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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
Cork Week Day 2 Pics here!
Cork Week pics (Day 2). Different weather to-day! Grey, dull and misty, a great contrast to yesterday's sunshine but Bob Bateman's action from day two is captured HERE!
South Africa Enters Commodores Cup Fray
There are only a few weeks to the close of entries at this year’s Rolex Commodores’ Cup. Whilst most teams have finalized their boats and crews, others are still engaged in discussions to determine their line-ups. For all teams, both…
The World's Smallest Circumnavigation
Most of the news at the moment, save the Round-the-World antics of the Clipper fleet, is small boat stuff, close to shore. But there's one story drawing to a close that mixes both. Franco-Italian sailor Alessandro DiBenedetto is nearing completino…
Cork Finish Rounds Out Clipper 2009-10
When Cork, just four nautical miles from the finish line in Ijmuiden, Netherlands, crosses the line, it will allow race organisers officially crown Spirit of Australia as the winning crew, with one short leg to Hull remaining. The crew, who…
O'Dowd Moves Up in Light Airs
Matthew O'Dowd made best use of yesterday's light airs to count a podium finish and jump from 31st to 20th overall as the fleet takes a day off. 250 boats were rigged in the dinghy park in the blaring Istanbul…
Calves Week Entry Open
Schull Harbour Sailing Club today launched its programme of events for the 2010 Calves Week Programme. Calves Week 2010 will run from Friday 30th July to Sunday August 8th, and comprises of ten races, including the Cape Clear regatta fun…
Murphy and Brien Racing in Laser Radial Gold Fleet
In the finals of the Laser Radial Worlds in Scotland yesterday two of Ireland's three reps in the Women's division are racing in the gold fleet. Finland's defending champion stepped further clear of the chasing pack today when she sailed to…
Cork Week Day One Photos Here!
Aerial and on the water shots from Day one of Cork Week by Afloat's Bob Bateman are HERE!
DAY ONE: Cork Week Racing Opens in Style and Sunshine
Report plus Photos! There are plenty of strong home sailing performances from the first day of Cork week today and Irish boats are in control in IRC Zero, the J109s, IRC three and IRC divisions four, five and six. Its…
Murphy Lies 20th in Laser Radial Worlds
Largs, Scotland Sunday 11th July: With a second place from today’s only race on the Clyde off Largs, Finland’s reigning champion Sari Multala emerges at the top of the leaderboard of the Laser Radial World Championships as the fleet move…
Adverse Tide Puts Cork at Anchor
Light winds and a strong tide have forced Cork to anchor in order to avoid being swept backwards, away from the Dutch finish line of the Clipper Round the World Race. Inspite of the set back there are claculations made…
Lynch is Top Topper in Carlingford
A fleet of 66 Toppers took to the waters of Carlingford Lough for their National Championships ten days ago, with Blessington sailor Finn Lynch taking control of the series to count nothing but podium finishes on his way to the…
Irish Team Top Amateurs at Student Worlds
Ireland's team finished fourth at the Student Match Racing World Championships at the weekend, the highest-placed team not to contain professional or near full-time match racers on their squad. Facing the Australian ladies' Olympic match racing team in the third…
Freebie Night at Cork Week Tonight
So there's no such thing as a free lunch? Well, not according to Cork Week chairman Peter Deasy, who's coming good on a promise to Cork Week sailors to provide one night of free grub to the entire fleet. Tonight,…
Fifth in Silver for Irish 49er
Fifth place in the silver fleet was the best that the Irish 49ers could offer at the European Championships in Poland, which ended this weekend. British team Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh came out the winners after a medal race…
Youth Worlds Kick Off in Istanbul
This morning in Istanbul it'll be a long wait for wind, but the ISAF Youth Worlds are underway, with two races already in the bag. Ireland is represented in the 420 and Laser Radials in both boys and girls fleet,…

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]