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
Frustrating Times at Student World Championships
Day 3 With a forecast wind strength of 5 to 9 knots, teams left the dock for challenging and frustrating conditions in the Student World Yachting Championship in Marseille. Dee O'Rourke of the defending champions Cork Institute of Technology sent…
Sheehy is Ireland's Top Match Racer
John Sheehy, Nick Smith, Paddy Kirwan, and Marty O’Leary of the Royal St George Yacht Club emerged as the top crew at Match Racing Championships in Kinsale yesterday having been dominant on the Tour in this its inaugural year. Twelve…
Irish Design Wins Rolex Middle Sea Race
Designed by Wicklow's Mark Mills, Alegre, the IRC 68’ Mini-Maxi of Andres Soriano III, sailed an extraordinary race to win a tough Rolex Middle Sea Race against some of the best competition assembled anywhere this year. This extends her record…
Old Gaffers at Dublin Bay
No, we're not getting personal – though if the hat fits... the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Traditional Boat Rally on the River Liffey should be a date in your diary for May 2010. Registration Day: 28th May 2010; Race Day…
Match Racing Season Concludes
12 teams from round the country, selected from 24 entries on the basis of ISAF ranking, raced off for the title of ISA National Match Racing Champion at the weekend. Kinsale Yacht Club hosted two days of racing with some…
Italy Lead as Ireland lie Fourth and Ninth
SYWoC: As the teams headed out into the bay of Marseille this morning, they were greeted with a solid 10 knots of breeze rather than the expected 2 knots for the second days racing in the Student Yachting World Cup…
Barry and Dwyer Win 5o5 Championships
Ewan Barry and Charles Dwyer of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club are the winners of the Irish National and British Isles 505 Championship writes Claire Bateman. In a five race event sailed over the bank holiday weekend they emerged victorious with…
Big Winds in Cork Harbour
Blustery conditions swept a combined fleet of 100 Royal Cork cruisers closer to next Saturday's conclusion of the O’Flynn Exhams Solicitors Autumn Regatta. The penulimate round provided an exhilarating day of sailing for all fleets with a west/south west wind…
Irish IRC Men Have Say in Paris
Ireland continues to punch above its weight on the IRC circuit on water and on land too. At this month's IRC Handicap Conference in Paris, a three-man Irish Cruiser Racer (ICRA) delegation prevented any further penalties on powered backstays. Powered…
Champions Ready To Defend World Title
After months of rigorous preperation the 3 Ireland sponsored  CIT Sailing Team will finally depart this Friday for Marsielle in the South France to defend their title as Student Yacht World Champions 2008. This year the 29th edition of The…
RC Laser Sailing Kicks off
Winter Racing: RC Laser sailing is starting again at the National YC. The normal Sunday series commences on November 8th. Start time will be 2.00pm with a couple of practice races and the counting races will start at 2.30pm. It…
The Rolex Middle Sea Race is a highly rated offshore classic, often mentioned in the same breath as the Rolex Fastnet, The Rolex Sydney–Hobart and Newport-Bermuda as a 'must do' race. The Royal Malta Yacht Club and the Royal Ocean…
Rolex Middle Sea Race may have a winner
Yesterday (October 30th), the Rolex Middle Sea Race had its first boat home and appears to have its winner. Andres Soriano's Alegre (GBR) looks impregnable in first place as day four draws to a close. It will take a miracle…
Issues to be Debated by ICRA
A range of issues will be covered in next month's ICRA conference Secretary Denis Kiely has revealed. A full review of the ICRA National championships held in Fenit is expected as well as a preview of the 2010 event at…
Battling Cork are Joint Third Overall
Cork, Ireland completed Race 2 from La Rochelle to Rio de Janeiro in fifth place when they crossed the finish line at 07:17:03 local time (09:17:03 GMT). It was a battling finish as they closed to within two miles of…
12 Teams to Contest Match Race Title
12 teams from round the country, selected from 24 entries on the basis of ISAF ranking, race off for the title of ISA National Match Racing Champion this weekend. Kinsale Yacht Club are all set to host 2 days 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]