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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
O'Leary unmatched on home turf
RCYC sailor Nin O'Leary was the clear winner at the Match Racing Southerns last weekend in Crosshaven, sailed over two days in the ISA Sailfleet J80s, writes Claire Bateman. Round Robin 1 was completed in full on Saturday and in…
Stylish win in ISORA M2
Ross O'Leary's Sunfast 3200 Big Hillie Style emerged the victor of the Frenesi Cup Race from Dun Laoghaire to the MR Weather Bouy at the weekend, edging out ahead of J92 Just Enough. O'Leary and crew added the overall win…
No Gold for Lasers
Neither of Ireland' two entries have made the gold fleet of the 2009 Laser World Championships, an event that has lost one day of racinging to high winds from Hurricane Bill, and another in the airless conditions that followed in…
Dragons fire up South Coast
The 2009 Dragon South Coast regatta, hosted by Glandore Harbour Yacht Club, took place last weekend (August 21st to 23rd). Five races were scheduled – two Friday afternoon and two Saturday, with the final race set for Sunday morning. Racing…
Howarth/Townend lead Fireball Worlds
The Fireball World Championships is four races in at La Rochelle, and UK team Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend are stamping their dominance, with three wins from four races so far. Once again, European bronze medallists Tom Gilard and Francis…
Less than 10% of VOR suppliers unpaid
Let's Do It Galway, the organising body for the Galway stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, has issued a statement in response to reports that suppliers to the event remain unpaid. The company says that the vast majority of suppliers…
Galway Stopover seeking discounts on debt
The company set up to run the Galway Stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, Let's Do It Galway, has yet to pay several suppliers and is looking for discounts on monies owed. Report via Barry O'Halloran of the Irish Times.
Season's DBSC end draws close
It's the beginning of the end tomorrow, with DBSC hosting the last of the Tuesday night dinghy races on Dublin Bay, and a tribute to the late John Biggs, a long-serving DBSC volunteer who passed away earlier in the year. …
Legally Brunette bound for Malta
June's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race winner Legally Brunette has entered the Rolex Middle Sea Race. In fact, skipper Cathal Drohan decided to enter the instant he tied up in Grand Harbour in 2008 after their first participation. Ten out…
Guilfoyle is top of the Ops
Crosshaven's Seafra Guilfoyle emerged as the convincing champion at the Mitsubishi Optimist Nationals over the weekend, leading a trio of Cork sailors onto the Opi podium. Guilfoyle, at just 13 years of age, counted only third place finishes or better, …
J80s Match Racing - what works
The last couple of match racing events in the SailFleet J80s have been sailed in some challenging conditions. It’s been noticeable how the teams have had to improve their boat handling dramatically to meet the challenge. Here are some notes…
Cruisers out in force for Saturday DBSC Racing
A busy Saturday for Dublin Bay Sailing Club – lots of racing in near-perfect conditions brought out the best in Extremity, Tiamat, Something Else and Gung Ho, to name but a few. Full results over the fold. DUBLIN PORT Dublin…
Avalon's day at Dublin Bay
Thursday sailing at Dublin Bay took place in 12–15kt easterlies, with Avalon, Contango and Supernova taking two firsts in their respective classes. Please note: the final dinghy sailing supper of the season will take place in the DMYC immediately after racing…
European Fireball bronze for Rowan
Dun Laoghaire sailor Francis Rowan and his helm Tom Gillard took third place at the Fireball European championships in La Rochelle today, finishing with a lacklustre 28th and 25th, but doing enough to hold off the British sailing pairing of…
Cork sailors lead three fleets
Two seconds and a first gave Cork sailor Seafra Guilfoyle the lead at halfway stage of the Mitsubish Optimist National Championships today. The Crosshaven teen, who still has two years left in the Optimist, discarded his jittery 26th from the…
Clipper sailors will fly Cork colours around the world
On Saturday August 8, 25 people from Ireland, UK, and Germany arrived in Cork in advance of the biggest challenge of their lives. They will sail onboard the Cork Clipper boat in the Clipper 09–10 Round the World Yacht Race…

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]