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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
2021 Quarter Ton Cup winner Ian Southworth and his Protis crew start as favourites for the 2023 Cup at Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork Harbour
Southwest winds up to 20 knots will get today's Quarter Ton Cup off to a swift start at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork Harbour. Four UK visitors are led by the 2021 winner and last week's Dun Laoghaire…
Ireland's Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove won race three in the 49er Paris Test Event
So far, the most unpredictable class of the Paris 2024 Test competition has been the 49er, with six winners in as many races, including an Irish win for Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove in Race 3. Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie…
The start of the first DBSC race for the Water Wags in a west north west breeze at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly set a two-round windward-leeward course for the first of two races for the DBSC Water Wags on Wednesday evening, July 12th. The 23-boat fleet got off to a clear start in…
Lough Ree Yacht Club has been the first Melges15 demo boat tour stop. One of the M15s is touring her way around the country over the Summer. Nearing the end of her time at Lough Ree, the boat has been…
The Leisure 17 flotilla at Whiterock Bay on Strangford Lough
Celebrations of 50 years of Leisure 17s at East Down Yacht Club near Killyleagh on Strangford Lough continued on the first Saturday in July with the second of the series of day sails.  This outing proved to be rather more…
505 dinghies competing in Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's Tuesday Night Race in Cork Harbour
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club’s Tuesday night racing league continued with another spectacular evening’s racing in Cork Harbour last night. The weekly league is a great event to get away from it all after the bustle of work, and last night…
Finn Lynch is in fifth place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Test Event in Marseille
French sailors continued to shine in Marseille on an action-packed Tuesday at the Paris 2024 Test Event, which saw all ten classes in action and Ireland's Finn Lynch in fifth place overall in the ILCA 7 men's dinghy class. Michael Beckett…
Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove are sailing the Irish 49er at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Test Event in Marseille
Irish 49er duo Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove scored a race victory in the opening races of the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Test Event. Mihovil and Sime Fantela (CRO) also enjoyed a strong start on the opening day of the…
Eve McMahon is competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Test event in Marseille
A black flag for Eve McMahon (19) in race five of the Paris 2024 Olympic Test event in Marseille has been a setback for the Howth sailor, who lies in the top one-third of her ILCA 6 38-boat fleet. McMahon…
A hundred years down the line. Ilen leads the Conor O’Brien Centenary Parada Nautica at Funchal
A hundred years ago on this day, Conor O’Brien of Limerick’s 42ft own-designed ketch - newly-built by Tom Moynihan of Baltimore with some of the West Cork shipwright’s small but very effective hull shape improvements - was well into a…
Cormac Byrne (49092), BYC runner-up in the 5.3 and Craig O'Neill third overall at the Topper Irish Nationals
It was worth waiting for. Belfast Lough having suffered the same fate as the first day of the Dun Laoghaire Regatta, the Irish Topper Nationals got underway a day late at Ballyholme on the north Down coast last Saturday afternoon…
Shane McCarthy and Alan Green on their way to overall victory in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta's Flying Fifteen class
In relative terms, Sunday’s conclusion to the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta in the Flying Fifteen class was probably the best day on the water – the wind had abated somewhat, after some initial rain, the sun came out, a single race…
Rankin dinghies racing at the Cage in Cork Harbour
At Cove Sailing Club, Rankin dinghies continue to dominate the fleet, holding the top three positions. Maurice and Francis Kidney lead on 39 points in R12, one ahead of David and Richard Marshall on 40 in R30. Owen O’Connell’s R61…
Tony O’Brien’s J109 Tighey Boy was the Mulloy Trophy Race on Saturday at Schull Harbour Sailing Club
The Mulloy Trophy Race on Saturday at Schull Harbour Sailing Club in West Cork was won by Tony O’Brien’s J109 Tighey Boy, with Tadgh Dwyer’s Brazen Huzie second and John McGowan’s Mackey G third. SHSC is now in the final…
National 18s (above), RS Fevas, Optimists and two classes for mixed dinghies are offered in Monkstown Bay this weekend for the Monkstown Bay Sailing Club's 'At Home' Regatta
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club (MBSC) will hold their ‘At Home’ annual regatta on Saturday with dinghy racing for National 18s, RS Fevas, Optimists and two classes for mixed dinghies offered in Monkstown Bay. The First Gun for dinghies is at…
Kinsale Yacht Club hosts the Squib South Coast Championships this weekend
The Squib South Coast Championships are scheduled for this weekend at Kinsale Yacht Club, where the class has strong support. Racing is planned for Saturday and Sunday, with the rules requiring that boats be kept afloat during the event, no…

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]