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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
Murphy Finishes Fourth in Miami
Annalise Murphy, Ireland's only entry in the medal races at the Miami Olypmic Classes Regatta on Saturday finished fourth overall, missing out on bronze to Evi Van Ascker of Belgium. The Dun Laoghaire sailors overall result will be siginificant boost…
Cowes Week Gets Title Sponsor
Aberdeen Asset Management has been named as the new title sponsor of Cowes Week, the UK's Daily Echo reports. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/sailsolent/cowesweek/8819333.New_Cowes_Week_sponsor_announced/ The global investment management group takes over sponsorship of the world's longest-running regata for a three-year period. Details of the…
Annalise Murphy is Miami Medal Prospect
Annalise Murphy goes in to today's final round of Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in Florida as a medal contender in the Laser Radial class after a string of top results gave her fourth overall last night. The strong Dun Laoghaire…
Ireland Well Placed in Laser Radial as Miami Enters Final Stage
Annalise Murphy stays fifth, Tiffany Brien 22nd, both in the Laser Radial class, and Peter O'Leary and David Burrows lie 16th in the Star keelboat as Miami Olympic classes regatta prepares for its final medal races tomorrow. Brien had her…
Miami Update: Star Pairing in 16th
Two more races in the Star keelboat at Miami Olympic classes regatta today has not brought any improvement for Peter O'Leary and David Burrows in the Star keelboat. The Cork -Dublin pair stay in the top third though, dropping one…
Sadie Phelan is First Lady President of Wicklow Sailing Club
Round Ireland organiser, Wicklow Sailing Club has elected its first Lady President in the 60th anniversary year of the club. Long time resident of Wicklow, Sadie Phelan, has been very involved in many roles in the club previously, having served…
Classic Malts Selection Whiskies Add Flavour to Cruising Event
World Cruising Club are delighted to announce the support of Diageo's Classic Malts Selection for the Malts Cruise 2011.  The sailing cruise will be visiting the Classic Malts Selection distilleries in Oban and Lagavulin, Islay, and a Classic Malts Selection roving 'nose' will…
Murphy Stays in Top Five
Annalise Murphy stays in the top five of the Laser Radial fleet after another solid performance at the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in Florida today. The Dun Laoghaire sailor has slipped one place overall from third to fourth but she…
Waterford Club Plans June Scilly Isles Cruise
Although Waterford Harbour Sailing Club is well known for its dinghy sailing and picturesque location it has never really been seen as a hub for sailing cruisers. Consequently there has never been a big event for the big boats at…
DBSC Spring Chicken Appeal to Dublin Bay Allcomers
An extra effort to encourage boats that 'do not normally race' is being made this week by Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) to boost entries in Sunday's first race of the Spring Chicken Series sailing.  The event – sponsored by…
Murphy Moves into Third in Miami
Two seconds in today's Laser Radial racing on Biscayne Bay give Dun Laoghaire's Annalise Murphy third overall at Miami Olympic Classes Regatta but the news in the Star class is not as good after Ireland's Peter O'Leary and David Burrows…
Big Turnout for Scora Meet (PHOTO Review HERE)
Last Friday evening saw a very large attendance at Kinsale Yacht Club for the Annual General Meeting of SCORA writes Claire Bateman. The extremely cold evening was no deterrent to the members who had come to enjoy what turned out…
O'Leary and Burrows off to Flying Start in Miami
Ireland is off to a flying start at Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in the Star Class. Peter O'Leary and David Burrows lie fourth overall in a fleet of 58 boats. Former Laser ace Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada from Brazil lead from…
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy Sets New World Record
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, has set the Guinness World Record for the 'Largest Parade of Boats' with the International Optimist Class Association. The record took place on July 25, 2010 within the waters of Weymouth and Portland featuring…
Sheridan Wins HYC Laser Race
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. LASER FROSTBITE SPRING (O'ALL) 23/01/2011 LASER STANDARD: 1, Daragh Sheridan HYC (16.00); 2, Evan Dolan NYC (18.00); 3, David Quinn HYC (19.00); LASER STANDARD APPRENTICE: 1, Conor Murphy HYC (6.00); 2, Darach Dineen HYC (12.00); 3, Conor…
Buoyant Dinghies Buck the Market
A massive drop in some areas of the boat sales market is not reflected in other areas, particularly small dinghy sales, if registration figures released by the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) is anything to go by. In the dinghy market,…

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]