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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 and Roy Disney  By David O'Brien Reproduced from Afloat Magazine, July 2006. If sailing faster than the wind sounds like something out a Disney fantasy, then that’s because it was. And now, as Roy Disney - the 73-year-old…
Afloat.ie: Another Adventure Leads the Handicap Fleet
95 boats are gearing up the final race of the Viking Marine Sponsored Turkey Shoot on Dublin Bay this Sunday. Another Adventure leads the handicap fleet but because handicaps are changed weekly and protests actively discouraged – there is no…
Afloat.ie: Close Racing at End of Howth Yacht Club Frostbites
After missing four out of six races due to gale force winds in November and early December, it was decided to run two races on the final day of the Howth Yacht Club Laser Frostbites Series 1. With Santa arriving…
Afloat.ie: Dun Laoghaire Regatta Airs on Sky
Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta highlights will be broadcast tomorrow night on Sky Sports. Broadcast times are here. The country's biggest regatta will be the focus of a 30-minute documentary slot in the Watersports World Series to be aired at 6pm…
Afloat.ie: Last Race in HYC Frostbite Series
Howth Yacht Club's well-attended Laser Frostbite series ended yesterday in bracing weather, where Paul McMahon took first in both Laser Standard and Laser Standard Apprentice. Further Sailing results over the fold. Howth Yacht Club – Laser Frostbite Winter Series Overall…
Wins in Sail Brisbane and Sail Melbourne confirm that the National YC's Annalise Murphy remains a favourite in the Women's Laser Radial division of Australia's top regatta, Sail Melbourne next week. It is significant too because it is confirmation that…
Afloat.ie: Asgard II Campaign 'Disappointed'
The campaign to save Asgard II has said it is “disappointed but not surprised” at the Government’s decision to abandon the national sail training programme in the Budget, writes Lorna Siggins in the Irish Times. The decision to abolish Coiste…
Afloat.ie: Cork Officially Left Southern Ocean in Clipper
Cork lying 9th as at 1200 UTC, Thursday 10th December 2009, as Race 4 from Cape Town to Geraldton, Western Australia, is proving just how evenly matched the crews competing in Clipper 09-10 round the world yacht race are. The last four…
Afloat.ie: ISA Call for New Marine 'Alliance'
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has called for marine leisure interests to develop a new alliance. The move comes in the wake of last nights decision to axe the State Sailing training programme. ISA Chief Harry Hermon has asked for…
Afloat.ie: Celebrating CH Marine Winter League at Royal Cork
There was no let up in the recent downpours for the final days racing of the CH Marine League but sponsor Nick Bendon brought some festive cheer to the Royal Cork club house when he handed out the CH Marine…
Afloat.ie: J109s to Contest Europeans in Cork
The J109 Sailing Class is to hold its European Championships at Cork Week 2010, a fleet is expected from Ireland, the UK and France. Twenty six J109's took part in Cork Week 2008. David and Kirsty Apthorp's J-Dream from England…
Afloat.ie: Sailors of the Month - Richard Colwell and Johnny & Suzie Murphy
Richard Colwell and Johnny & Suzie Murphy are the Irish Independent/Afloat.ie “Sailors of the Month ” for November on the strength of their Corby 25 Kinetic becoming the new Irish Cruiser Racing Asociation “Boat of the Year”. ICRA’s supreme title…
Afloat.ie: Are You Going Round?
Planning to do this year's Round Ireland Yacht Race? You could do a lot worse than listen in to how Galway's Aodhan Fitzgerald put together a team of friends to win the 2008 race. Also on Afloat.ie are navigation tips from…
La Solitaire du Figaro 2005 Race 1st Leg – Perros-Guirec to Getxo-Bilbao (390 miles) – A clean and fast start to the race for all. There is a downwind spinnaker crossing of the Bay of Biscay and then fight to…
Afloat.ie: Kinsale is La Solitaire du Figaro 2010 Port
The 2010 edition of La Solitaire du Figaro will stop in Kinsale next August as part of the 2010 edition of the race. The race will cover 1,717 nautical miles between ports both old and new to the race.  There…
Afloat.ie: Sailing Backs Round Ireland
Round Ireland 2010 Launch: As well as the support of ICRA, ISORA and SCORA (story here) the Round Ireland 2010 race got further backing at its launch last night in Wicklow town from both the Irish Sailing Association and Britain's…

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]