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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
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon in the lead on day three of the ILCA U21 World Championships in Tangier, Morocco
Howth Yacht Club's heavy weather specialist Eve McMahon conquered strong Moroccan wind and waves to win the single race of day three and move into the overall lead of the ILCA U21 World Championships in Tangier. The Paris 2024 campaigner is one of…
Racing in the RS Feva 'Fling' Dinghy regatta at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough
Ten RS Fevas from clubs around Belfast Lough rounded off their season with a Final Fling at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club recently. After the initial strong wind died down to just in time to allow the event to…
R44 crews gather at Alcaidesa Marina, including some key Irish sailors, to hear that Day one of the Spanish leg of the Cup was cancelled due to strong winds
Today at the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina, there was nothing marginal about the wind strength on the Bay of Gibraltar. Despite the first warning signal for the opening day of competition being brought forward by an hour to 1100 CEST, already…
There was a fresh breeze and warm sunshine for Yachting Malta's Coastal Race Ahead of Saturday's Middle Sea Race
Yachting Malta's Coastal Race was held in idyllic conditions yesterday, on the 19th of October. With a fresh breeze and warm sunshine, it was a perfect opportunity for sailors to get ready for the upcoming Rolex Middle Sea Race, which…
Crews are briefed ahead of the 52nd Sea Scout Sailing Regatta at Malahide
The 52nd annual Sea Scout sailing regatta took place in testing conditions on Malahide’s inner estuary on 15th October. Malahide Yacht Club provided the race committee with a warm welcome to its Broadmeadows facility for the day of team racing…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon (pictured right) is in the thick of a hectic startline at the 2023 ILCA U21 World Championships in Tangier, Morocco
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon is lying second overall after four races sailed at the 2023 ILCA U21 World Championships in Tangier, Morocco. The Paris 2024 campaigner is one of five Irish sailors competing.  Wednesday started cloudy, with rain showers coming…
The 44Cup fleet is racing in Spain, under the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar
Following the RC44 class’ World Championship in Cowes in August, the 44Cup resumes on Thursday morning in the shadow of another famous maritime British empire outpost - Gibraltar. Host of this event for the high-performance owner-driver one designs is the…
File image of Portora Lock outside Enniskillen
Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and inland waterways users that Portora Lock on the Erne System is currently operation. The lock will be operated daily from 8am to 10.30pm. During these times, a lock-keeper will be present and will…
Storm Babet will bring very heavy rainfall to Northern Ireland over the next 24 hours, particularly in Antrim and Down, with the Mourne Mountains set for downpours
The Rivers Trust has issued advice to the public ahead of the potential flood impacts of Storm Babet on Northern Ireland waters over the next few days. Yellow weather warnings have been issued across the rest of the week for…
A bird's eye view of the NYC Topper fleet in training
The annual lift out of cruisers at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour is usually a good sign that winter is not far, and last weekend inevitably saw the first single-digit temperatures and a sure sign winter Performance…
Irish Figaro star Tom Dolan is back in Ireland for a second-speed sailing record attempt
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is back in Ireland with his Figaro Beneteau 3 Smurfit Kappa Kingspan, aiming to set a Round Ireland speed sailing record, a bid sparking debate about the status of solo sailing in Irish waters and the…
Star Class President Paul Cayard
The International Star Keelboat Class has selected Paul Cayard as its President. Cayard began sailing Stars in 1977 and has served as the International Vice President - Western Hemisphere since 2020. Well known to many in the Star Class, he…
Lough Foyle’s native oyster population is important locally and internationally, economically and environmentally
Loughs Agency, the regulatory body for fisheries in Northern Ireland, has announced the suspension of the Native Oyster Fishery in the Foyle area starting from 6 am on October 24th, 2023, until 6 pm on February 29th, 2024. The decision…
Winter training for Topper dinghies commences at the Royal St. George Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire Harbour this weekend
The Royal St George Yacht Club has announced their 2023/2024 winter training for Topper dinghies. "The club is keen to build a fleet of the exciting and durable dinghy in anticipation of even greater demand for single-handed sailing", former Commodore Richard…
Irish RS Aeros - the addition of the ‘6’ rig last year has bridged the gap often found in the boat as the 5 rig was deemed underwhelming for some sailors while the 7 rig was too powerful in the strong winter winds
The final Irish regional event of the year for the RS Aero class is coming up in Howth Yacht Club on the 28th and 29th of October! The Aeros in Ireland have been going from strength to strength over the…
Noel Campbell in the boat gallery at the National Museum of Irish Country Life
Noel Campbell, Assistant Keeper at the National Museum of Country Life in Turlough Park, Castlebar, is leading the development of a boat gallery to preserve the history and culture of Irish traditional vessels. Turlough Park is about eight miles from…

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]