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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
A busy scene at Blessington Sailing Club as the inaugural RS Fest Incorporating RS200 and RS400 gets underway
Blessington Sailing Club hosted the RS400s, 200s & Fevas for a very breezy weekend of racing incorporating all three fleets’ National Championships and the inaugural RS Fest. Blessington was, as ever, a very welcoming and accessible club on Friday morning.…
Pat Kelly's J109 Storm travelled from Rush to compete - and win Class Two - at the Royal Ulster RC35/IRC weekend on Belfast Lough
The RC35/IRC event at Royal Ulster on Belfast Lough last weekend came about because of a chance suggestion by a club member. Although it attracted a small fleet of eight, it did include the very welcome visitors, Ben Shelley in…
Cove Sailing Club marina in Cork Harbour
Friday night cruiser racing under ECHO handicap at Cove Sailing Club in Cork Harbour is led by Ian Scandrett’s Kernow. Maurice Kidney/Gerry Holland are second sailing Barossa, Robbie Allen/Damien Leahy third in Rana.
Laser Sailor David O’Connell
David O’Connell racing a Laser/ILCA 7, has taken over the lead of Class 1 in Monkstown Bay Sailing Club’s June dinghy league in Cork Harbour. He leads on 9 points after a hat-trick of successive first places. Previous leaders Judy Moynihan…
Schull Harbour Sailing Club's Geneveve Trophy winner was Tony O’Brien’s J109, Tighey Boy
At Schull Harbour Sailing Club's All-In cruiser ECHO racing in West Cork, the Windbourne Trophy was won by Kevin Daly's Jamaro. The Geneveve Trophy winner was Tony O'Brien's J109 Tighey Boy, and Alan Dwyer's Joxer won the Rosbrin Trophy. The…
David Cagney taking Howth 17 ‘Erica’ (1988) past the old monastery on Sherkin Island
On the 20th anniversary of their last visit to West Cork, the Howth 17s travelled to Baltimore this weekend as part of their season-long celebrations for the 125th year of their class. The very active class is credited with being…
Racing at the 2023 Squib National Championships in Weymouth
In a challenging day for Irish boats at the UK and Ireland Squib National Championships, the leading Irish boat, in 34th place after three races sailed, is Femme Fatale, sailed by Royal St. George's Vincent Delany and Joe O’Byrne. Wind varied…
Fireball Leinster Championship winners Ed Og Butler and Sean Collins at Skerries Sailing Club
Ed Óg Butler and Sean Collins are the new Fireball dinghy Leinster champions after five races in often exciting conditions at Skerries SC last weekend. Racing took place over Saturday and Sunday as part of the Skerries annual two-day regatta,…
Solent-based top Dublin crew James Hynes of Howth Yacht Club (left) with the IRC National Championships trophy with shipmates from the winning JPK 1080 Yes!, skipper Adam Gosling and Mark Williams
The UK IRC National Championships has been the battleground for close victories in the past, with Rán winning last year by 0.005 of a point. However, the 2023 Overall IRC National Champion was decided by an even smaller margin. Adam…
WindWhisper Racing Team celebrating their Stage 3 victory at the Ocean Live Park in Genoa, Italy on Monday 26 June
WindWhisper Racing Team won the final leg of The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint into Genoa on Monday morning (26 June), beating the rest of the fleet by a massive margin. The Polish boat crossed the finish line in just six…
RS Elite racing at the Irish Championships at Royal Ulster on Belfast Lough
Having spent the weekend racing in the Irish RS Elite Championships at Royal Ulster on Belfast Lough, most of the 14-strong fleet are making their way the 18 miles to the UK Nationals hosted by Strangford Lough Yacht Club at…
The Howth 17s pass beyond Bird Island en route from Baltimore to Schull in West Cork
The Howth 17s are sailing amongst Carbery’s Hundred Isles. The oldest classic sailing boats in the world are in West Cork waters to mark their 125th year and intend to sail around the iconic Fastnet Rock.  The photo above is…
Sailing at the 420 class Connacht dinghy Connacht championships off An Spidéal, Co Galway
In “champagne” sailing conditions, Max Sweetman of Waterford Harbour SC and Roisin Mitchell Ward of Galway Bay SC (GBSC) took gold at the 420 class Connacht sailing championships off An Spidéal, Co Galway, over the weekend. Sweetman and Mitchell Ward…
John Treanor's new J/112e is planning to attend J Cup Ireland in the mixed IRC fleet. Valentina won her First event at J Cup UK a fortnight ago, followed by a second at Sovereigns Cup last weekend
The inaugural J Cup Ireland is taking place 26th and 27th of August 2023 at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, on Dublin Bay. Hosted by Key Yachting, the J Cup Regatta is exclusively organised for racing yachts…
Close racing in the 29er class on the last day of Kiel Week. There was no room for mistakes, with just one discard in the 13-race series
Sister-Brother duo Clementine and Nathan van Steenberge (NYC) finished up fifth and first mixed duo, having led the 29er fleet for the first three days in Kiel Week in Germany. As Afloat reported earlier, the Dun Laoghaire siblings showed strong…
The Governor’s Cup
The twelve-team field for the 56th-annual Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship is now final, with a record eight countries represented. As Afloat previously reported, Dun Laoghaire helmsman Tom Higgins became the first Irish sailor to receive an invitation…

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]