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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
Sailing with Ruairidh Scott, Martin Wrigley and James Taylor of Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, Lawrie Smith has a nine-point lead at the Irish Dragon National Championships on Dublin Bay
With one final race to be sailed on Sunday, multiple champion Lawrie Smith holds a nine-point lead at the Irish Dragon National Championships on Dublin Bay.  The Olympian and America's Cup skipper – who took a 1, 2 on Saturday –…
16 Flying Fifteens answered DBSC RO John McNeilly's call for the penultimate Thursday night DBSC race of 2024
In his "Ode to Autumn" Keats begins by describing it as "Season of mists". That being the case, last Thursday night heralded the advent of Autumn because it was a grey drizzly night, admittedly with very relatively little wind, an…
Daisy Bailie, Daniel McGinty and Zoe Johnston got to board the inshore lifeboat Ruby Robinson during their visit to the station
Bangor RNLI received a donation from three local children following a recent garden sale. On Wednesday evening (21 August), Daisy Bailie, Daniel McGinty and Zoe Johnston visited the Belfast Lough lifeboat station and presented volunteer crew members James Gillespie and…
Meteorological commentators tell us that Autumn has definitely arrived, thereby closing off the decidedly mixed summer of 2024. So there's a certain awed fascination in contemplating the reality that in Ireland the 2024 sailing season is only really getting into…
ISORA has postponed Sunday's (August 25th) final cross-channel race of the season due to adverse weather forecasts.  As Afloat reported earlier, 2024's overall ISORA title may yet depend on the result of the 80-mile race, which attracted up to 20…
The Howth YC owned Melges 15 in training last weekend
It has been a busy and exciting dinghy pen in Howth this week, with the green gate witnessing the departure of the many visiting Optimists to be replaced by the ad hoc arrival of Melges 15s. Race Officer Richard Kissane…
The revived Féile na mBád Arainn planned for Inis Mór on Saturday, August 24th, has had to be rescheduled due to the forecast for this weekend
Weather has forced postponement of two key events in the west this weekend. The revived Féile na mBád Arainn planned for Inis Mór on Saturday, August 24th, has had to be rescheduled due to the forecast for this weekend. A…
The ILCA National Championships hosted by the National Yacht Club got underway in blustery westerly winds off Dun Laoghaire
In blustery westerly winds, Paris 2024 Olympian Eve McMahon leads the ILCA 6 division after three races sailed at the ILCA National Championships at the National Yacht Club off Dun Laoghaire on Friday (August 23rd). The Howth ace counts a 2,3,1…
Emirates Team New Zealand and Ineos Brittania on day two of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta in Barcelona
Barcelona, once again, put on its finest display today on day two of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta with outstanding sailing conditions for the sailors and wonderful viewing opportunities for the spectators. All along the Barceloneta beachfront and at the…
Portaferry RNLI’s volunteer crew launch on service
Portaferry RNLI’s pagers sounded at 2.42pm on Thursday afternoon (22 August) to assist three young adults and two dogs stranded on Rough Island after the incoming tide covered the Island Hill causeway. Lifeboat helm Scott Blackwood, with volunteer crew members…
The restored vintage Irish wooden Dragon, Titan, sailed by British professional Andy Beadsworth with Ben Cooke and Justin Heap of the host club, tops the 13-boat Irish cohort in ninth after four races sailed at the Irish Dragon National Championships incorporating a leg of the Grand Prix circuit at the Royal St. George Yacht Club on Dublin Bay
Britain's Lawrie Smith continues to lead the Irish Dragon National Championships after four races sailed in strong westerly winds on Dublin Bay.  The Olympian and America's Cup skipper – who took two seconds on the opening day – had a…
Lawrie Smith's Alfie with Ruairidh Scott, Martin Wrigley and James Taylor of Glandore Harbour Yacht Club lead after two races sailed at the Irish Dragon National Championships incorporating a leg of the Grand Prix circuit at the Royal St. George Yacht Club on Dublin Bay
A consistent Lawrie Smith leads the Irish Dragon National Championships after two races sailed on Thursday (August 22) in medium to strong westerlies on Dublin Bay.  The multi-world champion opened his account in the Royal St. George Yacht Club hosted…
There was a Cruisers One IRC win for Colin Byrne's XP33 Bon Exemple in the AIB DBSC Summer Thursday Series on Dublin Bay on August 22nd
A wet and autumnal evening with light and variable westerlies marked race 18, the penultimate Thursday evening fixture of the 140th Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) AIB Saturday Series. In Class Zero IRC racing, Paul O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI won by…
The ILCA clinic sailors at the National Yacht managed to sail all three days despite strong winds with a focus on racing skills at Dun Laoghaire Harbour ahead of this weekend's national championships
With over 25 participants in ILCA4 and ILCA6, the National Yacht Club-ILCA Ireland Open clinic was a great success despite challenging conditions at times. The club head coach, Thomas Chaix, led a very strong coaching panel, allowing quality debriefs, mixing…
Only one entry was received for Kinsale Yacht Club's (August 23) scheduled 2024 Fastnet Race
Kinsale Yacht Club has cancelled Friday's (August 23) scheduled Fastnet Race because only one entry was received. "We are standing down the Fastnet Race," the club says in a statement. "We are aware that there are a lot of offshore…
Féile na mBád Árainn organiser Alanagh Ní Ghríofa (right) with her grandmother Maggie Conneely on Inis Mór.
The Aran island of Inis Mór plans to revive an annual Galway Hooker regatta which had not been held there for a number of years. Weather permitting, Féile na mBád, Árainn takes place this Saturday, August 24th, with races starting…

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]