Menu

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
The multi-winner Imp sailing in Cork Harbour after restoration by George Radley
Should each SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow Sailing Club have a nominated “Flagship” to remind us that, with the passing of the years, this remarkable Royal Ocean Racing Club-supported 700-mile Classic now has its own colourful and complex…
The first day of the 2024 1720 National Championships in Baltimore, West Cork, saw a fresh breeze of 20 knots for the 22-boat fleet
With two wins and two second places scored, Howth Yacht Club and Royal Cork's Ross McDonald tops the leaderboard at the 1720 National Championships in Baltimore, West Cork. Despite the consistent scoreline, the reigning European class champion, who is a…
A race start at the RS Feva Northern Championships on Belfast Lough
It certainly wasn’t champagne sailing last weekend for the Ridgeway RS Feva Northerns at Royal North of Ireland YC in Belfast Lough. The persistent strong on shore winds gusting 29 knots at times didn’t let up on Day 1 so…
Maurice and Frances Kidney's Rankin No.12 lies third in Cove Sailing Club's Dinghy Wednesday League in Cork Harbour
Twenty-four dinghies are entered for Cove Sailing Club's Wednesday night league, led by Ruadhan Jackson on six points. Second is Owen O’Connell in his TR3 and third Rankin No.12, Maurice and Frances Kidney. David Radley won last Wednesday’s Race, with…
Squib keelboat racing at Portaferry on Strangford Narrows
Portaferry on the east shore of the Strangford Narrows at the mouth of Strangford Lough is preparing for a four-day Festival of Sailing, Water activities and Competitions from 5th till 8th July. The Narrows Series is one of the biggest…
The start of the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) has opened its entry list for eligible boats for the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The 79th edition of the historic 628-nautical mile blue water classic will start on Sydney Harbour at…
National 18 dinghies converge in the approach to a leeward mark at the Barry's Centra Crosshaven June League 2024 at Royal Cork Yacht Club
Nick Walsh's Peaky Blinders leads after six races sailed in the National 18 Barry's Centra Crosshaven June League 2024 at Royal Cork Yacht Club. After one discard was applied in the 15-boat fleet, the noted ILCA master's champion Walsh had…
A start in the 2024 Mixed Dinghy June League at Royal Cork Yacht Club
After two races sailed, 420 pairing Dougie Venner and Matt Mapplebeck lead Royal Cork Yacht Club's Mixed Dinghies June League in Cork Harbour. Racing under the Portsmouth Yardstick Handicap system, the duo has a third in the opening race and a…
Dublin Bay 21s out practicing for The Grand Parade of Classic Sail which takes place on Sunday June 20th as part of Coastival in Dún Laoghaire from June 29th to July 7th. Coastival brings art, history, games, culture, sailing, family fun, music and more to the shore in Dún Laoghaire
On Sunday, June 30th, from 12-2pm, the East Pier at Dun Laoghaire Harbour will provide quite the nautical spectacle with The Grand Parade of Classic Sail as part of Coastival 2024. The "synchronised sailing" format for the event is simple…
It can be tough sailing in the Ballinacurra Cup Dinghy, one of the oldest
The Ballinacurra Cup is among the oldest "All-In" dinghy racing handicap trophies. The Irish Naval Service presented it to Cove Sailing Club in 1947. In past times Ballinacurra, in the North/East corner of Cork Harbour was a major port for…
1720 European Champion Ross McDonald sailing Atara starts as favourite at the 1720 National Championships in Baltimore on Friday
A 22-boat entry does not include defending champion Dave Kenefick for Friday's 1720 National Championships at Baltimore Sailing Club, and at least one late entry in West Cork is expected to have some Olympic firepower onboard for the three-day event.…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's (DBSC) Thursday evening racing was cancelled tonight due to strong westerly winds. Winds measuring gusting over 20 knots meant the eighth Thursday race of the 2024 AIB summer season was scrubbed in all classes at Dun…
File image of Bangor RNLI’s inshore lifeboat
Bangor RNLI launched to the aid of two people on Wednesday evening (12 June) after their boat encountered engine problems near Groomsport. At 8.35pm, Bangor’s RNLI volunteers launched their Atlantic 85 class lifeboat Jessie Hillyard following a request from Belfast Coastguard…
Pete Smyth and crew arrive into Dingle on the Sunfast 3600 in the 2021 D2D Race
Pete Smyth recently sat down with Simon Johnson for an exclusive interview ahead of the upcoming SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race. The noted Dublin Bay inshore and offshore sailor—known for strong results in his Sunfast 3600, Searcher—recently purchased the…
Ian Travers and Keith O’Riordan from Kinsale Yacht Club added the South Coast Squib title to their 2024 trophy haul with a win at Baltimore Sailing Club
Baltimore Sailing Club in West Cork was the host of this year's Squib South Coast Championships over last weekend. The event saw a strong turnout, with nineteen boats competing and participants travelling from various locations, including Lough Derg, Dublin, Howth,…
The new currach 'an bideach', built in Kilkenny, will be launched on the River Barrow at Carlow in July
Three Irish men have come together to build a traditional Currach in aid of two charities, Teac Tom Mental Health Services and the RNLI. Pat Comerford of Carlow Rowing Club, along with Pat Sweeney of Achill and Paul Palmer of…

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]