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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
Strong Winds Cancel Royal Cork League
Strong winds cancelled the penultimate round of sailing at the O'Flynn Exhams League this morning at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Racing continues next Saturday the 29th of October with the prize giving dinner that evening in the Croshaven club…
Gales spoil final day of WD-40 Autumn League at Howth
Southerly gales put paid to racing on the final day of the WD-40 Autumn League, sponsored by Team PR Reilly, leaving the series to be decided on the results of the three races sailed on previous weekends. With one Sunday…
Olympic Challenge set for GP14 Nationals in Skerries
Olympic 470 campaigner Gerbil Owens will challenge for the GP14s dinghy national title this weekend in Skerries. It brings fresh competition for Sligo's Sailing team of Tim Corcoran and Brendan Brogan who are undefeated in this event for the past…
Student World Yachting Championships - Practice Race
A fresh southerly breeze blew into the La Trinité Sur Mer today with the practice racing taking place at the more relaxed time of 2pm. Some of the teams that had yet to get used to their new boats were…
Team Ireland has arrived in La Trinite Sur Mer
Team Ireland has finally arrived at the Student Yachting World Championships in La Trinité Sur Mer after 24hours on the road, the trip being made easy thanks to the team van kindly provided by AVIS Ireland. Today the team got…
Howth Yacht Club's 37th Laser Frostbite starts in November
One of Ireland’s longest running dinghy frostbite series begins its 37th running on Sunday 6th November when Howth Yacht Club’s Laser Frostbite gets underway. The Frostbite, which began in 1974, comprises a pre-Christmas and post-New Year series (starting January 8th),…
Ireland Thankful to Escape Favourites Tag for Commodore's Cup 2012
Ireland's 2010 Commodore's Cup winning captain showed his relief at the news that Hong Kong have been tipped as favourites for next July's event, The Irish Times reports. http://www.afloat.ie/sail/events/commodores-cup/ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/1021/1224306212856.html The announcement was made this week at the Royal Ocean…
'Reconnaissance' Wins Fenit to Dingle Race
Peadar O'Loughlin's Sigma 33 Reconnaissance was the overall winner of Tralee Bay Sailing Club's race from Fenit to Dingle this October but only after a great comeback in the last two miles of this County Kerry race. The first boat…
SB3 Sailors Sailing for $30,000 Black Sea Bounty
Howth SB3 Sailors Ben Duncan, Brian Moran and Joe Turner areamong the teams competing for the Rodion Luka Friendship regatta in Odessa on the Black Sea this Saturday. Event Sponsor Transbunker has offered $30,000 prize money for the event to…
New Sponsor Announced for 2012 Commodore's Cup
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) has announced Brewin Dolphin as the new Title Sponsor for the 11th Commodores' Cup sailing championship, which is run, with the support of the Royal Yacht Squadron, between Saturday 21st and Saturday 28th July…
Inaugural RS400 & RS200 Sprint Trophy Preview
This Saturday's inaugural RS400 & RS200 Sprint Trophy hosted by the Royal St George Yacht Club, sees the regular contenders face off in this season's finale against some formidable additions to these growing classes. In the RS200 class National Champions…
New Media Man Announced for Discover Ireland Backed VOR Entry
Team Sanya, the Chinese - Irish backed entry in the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race, announced today that Andres Soriano (ESP/USA) is to take on the role of their Media Crew Member. There has been some disappointment at home given the…
Green and Doorly lead Flying Fifteen Frostbite Series
You could be forgiven for thinking that there was a major summer sailing regatta on Dublin Bay over the past two weekends with the number of boats out and the sun shinning, but instead it is the National Yacht Clubs…
Mathews and Kenefick Onboard Germany's 'AOC Rockall' for Middle Sea Race
Although there are no Irish boats at least two Irish crew are participating in Saturday's record breaking Rolex Middle Sea Race from Malta. Dun Laoghaire navigator Brian Mathews, who narrowly misseed out on an international victory in the Dragon fleet…
SB3 Hat-Trick for Kennedy on Lough Ree
Former Olympic sailor Peter Kennedy won the 2011 SB3 Midland Championships held at Lough Ree Yacht Club at the weekend. This was Kennedy's third Midlands victory in a row. Six races were sailed over two days with everything from light…
CIT Sailing Team Head Off To Reclaim World Student Yachting World Cup
Cork Institute of Technology's Sailing team depart on this Wednesday, October 19th, to represent Ireland at the 31st Student Yachting World Cup. The regatta, which takes place in Brittany from October 22nd to 30th, will see CIT compete to regain…

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]