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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
Australia's Matthew Wearn is carried ashore by teammates in his ILCA 7 dinghy after winning the Paris 2024 Olympic gold medal in the men's dinghy class in Marseilles
Matt Wearn defended his Olympic title with a well-executed sail in the Men’s Dinghy Medal Race at the Paris 2024 Olympics.  The reigning champion went into the race carrying a 14-point advantage, knowing Cyprus’ Pavlos Kontides was the only sailor…
Nobby Reilly's Ghost Raider II prepares to hoist the kite on a second day of blustery racing at Calves Week Regatta 2024 off Schull Harbour
Thrills and spills were again the order of the day as the Calves Week Regatta fleet was met with blustery southwesterly winds and misty conditions. Race Officer Alan Crosbie started all 61 competitors from a line at the mouth of Schull…
The Women's dinghy (ILCA6) Paris 2024 Olympic medalists celebrate in Marseilles From left: Norway's Bronze medalist Line Flem Hoest, Gold medalist Marit Bouwmeester and silver medalist Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark
Marit Bouwmeester finally got her hands on Paris 2024 Olympic gold after completing the Women’s Dinghy Medal Race. The Dutch sailor had already wrapped up the gold medal, after finishing in the top five on seven occasions during the Opening…
Light breeze and halyards eased, with Shay O'Toole's Dolphin from Skerries in the foreground as the Mermaids get racing at Howth
If the varied range of clubs in the top four places at their National Championship is an indication of a class's health, then the Mermaids are thriving. Their Nationals 2024 at Howth have seen Brian Fenlon of Wexford Harbour Boat…
The Burke/Lemass/Rigley syndicate in the First 40, Prima Forte lying third in IRC Zero after race one of 2024 Calves Week Regatta
At the end of day one at Schull Harbour's Calves Week Regatta, blustery westerly winds gusting to 20 gusts brought a mix of new and vintage designs to the podium at West Cork's biggest regatta. Schull Harbour on day one…
The National Yacht Club's Lynch is scheduled to compete in the medal race final for the men's one-person dinghy (ILCA7 class
Ireland's Finn Lynch must wait for another 24 hours at least to race in his first Olympic medal race with the racing schedule of the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta again disrupted by lack of winds for a second consecutive day…
Robert O'Leary's West Cork and Rush crew in 2 Farr (orange hull) in a tightly packed start at the In Advance Half Ton Classics Cup 24 in Nieuwport, Belgium
Robert O'Leary's West Cork and Rush crew in 2 Farr are lying second overall after two days of racing in light winds at the In Advance Half Ton Classics Cup 24 in Nieuwport, Belgium. The Class Two Cork Week champion from…
File image of Donaghadee RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat Macquarie
The volunteer lifeboat crew from Donaghadee RNLI were paged by HM Coastguard at 7.11am on Tuesday morning (6 August) following a report of a man in a small boat in the vicinity of the Copeland Islands who was unsure of…
Carrybridge RNLI’s inshore lifeboat approaches the nine-metre vessel run aground on Upper Lough Erne
Carrybridge RNLI’s inshore lifeboat Douglas Euan & Kay Richards diverted from a training exercise on Saturday afternoon (3 August) to assess a nine-metre vessel with three people on board which reportedly ran grounded some two miles north-west of the Share…
2024 Facet Trophy winners in the DBSC Flying Fifteen fleet were Ian Mathews (left) and Keith Poole (right), with Pat Shannon of Facet Jewellers
On Thursday night, the DBSC Flying Fifteens had another 20-boat fleet for their race, the second week in a row when numbers were very high. On Saturday, for the annual Facet Trophy, there were seventeen boats for the first race…
The beautifully-restored 1924 35ft West Solent Class Suvretta has been celebrating her Centenary in style by winning
When twin Brothers Billy & Brian Smyth of Royal North of Ireland YC at Cultra brought the Bermuda-rigged 35ft West Solent semi-OD Class Suvretta to Belfast Lough in the late 1950s, she was still very much as designed and built…
A strong fleet of mixed cruisers and one design boats will contest the 40th anniversary of Schull Harbour Sailing Club Calves Week Regatta starting on Tuesday, August 6th
Over 200 people attended Bank Holiday Monday evening's launch reception of Schull Harbour Hotel Calves Week Regatta in West Cork, where Schull Harbour Sailing Club Commodore Mark Murphy released class band allocations for Tuesday's first races in the 61-boat fleet,…
Irish Figaro star Tom Dolan is on RTE One on 6 August at 9.30 pm to describe his two-speed sailing record attempts Round Ireland
Discover "Around My Island", the documentary about Tom Dolan's solo Round Ireland speed record attempt last year, on Tuesday, August 6, at 9.30 pm on RTE1. Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan attempts to be the fastest person to sail single-handedly…
Finn Lynch races for Ireland in Tuesday's Medal Race final in the Men's Dinghy Medal class in Marseilles
Finn Lynch has gained an elusive Medal Race place in Tuesday's Men's Dinghy Class (ILCA 7) at the Paris 2024 Olympics.  Lynch's Sunday climb into the top ten of the Men's Dinghy Class arrived in the nick of time, as both of Monday's…
Irish Olympic debutante Eve McMahon ended her Paris 2024 campaign in a widely praised 13th place on a perfect trajectory for LA 2028
Irish debutante Eve McMahon took her dream of participating in an Olympic medal race a step closer by finishing seventh in Monday's single race nine in the Women's dinghy in the Bay of Marseille. The on-form McMahon, who moved up…
Two 505 dinghies finished second and third in the opening race of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's August League in Cork Harbour
Two 505s finished second and third in the opening race of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's August League in Cork Harbour. The race was won by Shane O'Connell in a Laser 7. Brian Jones and Gary Frost were second in a…

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]