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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
Mike Lynch
A technology tycoon of Irish descent is among six people missing after a superyacht sank in extreme weather off Sicily early on Monday morning (19 August). According to RTÉ News, the 56-metre luxury yacht Bayesian capsized during a sudden storm…
Black Jack - en route to line honours victory in June's Loro Piana Giraglia offshore race. She is favourite to repeat this in tomorrow's Palermo-Montecarlo
The 19th Palermo-Montecarlo yacht race sets sail from Sicily’s capital tomorrow (Tuesday, 20 August), concluding the International Maxi Association’s 2023-24 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge, which started with last autumn’s Rolex Middle Sea Race. While the race is typically a light…
RS 200 and RS 400 prizewinners (left to right) Rob Espey, Mike Ferguson, Henry Start  and Frank O'Rourke at Carrickfergus Sailing Club
The 29 knot gusts and wind against tide on the first day of the RS 200 and RS 400 Irish National Championships at Carrickfergus Sailing Club on the north shore of Belfast Lough led to the cancellation of the first…
Barry McCartin and crew Conor Kinsella, new Irish Fireball National Champions
Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella are Fireball National Champions after an eight-race series at RCYC Crosshaven over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. As Afloat reported earlier, this was a hotly contested championship with 22 boats competing for the title. Racing on…
In the groove. Salt-water Dublin Bay DMYC sailors Pierre Long (on helm) and son Paul (on trapeze) learning the ways of fresh water as Dart slices through Lough Erne
The Irish Dinghy Racing Association (IDRA) 14s celebrated their 78th season with their National Championship, taking them to Lough Erne Yacht Club just north of Enniskillen in Fermanagh to compete in the 2024 edition of the IDRA 14 National Championships…
 Yvonne Durcan, Royal Cork Rear Admiral (Dinghies), congratulates 2024 Irish Fireball Champions Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella of the Royal St George with sponsor Eric Waterman on right
With only one race possible on Sunday's final day of racing, Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella of the RStGYC won overall the bumper 22-boat Irish Fireball National Championship and Youth Championship 2024 after eight races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven. …
Yvonne Durcan, Royal Cork Rear Admiral (Dinghies), congratulates 2024 Irish 29er Champions Female 29er skiff team of Royal St. George and Ballyholme Yacht Club Emily Conan and Hannah Dadley-Young with sponsor Eric Waterman pictured on right
Royal St. George and Ballyholme Yacht duo Club Emily Conan and Hannah Dadley-Young won the Irish 29er Class Association National Championships 2024 after eight races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven.  The girls edged on 11 points edged out the…
West Kirby's Patrick Bromilow and Thomas Kelsall in winning form at the 50th anniversary 31-boat Irish International 420 Class Association National Championships
West Kirby's Patrick Bromilow and Thomas Kelsall finished top of the 50th anniversary 31-boat Irish International 420 Class Association National Championships after eight races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven.  The Merseysiders finished two points clear of Waterford Harbour SC's Max Sweetman…
This 2021 championship from Dun Laoghaire Harbour shows Mark Delany in Droleen 'Windyridge' and David and Henry Shackleton in Int. 12 Foot Dinghy 'Scythian', Jim Horgan in his Galway Droleen and Gavin Johnson and Gail Varian in DBSC 12 'Albany'
There has been no Irish Championship for Droleen Dinghies since 2021. However, the 12-foot dinghies have had one annually since 2015. On Saturday next, the Dublin Bay 12-foot dinghies will team up with the International 12-foot dinghies and the Bray…
 Barry McCartin leads a bumper 22-boat Irish Fireball National Championship fleet in Cork Harbour
Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella of the RStGYC lead a bumper 22-boat Irish Fireball National Championship and Youth Championship 2024 after seven races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven.  McCartin and Kinsella scored 2,1,1,6 on the second day of racing on…
There was a Cruisers One ECHO win for Fintan Cairns' Mills 31 Raptor in the AIB DBSC Summer Saturday Series on Dublin Bay
In Class Zero IRC racing, Sean Lemass's First 40 Prima Forte won by a five-minute margin on corrected time from Chris Power Smith's J122 Aurelia in Race 13 of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) AIB Saturday Series. The result was…
Female 29er skiff team of Royal St. George and Ballyholme Yacht Club Emily Conan and Hannah Dadley-Young lead overall at the nine-boat Irish 29er Class Association National Championships 2024 in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven
Royal St. George and Ballyholme Yacht duo Club Emily Conan and Hannah Dadley-Young have moved into the lead on day two of the Irish 29er Class Association National Championships 2024 after seven races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven.  The girls…
Competitors arrive at the windward mark on day two of the Irish 420 Class National Championships 2024 at Royal Cork Yacht Club
West Kirby's Patrick Bromilow and Thomas Kelsall have taken the overall lead at the 50th anniversary 31-boat Irish International 420 Class Association National Championships after seven races sailed in Cork Harbour at Crosshaven.  The Merseysiders are two points clear of day one…
In a dominant display in the 85-boat fleet, Britain's Matt Mee and Chris Robinson of Red Warf Bay Sailing Club led the GP14 World Championships from start to finish and clinched the title with a race to spare on 10 points from Fireball World Champions Tom Gillard and Andy Thompson (of East Antrim  Boat Club in Northern Ireland) on 15 points. Third was Blackpool Fleetwood YC's Neil Marsden and Derek Hill
After a very mixed week of conditions where the weather gods threw either too much wind or too little, the 85 boats GP14 World Championships in Pwllheli, North Wales fleet entered the final day on Friday hoping for two races…
The Class A Tall Ship 'Pelican Of London' arrives in Dun Laoghaire Harbour
The Class A Tall Ship 'Pelican Of London' arrived in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday morning and took up a berth in the south Dublin Bay harbour. The 45-metre square-rigger sailed in from Douglas in the Isle of Man. The 1946-built…
The Mediterranean off Barcelona, seen in a particularly good sailing mood as a modern America's Cup boat struts her stuff
The Dogs Bark, But The Caravan Moves On. The top-end global sailing focus is heading southwest from the Olympics off Marseilles, and moving along France's Mediterranean coast towards Spain and the accelerating 37th America's Cup circus at Barcelona in Catalonia.…

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]