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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
Czech Event Superb - Fireball Europeans Review
Forty-nine Fireballs gathered in Pavlov in the SE corner of the Czech Republic in the last week of September to contest the Fireball Europeans. Nine countries were represented – eight European and one African and some of the newest Fireballs…
12 Derry Volunteers Chosen for Round the World Yacht Race
Twelve volunteers from Derry have been chosen as crew members for the longest ocean race in the world. The 12 were chosen out of more than 100 people who turned up for presentations about the 2011-12 Clipper round-the-world yacht race. Derry is…
Endeavour Signs up Topper for Further Three Years
Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex (Wednesday 6 October, 2010):  Following a hugely successful 50th Endeavour Trophy champion of champions event last weekend at Burnham-on-Crouch, Topper Sailboats has agreed to renew its sponsorship deal for another three years. Topper, who has supplied a brand-new…
Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race Date is June 11, 2011
The 2011 Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race run jointly by the National Yacht Club and Dingle Boat Club starts on Saturday 11th June with a prize giving on Wednesday 15th in Dingle. 
Cork Institute of Technology Win 2010 Student Yachting Nationals
Last weekend saw the Student Yachting Nationals take place at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. The students had the use of the ISA J80 Sailfleet for the event. Six college teams entered for the Nationals which was the Qualifier for the Student…
Belgian Determined to Make Start Line despite Dismasting
Belgian solo sailor Christophe Bullens was dismasted this morning off the coast of France en route to the start of the Velux 5 Oceans. The 49-year-old skipper had been sailing his Eco 60 class yacht Five Oceans of Smiles in…
Sailing the Atlantic in Aid of World's Poorest Children
Two old seadogs are preparing to cross the Atlantic in a small sailing boat in aid of the world's poorest children. Rudi Teichmann, a retired sea captain now living in Ballinspittle, Co. Cork and his friend Gerhard Meschter who lives…
Donnelly Wins Dun Laoghaire End of Season Oppy Event
At the weekend's end of season Optimist dinghy class Championships (aka the Gorman Trophy) held at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire local helmsman Sean Donnelly was a popular win in a fleet of 66 boats. Second was Sean…
Royal Cork Autumn League. Photos HERE!
Images by Bob Bateman from the first race of Royal Cork's Autumn league are on the gallery HERE. Was all that sunshine really here only last Sunday? Brrrr.....
UK's Southern Academy Match Cup Takes Shape
The inaugural Royal Southern Academy Match Cup is attracting the cream of young sailing talent across the UK but nobody from Ireland yet. The organisers of the inaugural Royal Southern Academy's Match Race Cup are confident of a strong turnout…
Half-way point at Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League in testing conditions
HALF-WAY POINT IN HOWTH YACHT CLUB'S AUTUMN LEAGUE IN TESTING CONDITIONS The Autumn League reached its half-way point yesterday with the third race in the six-race series being sailed in light to moderate, constantly shifting westerlies, with boats in a…
Salute the Cup Team at the 2010 ICRA Conference
The Irish Cruiser Racer (ICRA) Conference takes place on Saturday, November 13th at Carrigaline Court Hotel in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. The day-long conference chaired by Commodore Barry Rose with two sessions 11-1 and 2-4pm will take in all aspects of cruiser…
SB3 'Open Day' Concept Goes National
What started out as local recruitment drive on Dublin Bay has widened with interest now reported nationwide for next weekend's Dun Laoghaire SB3 Open Day. Sailors are coming from Howth, Galway and Northern Ireland for test sails at the National…
80 Boats for Royal Cork Autumn League (PHOTOS HERE!)
An 80 boat fleet set sail for the opening day of the Autumn League at the Royal Cork Yacht Club Regatta today writes Claire Bateman. While conditions setting out were typical of a lovely Autumn day, the wind, however, was…
Merlin Rocket Champs Win 50th Endeavour Trophy
Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex (Sunday 3 October, 2010): Twenty-four-year-old Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club member – Stuart Bithell – and his 21-year-old crew, Christian Birrel, representing the Merlin Rocket class, have won the 50th Endeavour Trophy Champion of Champions event at Burnham-on-Crouch. The…
National YC to Stage 2011 Flying 15 National Championships
Dun Laoghaire's National Yacht Club will host the Flying Fifteen class Championship of Ireland in 2011. The event will run from June Friday June 17th to Sunday 19th.

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]