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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
The Galway Hookers are representing the west's maritime tradition in Brest
The Galway Hooker Sailing Club is going to trailer three traditional Hookers to Brest aboard Brittany Ferries on Wednesday Week on their way to "make Waves at Brest Maritime Festival" which, the club says, "marks a significant milestone for us,…
The Jones Family/RCYC sailing J122 Jelly Baby were second in the IRC Spinnaker division of Cork Harbour Club's Combined Cruiser League
The Cork Harbour Clubs Combined Cruiser League for June, run by the RCYC and Cove SC, sponsored by Johanna Murphy and Sons, Estate Agents, Cobh, concluded after four races which had strong support. Whitesail had the biggest fleet, with 28…
Nip and tuck racing at the 2024 GP14 Championships of Ireland at Newtownards Sailing Club
Ross Kearney and Daniel Nelson (RNIYC) won the 2024 GP14 Championship of Ireland which concluded on Sunday after eight races sailed at Newtownards Sailing Club. Eight races across 3 days and a variety of conditions tested the 45-boat fleet. Friday…
Dan (right) and Paul O'Connell were the overall winners of the Rankin dinghy 'World' Championships  at Royal Cork Yacht Club
Dan O'Connell, crewed by his twins Paul and Millie, was crowned Rankin 'World' Champions after two days of friendly competition in a fleet of 24 traditional Cork Harbour dinghies.  Racing at the Royal Cork hosted 24-boat Rankin World Championships in…
A 17-boat Cape 31 fleet contested round four of the UK National Championships at Christchurch Bay, Lymington
Two of Ireland's five-boat Cape 31 fleet contested round four of the UK National Championships at Christchurch Bay, Lymington, at the weekend. Despite disqualifications in final race nine for the top two boats following a boat-to-boat incident on a downwind leg,…
Three of the restored Dublin Bay 21s during Sunday afternoon's Grand Parade of Classic Sail as part of the Coastival 2024 festival at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
The restored Dublin Bay 21s keelboats were centre stage in Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Sunday afternoon in the Grand Parade of Classic Sail, part of the town's nautical Coastival 2024 festival, running until next Saturday. One-design yachts and dinghies sailed past…
Roy Van Maanen of Greystones SC in IRL 4446 competing in the 2024 RS Aero European Championships at Yacht Club de Carnac in France
The RS Aero fleet returned to Yacht Club de Carnac in France, the site of their first World Championships as 112 RS Aeros from fourteen nations contested the 2024 RS Aero European Championships from 21-24 June. The bay of Quiberon…
The start of a competitive IRC Class Two at Bangor Regatta 2024 on Belfast Lough
In like a lion and out like a lamb is said to mean that the month of March should end with quiet weather compared to a lion. But this is June, and the Belfast Lough weather hasn't reached the lamb…
Designer Alfred Mylne at his most stylish -  the Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra brought back to life at the Apprenticeshop in Maine
It's seventeen years since Afloat.ie stumbled upon the forgotten Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra out the back of a castle in Mayo while walking the dog. The undergrowth around the Alfred Mylne-designed classic was breaking through the tiles and concrete at…
After seven days, 20 hours, four minutes and 20 seconds, Fulmar Fever crossed the finish line of the 2024 Round Ireland race at 09:14h Irish time 30th June 2024
After riding out the southwest to west gales on the North Coast on Friday night and early Saturday morning by finding shelter at Rathmulllan in Lough Swilly, Robert Marchant's Fulmar 32 Fulmar Fever from Dunmore East resumed racing, and finished…
The 64-metre superyacht Scout berthed at Dun Laoghaire Harbour's Carlisle Pier, with the masts of the American schooner Alvei also visible on berth number three
The 64-metre superyacht Scout, which recently lit up Cork’s Kinsale marina, arrived in Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Sunday morning (June 30th). The Dublin Port Pilot Boat Tolka escorted it to the town's Carlisle Pier number two berth. As Afloat readers…
Tim and Richard Goodbody's J109 White Mischief won both races in a 12-boat IRC One division fight at the Drumshanbo Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta 2024
Saturday's Drumshanbo Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta 2024 featured racing across 32 divisions for over 130 boats, ranging from ocean-going cruisers to 12-foot dinghies off Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Racing was postponed for an hour to allow a light northerly wind…
Rankin dinghy racing at the 2024 'Worlds' at Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork Harbour
Andrew Crosbie and Dan O'Connell are tied on points at the top of the scoreboard (see below) at the Rankin dinghy 'Worlds' after the first three races sailed at the Royal Cork Yacht Club, Crosshaven, on Saturday. Both are on nine points with John…
Stevie Andrews' Hanse 371 Dark and Scary from Strangfrod Lough with Kevin Byres' Sigma 33 Signet from Ballyholme Yacht Club competing at Bangor Regatta 2024
Patience is a virtue they say and that is what was needed this morning when Belfast Lough was like a mirror and the Bangor Regatta fleet was motionless in the Marina. However word was that this forced stoppage was very…
The Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes on the Isle of Wight
The K25 team will represent Howth Yacht Club in the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Commodore’s Invitational Regatta, which will be raced from Cowes in the Isle of Wight next week between Monday 1 and Wednesday 3 July. This is an inter…
Irish Olympian Finn Lynch (centre) with Elkstone’s head of clients Joe Bergin (left) and chief of staff Rob Kearney
Leading alternative investment firm Elkstone has announced a new partnership with Irish Olympic sailor Finn Lynch. The Irish athlete first represented Ireland at the 2016 Olympic Games, and he secured his place at the 2024 games after a bronze medal…

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]