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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
Top Ten Scores Boost Irish ISAF Youth Sailors In Cyprus
#ISAF – A couple of top ten individual race results scored at yesterday's ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships has boosted an Irish team in the closing stages of the competition in Cyprus. The Irish youth sailing team of five boys…
Irish Boats in Top Half at Solent Quarter Ton Cup
#quarterton – Both Irish entries at this years Quarter Ton Cup 2013 at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club finished in the top half of the fleet after a sunshine filled series on the Solent. Jason and Dominic Losty Illes Pitiuses from Cove Sailing Club…
Flying Fifteen Lead Taken By Goacher & Evans
#Flyingfifteen – Flying Fifteen sailors enjoyed a third day of sparkling sunshine and light SW breezes, as they added another two windward leeward races in Portland Harbour.Two crews scored well on both races to climb up the leaderboard, while many…
Youth Medalist Finn Lynch Off to Great Start at U21 Laser Champs
#laser – Last year's ISAF Youth Silver medallist Finn Lynch opened his Laser Standard Men's U21 World & European Championship 2013 account on Lake Balaton, Hungary with a fifth place yesterday and is lying 27th overall after three qualifying races. Download results…
Irish Youth Sailors Trying to Find Form in Cyprus
#isafyouthworlds – Flying the flag for Ireland at the ISAF Youth Worlds in Limassol, Cyprus, an eight crew Irish team are among the world's best youth sailors drawn from 61 nations. Racing in marginal planing conditions in yesterday's day two,…
Irish Sailors Fogbound at 420 French Event
#420 – In Day 2 of scheduled racing at the 420 dinghy French national championships it has been a case of Fog 2, sailors 0. Sailors, including an Irish team, didn't even launch.
Fireball Sailing Continues Apace on Dublin Bay
#DBSC – To paraphrase Shakespeare, "How do I report thee, let me count the ways!" • Tight racing of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta continues into Tuesday night!• Snakes and ladders characterises Fireball evening racing.• National Champions lose their unbeaten record…
The Chase Race, A Circumnavigation of Larne Lough
RES, one of the world's leading independent renewable energy project developers, with a base in Larne, Co Antrim have been installed as key sponsors for the forthcoming Meningitis Chase Race day. The race, which has also been billed as 'the…
Three Flying Fifteens Share Second Overall in Weymouth
#flyingfifteen – In a second day of Mediterranean conditions at Weymouth, the Flying Fifteen fleet enjoyed another day of sunshine and high temperatures. Winds were again light SW, around 6 kts in the first race, and down to 5kts in…
Small Yet Smart Brigantine Sets Sails Across the Irish Sea
#Tallships- The Sea Cadet's training tallship TS Royalist this morning departed Dun Laoghaire Harbour under the command of Skipper Angela Morris, following an overnight visit after setting off from Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, writes Jehan Ashmore. Royalist may be small…
Optimist & 420 Sailors Frustrated By Lack of Wind in Brittany
#youthsailing – In Crozon, south west Brittany, two races were completed in very light wind at the Optimist Summer Cup, attended by 15 Irish sailors including the Irish International Development team. In Pleneuf Val-Andre on the north Breton coast, day one…
Irish Quarter Tonners Ninth, Tenth at Solent Based Cup
#quarterton – Both Irish entries at this years Quarter Ton Cup 2013 at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club lie in the top ten after the first day's racing on the Solent. Jason and Dominic Losty Illes Pitiuses from Coves Sailing Club…
Apthorp Takes First Win at UK Flying Fifteen Nationals
#flyingfifteen – Racing got off to a great start today at the UKGLOBAL sponsored Flying Fifteen Nationals. Two races were held in sparkling conditions as Weymouth baked in 25 degree temperatures. Both races were held within Portland Harbour, just beside hosts…
Irish Youths Post Mixed Opening Day Results in Cyprus
#youthworlds – Ireland will be seeking to improve its scores after day one if the eight boat youth sailing team in Cyprus is to match last year's medal success at the ISAF Youth Worlds this week.  In the Laser Radial, Robbie…
Irish Optimist Team Seeking World Honours on Lake Garda
#Optimist – On Wednesday, five Irish Optimist sailors will join almost 250 other sailors from 54 countries for the Optimist World Championships on Lake Garda, Italy. Racing will continue until Thursday July 25th with a rest day in between. The…
Three Irish Laser Sailors Compete for U21 World Honours
#Laser – A three-man Irish Laser youth squad compete in Balatonfured, Hungary tomorrow in the U21 Laser Standard World Championships. Wexford's Philip Doran, West Cork's Fionn Lyden and Kildare's Finn Lynch will be in action. More on www.balatonlaserworlds2013.com

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]