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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
A Parade of Sail brought some magic to the river at Foyle Maritime Festival as dusk set in and a flotilla of tall ships bedecked in lighting
It's been two years since the River Foyle in Ireland's northwest hosted one of the country's biggest nautical celebrations. Traditionally held in July, the Derry festival was brought forward a month to coincide perfectly with the start of the school…
Wave Rover II being launched at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in July 2023
A junk rig that arrived this weekend at Sherkin Island may be one of the smallest vessels to make an Atlantic crossing. Alan Mulholland’s 21-footer Wave Rover II has just completed a transatlantic route via Horta in the Azores —…
The fleet prepare for a start at the Leinster Championships in Skerries
Josh Porter and Cara McDowell have won the Fireball Leinster Championship at Skerries SC held in conjunction with the club’s annual regatta. The event was supported by Fingal Co Council and Craftinsure. Their victory rewarded very consistent sailing in often…
Tantalising glimpses recently of the re-built DB24 Zephyra under way in Maine reveal her to be flying the Royal Irish YC ensign
Re-building the classic Mylne-designed Dublin Bay 24 Zephyra at The Apprenticeshop in Maine has been so educationally rewarding that they took five years to do the job. This was in order to allow as manytrainees as possible to be involved…
A win in Dublin's Royal Irish and Royal St. George regattas puts Johnny Treanor's J112E Valentina as a form boat for next week's biennial Volvo Cork Week Regatta at Crosshaven
A 180-boat turnout for the Royal St. George Yacht Club regatta on Saturday (July 6) was treated to some of the best sailing breezes of the 2024 summer season, with three Dublin Bay race courses serving up to three races…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon has a ten-point winning margin after eight races sailed at the U21 ILCA 6 World Championship in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal
Ireland's Eve McMahon is on course to retain her 2024 ILCA 6 Under 21 World Championship after another race victory on Saturday to bring her tally to four race wins with all scores in the top four  (1,1,3, (4), 1,…
The City of Cork Steam Packet Company's ship, the SS Lismore, sank off Hook Head a hundred years ago
A commemoration service will be held on Sunday in the Memorial Garden at the County Wexford fishing village of Kilmore Quay to recall the sinking of the City of Cork Steam Packet Company's ship, Lismore, off Hook Head a hundred…
Simon Knowles's J109, Indian, which placed fifth in June's Round Ireland Race, returns to inshore mode today where the Howth Yacht Club crew contest IRC One division in the Royal St. George Yacht Club Regatta
It's last but not least in Dun Laoghaire Harbour as the 2024 Royal St. George Yacht Club Regatta looks set to capitalise on a forecasted fine sailing breeze for Saturday's final waterfront yacht club regatta.  Over 180 entries have been…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon leads overall after six races sailed at the U21 ILCA 6 World Championship in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal
Eve McMahon is back in the lead after six races as she defends her U21 ILCA 6 World Championship title in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal. McMahon is competing in Portugal, just weeks before she makes her Olympic debut in Paris 2024. The Howth sailor took…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon was third in both races in the second day of competition at the U21 ILCA 6 World Championship in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal to trail Australia's Evie Saunders by one point
Eve McMahon has lost her early lead in the defence of her U21 ILCA 6 World Championship title in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal. The Irish youth star is competing in Portugal, just weeks before she makes her Olympic debut in Paris 2024. Australia's…
Jeanie Johnson
Dublin City Council is seeking tenders from commercial operators to take over the replica famine ship Jeanie Johnston on a five-year contract. The three-masted barque Jeanie Johnston was launched in May 2000 as a Millennium project to commemorate 150 years…
From left: Seán Waddilove, Eve McMahon and Robert Dickson will represent Ireland in sailing at the Paris Olympics
Howth Yacht Club has postponed its planned send-off for its Paris 2024 competitors due to the recent rise in Covid-19 cases nationwide. The club cited a “reported recent increase in the occurrence of respiratory and similar ailments” and says it…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's (DBSC) Thursday evening racing was cancelled tonight due to strong westerly winds. '30-knot gusts' meant the second Thursday race in succession of the 2024 AIB summer season was scrubbed in all classes at Dun Laoghaire. Wimds…
Merryjack sea dogs (from left to right) Steven McKay, Brian Lawther, Gerry Bell, GP14 World Champion 1975, Bill Whisker and (back row) an under 80 crew member! Not pictured is Peter Duffy
The crew of Merryjack defied their age at last week's Bangor Regatta on Belfast Lough competing in Class six YTC and taking third overall. Crew man and poet Glen McMahon on the Oceanis 37 might never be Poet Laureate but…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon won both races in the opening day's competition of the U21 ILCA 6 World Championship in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal to lead Australia's Evie Saunders by four points
Eve McMahon's defence of her U21 ILCA 6 World Championship title is off to a perfect start in Viana Do Castelo, Portugal, just weeks before the youth star makes her Olympic debut in Paris 2024. The Howth star won both races in the…
Finn Lynch and Eve McMahon, Ireland's ILCA Olympic representatives in Marseille
With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just 22 days away, Irish ILCA Class Chairman Sean Craig recognises the dedication, resilience, and outstanding performances of sailors Finn Lynch and Eve McMahon, Ireland's ILCA Olympic representatives in Marseille. What an amazing class we…

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]