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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
Moth Dinghy Makes its Dublin Bay Sailing Club Debut
A turnout of two dozen marked a successful start to the 2011 Dublin Port sponsored Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) dinghy season tonight. Making its debut for the first time under the club burgee was an International Moth dinghy. The…
Quarter Tonners Heading for Sovereigns Cup and ICRA Champs
A retro class of sailing boats will give a shot in the arm to the two major south-coast regattas this June. Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the revitalised Quarter Ton class in Britain and Ireland, is experiencing a…
300 Top Junior Sailors Bound for Dublin Bay
Over the next few days hundreds of boats will arrive in Dun Laoghaire in preparation for the Mitsubishi Youth National Championships over the May Bank Holiday weekend (29 April – 02 May). Over 300 sailors will compete in Dublin Bay…
Cork Girls take 420 Dinghy Leinster Title
The National Yacht Club hosted the 420 dinghy Leinster Sailing Championships over the Easter Weekend, attracting twelve boats and visiting crews travelling from Crosshaven, Kinsale, Malahide, Spiddal, Tralee and Wexford. Emma Geary and Niamh Connolly from Royal Cork YC counted…
Titan Badly Damaged by Fire in Antigua
A fire on board Titan Powerplay took hold in Falmouth Marina in Antigua last night and has badly damaged the boat. Nobody was injured but the Reichel Pugh 75 has been damaged beyond any immediate  repair ruling out any further…
Cruising Association Holds First 2011 Meeting on Dublin Bay
The Cruising Association of Ireland holds its first meet this year on May 7 at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. The hope is to follow on the success of last September's River Liffey Cruise where 40 boats participated,…
Mark Mills is Sailor of the Year 2009
Globally successful yacht designer Mark Mills of County Wicklow is the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent “Sailor of the Year 2009” after a year of exceptional achievements which built on his original accolade as Sailor of the Month a year ago. Celebrating a…
Irish 49ers Compete in Hyeres Olympic Sailing Week
The medium and shifty wind in the second day of racing in Hyères has brought new leaders in five classes. Ireland is fielding two 49er teams. Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern are 25th and Ed Butler and Ben Lynch lie…
ISORA Entry List 2011
Up to 40 yachts form the backbone of the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association fleet (ISORA).  Although the 2011 entry list (below) shows a large number of Beneteau models it also reveals a wide range of other marques, largely between…
17 Boats to Contest First ISORA Offshore of the Season
There are 17 definite entries and it is estimated up to another half a dozen could be sailing to the line next Saturday morning for the first race of the 2011 ISORA series.  The impressive early entry follows a series…
Irish boats Post Mid-fleet Results on the Solent
There were mid fleet performances from Irish boats at RORC's Easter Sailing Challenge on the Solent where competitors not only head home wiser after three days of coaching, but also with suntans...so the July-like conditions continued for Easter Sunday, the…
Light Solent Winds Keep O'Leary and Dowling at Bay
RORC Easter Sailing Challenge – Day 2 Light winds are keeping Irish entries in the bottom half of the respective IRC fleets at RORC's Easter challenge this weekend. After four races sailed, Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary lies sixth from ten…
Disappointing Solent Start for O'Leary
Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary has had a disappointing start to the RORC Easter Sailing Challenge on the Solent today writes James Boyd. Traditionally the Challenge has been an event for full oilskins and thermals to counter the freezing cold and…
Laser Radial Gets New Home
Following this week's request for a good home for a reader's Laser Radial dinghy we can report the boat has a new berth. The donor has decided it will be used by a club to teach teenagers too big for…
Dublin Bay World Youth Championships to Boost Irish Sailing
When the ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships are hosted on Dublin Bay in 2012 the regatta should be representative of the best of Irish sailing, organisation and hospitality and ignite an immediate but lasting legacy for youth and the future…
RS Feva Sailing Dinghy Launches in Malta
It's not just Ireland that has a love affair with this dinghy sailing class, Malta has become the latest country to launch the RS Feva class, with a sixteen boat fleet recently delivered and more expected in the coming months.…

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]