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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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
Irish Laser ace Liam Glynn will be in Royal Irish Yacht Club on Thursday evening when he and offshore sailor Kenny Rumball, along with UK Sailmakers Ireland manager Barry Hayes deliver a lecture at the country's biggest IRC club. The open talk is titled; 'Optimising…
New Zeland's America's Cup defender, Te Rehutai, is set to return to the waters of Auckland's Hauraki Gulf just over two years since the last time it was sailed for the final race of AC36
With news that the first regatta of the Catalonian port of Vilanova i la Geltrú, is the Host Venue for the first Preliminary Regatta of the 37th America's Cup to take place in September this year, coincidentally Emirates Team New Zealand’s…
A new ‘Maritime Village - A modern sailing and rowing campus on the river Liffey as part of Dublin Port's 3FM Project. A modern sailing and rowing campus will provide enhanced facilities for a range of users, including sailing and rowing clubs, sea scouts, the Nautical Trust and local boat owners. The Maritime Village has been developed in consultation with local groups and will replace the current much smaller facilities as well as improving opportunities to view Port activities from the new waterside public plaza area. 
Dublin Port Company has today commenced formal public consultation on the 3FM Project, the third and final Masterplan project needed to complete the development of Dublin Port and bring it to its ultimate and final capacity by 2040. The 3FM…
Huw Tudor
Tributes have been paid to ISORA stalwart Huw Tudor, who has died in his 89th year. An estate agent by trade, Huw joined Pwllheli Sailing Club in 1967 as the owner of a small fishing boat named after his wife…
Onboard Team Malizia on Monday 20 March, Nicolas Lunven studies the boat’s next move
Leg 3’s four IMOCAs pushing east through the southern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean are seeing better speeds today, following a weekend of light winds for The Ocean Race. Racing along the ice exclusion limit at 52-degrees south, the teams…
Hubert Lemonnier (left) takes over from Jacques Caraës as 2024 Vendée Globe Race Director
Jacques Caraës, race director for the 2016 and 2020 Vendée Globe, is handing over to Hubert Lemonnier and becoming his deputy for next year's solo on stop round the world race. The announcement was made as the Race Direction team…
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has published 'updated' annual financial statements ahead of its agm this Saturday.  The recently-published 2022 annual financial statements presented a picture of robust financial good health, with almost €1.4m in the bank, though nearly €900k…
Irish Laser ace Liam Glynn will be in Howth Yacht Club on Wednesday evening when he and offshore sailor Kenny Rumball along with UK Sailmakers Ireland manager Barry Hayes deliver a  lecture at the country's biggest yacht club. The talk, which is open to…
Ireland's John Lavery and Alan Green (IRL 4083) make a strong start in race one of the Flying 15 World Championships at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Australia
After six races sailed and five to count, Ireland's John Lavery and Alan Green are in the top ten of the Flying 15 World Championships at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Australia. Steady sailing from Dublin Bay's Lavery and Green saw…
A light air start of an ISORA cross-channel race to Pwllheli in north Wales from Dun Laoghaire
We have a great race schedule planned for 2023. It combines with many top-class regattas and includes several mini-series, writes ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan Details can be found on the Musto ISORA website here The online entry is now active.…
Leg 3, Day 20: A drone captures Rosalin Kuiper on the mast of Team Malizia, witnessing the close racing with Biotherm
On Saturday (18 March) it seemed as if Leg 3 of The Ocean Race 2022-23 couldn’t get any closer. By Sunday morning UTC that was proved wrong. Today (19 March), all four IMOCA teams are lined up on a 13-mile…
Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan produced his best Solo Miatre Coq result despite a navigational error
Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan laid to rest the ghosts of three past Solo Maître CoQ events when he finished seventh overall from a 30-boat fleet Saturday. After his 11th in Wednesday’s short inshore race the skipper of Smurfit…
Classic yacht Stormvogel returns having won line honours in 1961 and finished seventh overall in 2021
Appropriately, given the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race will be the 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, a significant number of classic yachts are entered, competing for the Dorade Cup. In 2021, Paul Moxon’s Amokura was the oldest boat in the race and…
The SailGP fleet in action on Race Day 1 of the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday, 18th March 2023
This weekend, there was an incredible comeback for the Canadian SailGP team to take the win at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix. The Canadians were the ones to watch, consistently moving up the leaderboard and challenging the hometown…
IRC Rating logo
Is the IRC Rating system no longer fit for purpose? That’s what some in the sailing community feel, and they’ve been sharing their thoughts on the Afloat Magazine Facebook page. Commenting on our recent story noting the 91 IRC certs…
Leg 3 Day 19 (Friday 17 March) with Team Holcim-PRB
On day 20 (Saturday 18 March) of racing in Leg 3 of The Ocean Race 2022-23, the competition is incredibly close, with four IMOCAs separated by fewer than 17 nautical miles as of 1800 UTC. The teams still have two…

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]