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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
Boats Line Up for British Trials But Irish Commodore's Cup Team Still Eagerly Awaited
While the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) are reporting a near record turn-out for the British trials for July's Commodores' Cup there is still no update on an Irish team to defend the title it won in 2010. The RORC…
Belfast's Espey Keeps Olympic Dream Alive
Olympic Laser sailor James Espey who seeks a final shot at Olympic qualification next month in the single handed Laser is in the top 20 at the Trofeo Princesa Sofa MAPFRE after mastering another day of light, tricky conditions. The Belfast…
Howth to host 2015 Squib Nationals
Beating off stiff competition from Kinsale and Royal North of Ireland YC, Howth Yacht Club has won the bid to host the 2015 Squib Nationals to which over 70 boats from across the UK and Ireland will be expected to…
Laser Sharp Espey Masters Palma Conditions
Northern Ireland Olympic sailors made the best of the light conditions after a light air opening to yesterday's Trofeo Princesa Sofa MAPFRE on the Bay of Palma, Mallorca. James Espey who seeks a final shot at Olympic qualification next month…
Successful Early Bird Regatta at Malahide
Following on from its hosting of the 420 Class Leinster Championships the previous weekend, Malahide Yacht Club’s newly re-developed Dinghy Sailing Centre at the Broadmeadows was the scene for a highly successful Early Bird Regatta (Saturday 31st March) which attracted…
Dublin Tall Ships 2012 seeks 150 Volunteers
Dublin is set to welcome The Tall Ships Race 2012 with magnificent vessels lining the city quays of the River Liffey from 23rd – 26th August. As final host port, Dublin can expect to see up to 1 million visitors,…
Groupama Try Out a New Watch System
#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Has the Groupama sailing team adopted a new simplified watch system, keeping just one man on deck to handle the vessel - as demonstrated by Ireland's Damian Foxall in the video above? Don't worry - it's…
Irish Cat Sailors Prepare for Carribbean Race
Two Irish sailors, Ian Moore from Carrickfergus and Jeff Condell from Limerick, are on board the giant catamaran Team Phaedo this morning for the West Indies race. Team Phaedo is a 66–foot Gunboat design from the drawing board of Nigel…
Derry-Londonderry Take Fourth in Toughest Leg of Clipper Race
After a gruelling 6,000 miles at sea crossing the world's largest ocean, Derry-Londonderry has crossed the finish line under the Golden Gate Bridge having conquered the toughest leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Only two hours separated them…
Dun Laoghaire's Dowling Launches New J111 for RORC Easter Challenge
Dun Laoghaire's Niall Dowling, who finished runner up in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's (RORC) 2011 overall IRC Championship, has replaced his J/111 with another, his new boat is called Jazzband. The boat has only recently reached the UK and…
Volunteers with Marine Experience Sought for Dublin Tall Ships Event
The Dublin Tall Ships Liaison Team is looking for 150 volunteers to help out at the Dublin Tall Ships event this August. Organisers are recruiting Volunteer Ship Liaison Officers to ensure smooth sailing of the final leg of the event. …
Final Fireball Frostbites Raced in Spring Sunshine
A favourable window of glorious weather which started earlier in the week extended into the weekend and the final Sunday of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Frostbite Series. The author of these reports was yet again unable to sail…
Mary Collins, Cork Week Events Administrator and Clodagh Heywood, 96fm/103fm at the launch of Cork Week 2012. Photo: Darragh Kane
Details of Cork Week 2012, Europe's biggest regatta organised by a single club, were announced today at an event in Cork Harbour Commissioners. Held on a biennial basis at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, Co. Cork, Cork Week…
Gonzaga College Win Leinster School Sailing Championships
Dublin's Gonzaga College beat Rathdown School to win the Lenister Schools Team Racing Championships after a thrilling 45 rounds of competition. Third overall were Kilkenny College from an entry of ten schools. The inaugural event was run in fair weather…
Annalise in Action at Palma's Olympic Classes Regatta
Top ranked Irish Olympic sailor Annalise Murphy is back in European action on Saturday as part of a four boat Irish team competing at the Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia Mapfre, to be sailed in the Bay of Palma de Mallorca,…
SB3 and RS Elite Top the Scottish Series Entries
Two of the UK's most vibrant, exciting one design keelboat classes are spearheading a spike in early entry numbers for the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series, the north of the UK's most prestigious annual sailing event. The SB3 class and the…

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]