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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
World Sailing’s AGM during the 2022 Annual Conference in Abu Dhabi
World Sailing has voted overwhelmingly with a 93.85% majority to approve changes to its governance structure, which will enable the federation to be more efficient and increase transparency in line with the requirements of a modern global sporting body. The…
Two great races brought the seven-race 2022 AIB Autumn League at the Royal Cork Yacht Club to a close in Cork Harbour on Sunday
A final race win in Sunday's last races of the AIB Autumn League at the Royal Cork Yacht Club produced an overall IRC One Spinnaker division win for the Jones family in their J122 Jelly Baby. In the end, the…
The HMS Enterprise in poor condition at Kilkeel Harbour in October 2022
Afloat.ie reader Lee Maginnis has provided an update on the current condition of the old minesweeper HMS Enterprise in Kilkeel Harbour, and the news is not good. The former Royal Navy minesweeper with a storied history was previously anchored in…
File image of the shore of Belfast Lough west of Bangor
RTÉ News reports that searches are ongoing in Belfast Lough today (Sunday 30 October) after claims that a man fell overboard from a docked ferry on Saturday night. The PSNI has asked the public to avoid the area as a…
Gavin Watson is Vice Chair of RYA Northern Ireland
Gavin Watson has recently been appointed Vice Chair of RYA Northern Ireland. He is the Honorary Sailing Secretary of Royal Ulster Yacht Club on Belfast Lough, and it is believed that he is the first RUYC member to take on…
The final 29er skiff dinghy Eurocup of the year saw the National Yacht Club van Steenberge siblings, Clementine and Nathan, finish second overall and top mixed team on Lake Garda
The final 29er skiff dinghy Eurocup of the year always attracts the cream of the fleet. Once more, with 153 entries from 20 countries, the event proved to be very competitive and can easily be considered the 'Autumn Europeans'. Three…
The Ireland Freya crew skippered by Conor Doyle from Kinsale at the finish of the 2022 Middle Sea Race in Valetta harbour, includes Kelvin Harrap, Rory Harrap, Will Byrne, Barry Hurley, Nick Jones, Malcolm McCormick, Cian Guilfoyle, James Lyons, Conor Doyle and Nin O'Leary (not pictured)
Having been in contention for a top three place in IRC 4 at several points of the Rolex Middle Sea Race, Kinsale Yacht Club's Conor Doyle was rewarded for his Mediterranean exploits with the ORC Three title in Valetta Harbour,…
The late Ben Mulligan, DMYC sailing secretary and Flying Fifteen sailor
Afloat.ie regrets to record the death of Dun Laoghaire sailor Ben Mulligan. A successful helmsman in many forms of yacht racing over a lifetime of sailing at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, he was the skipper of the top Flying Fifteen 'Enfant…
The thronged Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe race village one wek before the start of the transatlantic race
During its first weekend, the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe village has clearly been a huge success with the crowds turning up. Out on the water, the Rhum Mono and Multi boats took advantage of ideal weather conditions for…
The view eastward over modern Ringsend. At first glance it seems totally tamed, with the formerly anarchic waterfront along the banks of the River Dodder (running left to right across photo foreground) now neatly tidied, while the south bank of the Liffey is kept in order by the dual carriageway accessing the Eastlink Bridge. But a “magic maritime space” has been preserved to provide room for Poolbeg Y&BC with its marina and mooring area, while there’s waterfront access and pontoons for the thriving Stella Maris and St Patrick’s Rowing Club
When the multi-talented John B Kearney (1879-1967) retired from a distinguished career in Dublin Port in 1944, he re-focused most of his attention on his parallel interest as a yacht designer and builder. It was an enduring passion that went…
The HH42 Artie skippered by Lee Satariano/Christian Ripard, a competitor in ORC: Class 2, IRC: Class 3 in the Rolex Middle Sea Race
Year on year, the Rolex Middle Sea Race features a myriad of skirmishes right through the fleet. If you dream of winning one of the classic 600 nm offshore races overall, you must have the determination and commitment to first…
Four 100-foot maxis will lead the battle for Line Honours. John Winning Jr has chartered the VPLP 100 Andoo Comanche, which has won Line Honours on three occasions, including a current race record in 2017 for Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant. Mark Bradford will skipper Peter Harburg’s Reichel/Pugh 100 Black Jack, the 2021 Line Honours winner. Hamilton Island Wild Oats, which holds the record for most Line Honours wins (9), returns to the race for the first time since 2019, with Mark Richards again at the helm of the Oatley family’s Reichel/Pugh 100, formerly named Wild Oats XI
Multiple former winners, international entrants and a record number of two-handed competitors headline a strong contingent of 120 boats entered for the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Entries closed on Friday, 28 October, for the 77th edition of the…
Irish Sailing headquarters at Park Road, Dun Laoghaire
As the application deadline passed yesterday (Friday, October 28th) for the role of CEO at Irish Sailing, there will be scrutiny of candidates at Park Road headquarters, Dun Laoghaire, to see if there is an individual capable of maintaining relations with…
From left: Carrybridge RNLI honorary president Sam McCreery with lifeboat operations manager Stephen Scott, RNLI chief exec Mark Dowie and local helms Chris Cathcart Helm and David Reid
Carrybridge RNLI helms Chris Cathcart and David Reid have served 20 years rescuing those on trouble on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. During a recent visit to the station by the RNLI chief executive Mark Dowie, they were presented with…
A new RS21 keelboat event programme is due to be launched in the UK and Ireland for the 2023 season
MarineServices.ie, the Irish agent and distributor for RS racing Sailboats, is currently en route to Biograd na Moru in Croatia for the inaugural RS21 world championships. The RS21 One Design is a modern keelboat designed with corinthian racing at its…
DMYC Frostbite 2022- 95 entries is rapidly closing on the cap of 130 set by the Dun Laoghaire Harbour organisers
DMYC has announced that with ten days to the commencement of its annual winter Viking Marine sponsored Frostbite Series, the biggest mixed dinghy event in the country, it has received 95 entries, rapidly closing on the cap of 130 set…

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]