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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
Protestors from local campaign coalition No Gas Caverns on the shore of Larne Lough
Local campaigners shed “tears of joy”, as Belfast Live reports, after the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled that Edwin Poots acted “irrationally” in approving unilaterally a major gas storage project under Larne Lough. Under the banner of No Gas…
Optimist dinghy senior fleet sailors contesting the 2024 Munster Championships in Cork Harbour. See photo galleries below
Royal St. George's Max O'Hare (14) emerged as the winner of the senior fleet in a cut-short Optimist dinghy Munsters Championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club over the weekend. No racing was held on Saturday due to high winds in…
Racing on day one of the Squib UK National Championships at the Royal Forth Yacht Club
When the weather forecasters talk about light winds, the heavyweights of the Squib fleet groan. And today, in The Royal Forth Yacht Club, there was quite a lot of groaning until the Squibs got afloat for day one of the…
The start of race two at the Flying Fifteen Northern Champions at Killyleagh Yacht Club on Strangford Lough
Ten boats lined up on the start line for the Flying Fifteen Northern Championships 2024, held on June 15th and 16th at Killyleagh Yacht Club, on Strangford Lough. The first day of racing began with calm winds and shifting breezes, challenging…
RC35s gybe downwind at the Holy Loch Sailing Club hosted 2024 RC35 Championships
The word of the weekend was “windy” as the seven competitors arrived at the Holy Loch to participate in the 2024 RC35 Championships. With the wind coming out of the west and funnelling over the hill and straight down the…
The veteran classic Winsome leads her class towards the finish past The Fort in a stormy Round the Island Race
Laura Dillon of Howth - all-Ireland champion in 1996 - continued her winning ways at the weekend on the helm of Harry Heijst's 1972 S&S 41 classic Winsome (Netherlands). In a stormy edition of the mega-fleet Round the Island (of…
Last year's charity event at Killyleagh Yacht Club
Northern Ireland's Killyleagh Yacht Club lies on the western shore of Strangford Lough on Cuan Beach, close to the town. On June 29th and 30th, it will host its annual fund-raising charity event. This year, the event will aid the…
Come and meet your Paris 2024 Olympians: Eve McMahon, Seán Waddilove, Robert Dickson and Finn Lynch
Ireland’s Paris 2024 sailing Olympians will get a special send-off event at The Plaza in Dun Laoghaire at 5pm on Tuesday 18 June. Before they leave Dun Laoghaire Harbour for Paris flanked by young academy sailors, Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon…
The Irish team Headcase celebrates winning the title of J/24 Class European Championships. In addition to helmsman Cillan Dickson, the winning crew for the J/24 European Championship was made up of Sam O'Byrne, Ryan Glynn, Marcus Ryan and Louis Mulloy - a close-knit group of sailors and friends who also took victory in the Corinthian classification.
Sunday saw the conclusion of the J/24 European Championship organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda with the International J/24 Class Association, the Italian J/24 Class Association and the support of title sponsor Range Rover. The Race Committee held three…
Howth 17 Aura leads J80s around the right-hand gate of the Regatta Windward Leeward course of the National Yacht Club Regatta
Saturday's National Yacht Club Regatta hosted 55 one design boats across nine classes on a separate course to the cruiser-racers for a day of competitive racing under Race Officer Con Murphy. As Afloat reported earlier, the day started with a 6-10kt…
A tightly packed 1720 National Championship fleet round a weather mark in Baltimore Harbour
The 1720 National Championships podium ended as it started at Baltimore Sailing Club, with Ross McDonald's Atara at the top of the leaderboard. After three days of tough windward-leeward racing, the only difference was the size of the consistent Howth…
Tight sailing at the start of the 2022 Drheam Cup
The 2024 and fifth edition of the Drheam Cup/Grand Prix de France au Large from 11 to 21 July will welcome close to 90 participants in a fleet that includes Class 40s, many IRC crews and duos as well as…
The 200-year-old Haulbowline lighthouse guarding the mouth of Carlingford Lough
Warrenpoint and Kilkeel libraries in Co Down are set to host a special exhibition that will showcase a collection of photographs featuring the iconic Haulbowline Lighthouse, the scenic Carlingford Lough area and the historic Newry Canal in Northern Ireland. ‘Celebrating…
Ireland's 'Headcase' crew, lead at the J/24 Europeans Championships in Porto Cervo
Ireland's Cillian Dickson and his Headcase crew have won five of seven races sailed at the J/24 European Championships, and they are on target to retain their European crown in Porto Cervo, Italy. After yesterday's four races in a Mistral wind,…
Stephen Mullaney's Sigma 33 Insider from Howth Yacht Club topped the eight-boat Cruisers Three IRC fleet with two wins at the National Yacht Club Regatta on Dublin Bay
Two wins from two races gave the host club's J109 'Something Else (John and Brian Hall) the overall win in Cruisers Onne IRC division at the National Yacht Club Regatta on Saturday. Over 170 competing yachts in 32 classes competed…
The 143-year-old, unique wooden boat Barnabas flying Celtic flags on her way to Crosshaven in Cork Harbour for June's annual Traditional Sail festival
Strong winds disrupted Saturday's programme at the Crosshaven Traditional Sail Festival (from June 14 to 16) in Cork Harbour. The weekend features a 143-year-old, unique wooden boat, the only one of its kind in the world. The vessel Barbaras is on…

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]