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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
Afloat.ie: CH Marine Winter League Gets Brisk Breeze
The second day of the RCYC-hosted CH Marine Winter League saw a grey November day, patchy sunshine and a definite brisk SSW breeze, according to Claire Bateman. The pre-start manoeuvres made an impressive sight, and photographer Bob Bateman was there…
Afloat.ie: McMahon Home First in Howth Yacht Club
Runner-up in this year's Laser National Championships, in Howth Yacht Club Paul McMahon, was top of the Laser Winter Series in Howth this afternoon (Sunday 15th November) followed home by Daragh Sheridan of the host club. In the Cruiser class…
Afloat.ie: Murphy to Deliver Winning Talk
Next weekend's ICRA conference in Kilkenny includes a sailing talk by John Murphy of Kinetic, the Division 2 national champion, on how to prepare a boat for a major regatta. There will also be debate on whether the White Sails…
Afloat.ie: Kennedy and Dyke Win Top DBSC Award
Vivion Kennedy and Mervyn Dyke lifted the Waterhouse Shield this weekend for the most successful Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) yacht in handicap classes. The result was achieved in Cruisers 2 class in the yacht Jawesome II. Among other presentations…
Afloat.ie: Minister Cullen Acknowledges VOR Boost
Welcoming today’s report on the Economic and Media evaluation of Ireland’s participation in the Race that was published at the Morrison hotel in Dublin this morning, Minister for the Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr Martin Cullen TD said: “Today’s report…
 Afloat.ie: Stop-Over Report Finds Massive Benefit for Galway
The first ever stop over of the Volvo Ocean Race generated Euro 55 million for the West of Ireland according to a Failte Ireland report to be published this morning. The key findings and a link to the full report…
Victory for Cork in South Atlantic Leg of Clipper
AFLOAT.IE  The jubilant crew of Cork, Ireland, has arrived in Cape Town after taking victory in Race 3, the South Atlantic leg, of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race. They crossed the finish line in Table Bay at…
Clipper Update: Cork Due to Royal Cape YC Today
AFLOAT.IE  The first of the ten 68-foot racing yachts competing in Clipper 09-10 round the world yacht race is expected to cross the finish line in Table Bay, South Africa between 1500 and 1800 local time (1300-1600 GMT) this afternoon…
Cork Clocks Exceptional 12-Hour Run
a>   The latest low pressure system has meant that all the teams are now speeding their way towards the finish line in Cape Town. Several of the boats have emerged from Stealth Mode and the fight for the podium…
DBSC to Present 90 Cups and 116 Prizes
90 Cups–some up to 100 years old–will be presented at Dublin Bay Sailing Club's annual prizegiving this Friday night in a celebration of sailing at the Royal Marine Hotel. 1665 members raced in four separate series and up to 116…
Peridot Wins Opening DBSC Round
With 75 boats racing for in its first outing last Sunday now there is a real prospect that the Viking Marine DBSC Turkey Shoot Sailing Series will make 100 entries for the first time. The spectacle of boats racing in…
Galway Stop  'Worth Euro 80 Million'
Fáilte Ireland officially puts a figure on the the economic impact of 2009's major sailing event this week when the tourism body values the Galway stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. The report carried out by Deloitte will show the global…
Cork Gets Good Week in the Clipper
With just over 500nm to the finish in Cape Town, Cork has secured a strong lead over the last four days with 72nm separating them from second place Hull & Humber. It is anticipated that they will arrive in Cape…
Foynes YC Win ISA Yachtsman Euromarine RIB Challenge
Congratulations to Foynes Yacht Club, winner of the ISA Yachtsman Euromarine National Rib Challenge trophy for 2009, holding off nine other teams for the prize. This is a good result for a club which decided recently to invest their time…
Blue Skies for Dinghy Supplies Howth Frostbites
The first race of the 2009/2010 Howth Yacht Club Frostbites was started with blue skies and an inviting 10kt northwesterly. This was a welcome relief after the 38kt squall which caused sailing to be abandoned on the water the previous…
First Days Racing in CH Marine Winter League
Remarkable conditions greeted competitors at the start line for the first days racing in the CH Marine Winter League at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. A light northerly breeze,  clear blue skies and an excellent turnout of 32-boats gave Race…

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]