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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
Knox Johnston Unveils Two British Skippers for Velux 5 Oceans
Not since Sir Robin-Knox Johnston sailed into the record books as the victor of the Golden Globe back in 1969 has a British skipper won a singlehanded round the world race. But that could all be about to change as…
Royal Cork Boats Perform at Calves Week
Summer weather finally returned to Schull on Tuesday with a fresh westerly breeze. All fleets sailed a course taking in the Calf Islands and Goat Island as a weather mark. In Class Zero L. J. Mc Mahon of the Killyeagh YC sailed…
Cork Match Racing Open Cancelled Due to Lack of Race Officers
Match Racing Ireland (MRI) has cancelled the Cork Match Racing Open due to be held in ten days time. The Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) was running the Open, an event that forms the final leg of the Irish Match…
America's Cup Legend Lines up for Howth Etchells Regatta
America's Cup legend John Bertrand is among 42 entries received for the Etchells World Championships coming to Howth Yacht Club later this month. A quarter of the fleet are Irish but entries are also coming from Australia, Bermuda, USA and…
Entries Gear up for 'HM Yachts' League in Crosshaven
Competitors in Cork Harbour are gearing up for Thursday's first race of The HM Yachts August/September League which takes place at the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC), Crosshaven. The regatta series will be sailed under handicap for Cruisers. Dates as…
Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship Contract Awarded
Aiseanna Mara, which trades as Sail West, beat off competition from other bidders to secure the right to operate and maintain famine replica sailing ship the Jeanie Johnston. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) said in July that the ship…
Rita Beats Oona in HYC Seventeen's Race
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. TUE + SAT SERIES 3 (RACE) 03/08/2010 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Rita Lynch/Curley; 2, Aura I Malcolm; 3, Oona P Courtney; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Aura I Malcolm; 2, Pauline O'Doherty/Ryan; 3, Rita Lynch/Curley TUESDAY SERIES 3…
Pterodactyl Wins DBSC Glen Race
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 3 AUGUST 2010 CRUISERS 2 - 1. Cor Baby (Keith Kiernan et al), 2. Red Rhum (J Nicholson), 3. Borraine (Ean Pugh) CRUISERS 3 - 1. Papytoo (M.Walsh/F.Guilfoyle), 2. Rattler 2 (Austin…
Coveney's Comprehensive Victory at Baltimore Regatta
A light westerly breeze of eight to ten knots arrived in time for the start of Baltimore regatta on Bank holiday Monday. Race Officer Neil Prendeville sent the various fleets on a course through the Gascanane Sound and around the Calve Islands. The…
Spinnaker Run to Calves Week
The ten competitors in the Crosshaven to Schull overnight race had a glorious spinnaker run out of Cork harbour as far as Cork Head before settling in for the long trip west with the freshening western breeze writes Claire Bateman.…
Green Dragon's Walker Signs for Abu Dhabi for 2011 Race
Ireland's 2009 Volvo Ocean Race Skipper, the two-time Olympic medallist, Ian Walker of Great Britain, has signed up as skipper for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race title pursuit, as the emirate's newest sporting outfit readies for the…
Martin and Murray Crowned Flying Fifteen Champions
50 degree wind shifts, abandoned races or even a massive starting line bias could not stop Strangford's Darren Martin and Simony Murray from a string of consistent results at this weekend's Flying Fifteen Championship of Ireland on Belfast Lough. The…
Murphy Wins Radial 'Connaughts' on Dublin Bay
A strong entry of 112 including Chile's Matias Del Solar, currently ranked seventh in the world, competed for the Connaught Laser championships this weekend on Dublin Bay. Hosted by the National YC under international race officer Con Murphy, the three…
Mermaid Week Starts with Fresh Conditions in Foynes
Anthony Carthy was flying today in the practice race at Mermaid Week at Foynes. The race started at 14:30 in a brisk westerly breeze and squalls up to 22 knots. Anthony and his crew Margeurite Carthy and Eoin Butterly from…
Martin and Murray are Overnight Leaders at Flying Fifteen National Championships
At the Irish Flying fifteen National Championships on Belfast Lough today Darren Martin and Simon Murray lead but only on tie break after four tight races off Carrickfergus. Dun Laoghaire pairing John Lavery and David O'Brien are second but both…
Philip O'Dwyer's Arwen is DBSC White Sail Winner
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 31 JULY 2010
BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Levante (B.Leyden/M.Leahy), 2. Magic (D.O'Sullivan/D.Espey), 3. Violet Flame (B.Murphy/L.Osbourne)
BENETEAU 31.7 ˆ ECHO 1. Violet Flame (B.Murphy/L.Osbourne), 2. Kernach (Eoin O'Driscoll), 3. Levante (B.Leyden/M.Leahy)
CRUISERS…

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]