Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) wearing blue bibs to indicate their second place overall in the men's 49er skiff class at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing in Marseille
It's all change at the top of the leaderboard after nine races sailed in the men's Skiff Class at the Paris Olympics – except for a consistent Ireland – who stay second overall after a tricky day on the Marseilles…
Ireland's GP 14 Bronze Fleet In Weekend Action At Cullaun in East Clare
Anyone who would hope to set up a successful class of boats in Ireland should make a study of how GP14 Ireland functions. The Association has depth as well as breadth, and they look out for each other too. All…
Ireland's Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove have been disqualified from race six of the Paris Olympics men's skiff regatta
Ireland's Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) have been disqualified from race six of the Paris Olympics men's 49er skiff regatta this evening (July 29) after an international jury found the Irish (IRL) boat infringed the Spanish (ESP) rival at the first upwind…
Ireland's Olympic men's skiff pairing Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) stay second overall after six tricky races at the Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta in the 49er dinghy
Ireland's Paris Olympics men's skiff pairing Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) maintained their second position after Monday’s three races on the Frioul course, the most westerly of the four-race areas. Light winds again caused problems for the race…
Lucy Ives of Carlingford Lough SC competing at the ILCA 6 European Youth Championships at Ballyholme Yacht Club in County Down
The ILCA 6 European Youth Championships at Ballyholme Yacht Club in County Down has had over the last two weeks, 368 competitors from 38 Nations arriving to compete in an event which is the largest and most internationally diverse sailing event…

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]