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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
Royal St. George Yacht Club Squib 'Femme Fatale', Vincent Delany and Joe O’Byrne, set off for the first race of the 2023 Squib National Championships in Weymouth Bay from Portland Harbour
Four Irish boats compete at the Weymouth Squib National Championships this week. Sunday saw a practice race followed by the first championship race. Winds started light and built up to 16 knots from the SW with beats in excess of one…
2022/3 Golden Globe Solo non-stop Round the World Yacht Race 24/06/2023 Les Sables d'Olonne, France. South African yachtswoman Kirsten Neuschäfer, winner of the 2022/3 Golden Globe Race, is greeted by the crowds when taking to the stage to collect her trophies
In the history of sailing, one event changed everything. The Golden Globe Race sits high in the mind of all sailors, and one man, Sir Robin Knox Johnston, winner of the first edition in 1968, has inspired tens of millions…
“We’re here!” Current Howth 17 National Champion Rosemary (David Jones & partners) off Baltimore in preparation for a week of the class’s 125th Anniversary celebrations
During this past week, competitors in the Simply Blue Sovereign’s Cup at Kinsale have been sailing at a venue much of which is a time capsule of the picturesque town attached to a naval base of the 1700s. Today (Sunday),…
Drone’s eye view of Team JAJO on Saturday 24 June
If there wasn’t already enough urgency to get to Genoa quickly, Ambrogio Beccaria is more desperate than ever. Not only is the Italian crewman on Team Holcim-PRB keen to reach his home country as soon as possible, vital provisions on…
What’s not to like? The recent Celtic Challenge success by the Glandore Dragons had great sailing, good weather and top-class hospitality at several venues
Glandore Harbour Yacht Club Commodore Tim Forde reports on success in a very sociable event by the thriving local International Dragons against a cross-channel challenge: “The Celtic Challenge 2023 against Royal Anglesey Yacht Club from the Menai Straits opened with…
Sailing to Sovereign's Cup success - with a string of six race wins in Class Two IRC in the four-day event, James and David Dwyer's Half-Tonner Swuzzlebubble from Royal Cork Yacht Club took the overall Sovereign's Cup prize as the best boat performing under the international IRC rating system
There was a packed clubhouse and some emotional moments at Kinsale Yacht Club for the presentation of Simply Blue 2023 Sovereign’s Cup prizes on Saturday evening. James and David Dwyer of Royal Cork Yacht Club with their Half-Tonner Swuzzlebubble crew,…
Kinsailor, the Kinsale Yacht Club Under-25 J24 crew are presented with the inaugural 'Jack Roy Perpetual Trophy', made to the best female helm at the Sovereign's Cup 2023 by Jack's wife Rosemary and Sovereign's Cup sponsor Hugh Kelly of Simply Blue Group, Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Matthias Hellstern
Kinsailor, the Kinsale Yacht Club Under-25 J24 crew were the inaugural winners of the 'Jack Roy Perpetual Trophy', awarded to the best female helm at Saturday night's 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup prizegiving. The trophy was commissioned by the club and…
Jimmy Fischer's Billy Whizz leads the Saturday scratch racing in the Beneteau 211 class of the AIB DBSC Summer Series on Dublin Bay
Royal St. George's Jimmy Fischer's Billy Whizz was the winner of Saturday's scratch Race 17 in the Beneteau 211 class of the AIB DBSC Summer Series on Dublin Bay. Joe Smyth's Yikes from the Royal Irish took second, with Pat Shannon's Beeswing in…
Italian yacht Rolly-Go in the Whitbread 1981-82
A fleet of ocean thoroughbred yachts which have previously taken part in past editions of the Whitbread Round The World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race and The Ocean Race have assembled in Italy ahead of the 50th Anniversary Legends Regatta…
The Rope Dock Atara crew, skippered by Ross McDonald of Howth YC/Royal Cork YC celebrate the successful defence of their 1720 European Crown at Kinsale after eight races sailed
A healthy tally of five race wins assured Howth Yacht Club that its defending champion Ross McDonald would be returning with the 1720 European Championship crown after nine races sailed at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale today.  After Friday's,…
John Maybury and his Joker II crew from the Royal Irish Yacht Club were the 2023 Sovereign's Cup Class One IRC winners
A first and a second scored in today's final races has given National J109 Champion John Maybury of the Royal Irish Yacht Club the overall Class One IRC title at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale. Maybury's Joker II crew…
James and David Dwyer of Royal Cork Yacht Club with their Half-Tonner Swuzzlebubble crew who were overall winners of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup after a perfect score of six wins from six races sailed off Kinsale
The perfect scoreline of six wins from six races saw James and David Dwyer's Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble take the Class Two title and the overall 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup in Kinsale today.  Camelot in Kinsale is how Afloat's WM Nixon described the…
The Ocean Race Leg 7 Day 7 (Thursday 22 June) onboard Team Holcim-PRB
Team Holcim-PRB made a break for the Algerian coast overnight on Friday (23 June), leaving the close-quarters match racing they’d been having with Biotherm and Team Malizia since before Gibraltar. At one point, they had gained nearly 100 miles of…
George Sisk helming the immaculately restored 1954 eight-metre cruiser Marian Maid in White Sails Two division on the final day of the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup
Kinsale Yacht Club's premier 'Michelle Dunne Prix d-elegance’ trophy for the best-presented entry at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup went to the lovingly restored 1954 eight-metre cruiser Marian Maid owned by the Sisk family. Marian Maid was built by Hal…
Conor Phelan's Royal Cork Yacht Club Quarter Tonner Anchor Challenge crew won Class Three IRC at The Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale
Conor Phelan's Royal Cork Yacht Club Quarter Tonner Anchor Challenge has won Class Three IRC at The Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale. As Afloat reported earlier, Quarter Tonners had a grip on the ten-boat fleet since Wednesday's first race.  Phelan…
The Portcullis trophy for the best performance under ECHO was won by Ronan Twomey's Beneteau 40.7, Rosmarina and presented by Sovereign's Cup sponsor Hugh Kelly of Simply Blue Group (left) and Kinsale Yacht Club Commodore Matthias Hellstern
The Two White Sails Division at the 2023 Simply Blue Sovereign's Cup off Kinsale totalled 20 boats, roughly a fifth of the overall fleet at the four-day event. It's a contemporary size that Afloat's WM Nixon says is a sweet size…

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]