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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
Disappointing Solent Start for O'Leary
Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary has had a disappointing start to the RORC Easter Sailing Challenge on the Solent today writes James Boyd. Traditionally the Challenge has been an event for full oilskins and thermals to counter the freezing cold and…
Laser Radial Gets New Home
Following this week's request for a good home for a reader's Laser Radial dinghy we can report the boat has a new berth. The donor has decided it will be used by a club to teach teenagers too big for…
Dublin Bay World Youth Championships to Boost Irish Sailing
When the ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships are hosted on Dublin Bay in 2012 the regatta should be representative of the best of Irish sailing, organisation and hospitality and ignite an immediate but lasting legacy for youth and the future…
RS Feva Sailing Dinghy Launches in Malta
It's not just Ireland that has a love affair with this dinghy sailing class, Malta has become the latest country to launch the RS Feva class, with a sixteen boat fleet recently delivered and more expected in the coming months.…
Dowling's New J111 to Contest Easter Challenge
The brand new J/111 Arabella, belonging to Dun Laoghaire's Niall Dowling joins Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary sailing Antix for this weekend's season opener on the Solent for the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Easter Challenge. Summer looks set to come early…
Irish 49er Teams Set for Hyères Olympic Sailing Week
Ireland will be represented by two sailing teams in the 49er class at Hyères, France next week. The South of France venue is all set to host the Semaine Olympique Française, the fourth regatta on the ISAF Sailing World Cup…
The Laser Pico Enjoys a Refresh
The Laser Pico sailing dinghy was originally available in Standard and Race formats. The Laser Pico Race benefitted from additional sail area, padded toe straps, an upgraded main sheet ratchet block and a kicker with a 4:1 purchase ratio. All…
Calasantius College are Connaught Schools Team Sailing Champions
The title of Connaught Schools Team Sailing Champions went to Calasantius College, Oranmore last Saturday (16th April). PHOTOS BELOW. The winning team was made up of Rian Conboy, Cian Walsh, Cormac Furey, Rebecca Mullins, Jenny Carberry, Eoin Breen and David…
Eddie Jordan on the Podium in Grenada
Ireland's Eddie Jordan was back on the podium last night but it was for exploits on water rather than tarmac as the skipper of Lush, his family trust's Oyster 655 sailing yacht writes Louay Habib. The BBC's F1 analyst finished…
Free Laser Dinghy to Train Non Sailing Youths
Following our recent articles on youth sailing, a sailor, who bought a Laser Radial sailing dinghy four years ago and used it only once, is kindly offering the boat free to an organisation who could put it to good use…
Sail Training Ireland Assumes Mantle of Asgard
Writing in the Irish Independent on Saturday, WM Nixon welcomes the introduction of Sail Training Ireland as a big step towards getting Ireland back into tall ship sailing. Nixon also pays tribute to Ireland's previous square-rigger, Asgard II, which held…
Fine Day for Howth Yacht Club Spring Warmer Finale
FINE DAY FOR SPRING WARMER FINALE Howth Yacht Club's Spring Warmer Sailing Series, sponsored by Key Capital Private, came to a close on Saturday afternoon after the eight classes completed the six-race series in conditions which, while pleasant, were particularly…
Irish Sail Training Back on Course
The establishment of Sail Training Ireland is welcome. W M Nixon looks at the realities of national sail training in the 21st Century. With the launching of Sail Training Ireland and its registration early in 2011 at the Companies Office…
Dolan and O'Donovan Shine at National Trials
Sarah Dolan, an under-23 lightweight, and Paul O’Donovan, a junior athlete, topped the rankings at the National Rowing Trials at the National Rowing Centre in Cork and made the A Finals of the single scull. Dolan registered 96.3 per cent…
Rice College to Defend Connaught Schools Team Sailing Crown
The Connaught Schools Team Sailing Championships takes place in Galway this Saturday. Post-primary schools from all around Connaught have been invited to enter a team of six in the regional competition. Last year's Connaught Champions from Rice College, Westport will…
Should Asgard II's Bell Ring Again for the Waterford Tall Ships Race?
Asgard II's wheel and bell look like new again following their recovery from the sunken Irish sail training brigantine. Unlike 2005, Asgard won't be sailing in this year's Tall Ships race when it calls to Waterford but one suggestion doing…

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]