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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
2012 will mark the 32nd anniversary of Ireland's premier off-shore sailing event, the Round Ireland Yacht Race, organised by Wicklow Sailing Club in association with RORC. For the first time the biennial Round Ireland Race counts for the same points…
Team Redmond Fisher takes Irish SB3 National Championship
Peter Kennedy, Dave Cheyne and Stephen Kane from the RUYC have won the Laser Performance/Matthews Centre SB3 Irish National Championship sailed in Crosshaven over the weekend of 18th to 20th of September. Forty-seven boats competed over eight races in a…
McCaldin takes J24 National Title
Before the 2009 J24 National Championships even began at Lough Ree Yacht Club, Mickey McCaldin from Lough Erne and the Royal St George’s Flor O’Driscoll had already been installed as favourites for the title. Six races later, in light and…
Mumbo No. 1 for Class 1 IRC at HYC
Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League is coming along a treat, with lots of close-fought competition and near shaves. Dermot Cronin's Mumbo took first and third in Class 1 IRC and Class 1 Echo respectively, while Dave Clarke's Harlequin dominated both…
Kennedy Takes SB3 Title
Northern Ireland's Peter Kennedy has won the SB3 National Championships at Crosshaven after a thrilling seven race series that drew a fleet of 47 boats to Royal Cork YC. Dun Laoghaire's Sean Craig was second with Howth's Ben Duncan third.…
Clarke wins in Howth Yacht Club Harlequin
Dave Clarke's Harlequin won the Puppeteer division of the second Howth Autumn League Race race thisd morning. Second was Terry Harvey in No Strings with Neil Murphy's Yellow Peril third. For all the results click 'read more' HOWTH YACHT CLUB…
Ghrazel to the fore in Penultimate Race
In the penultimate race of the season Derek Pearson's Ghrazel was the winner in Cruisers 4 followed home by Myles Kelly a the helm of Maranda. For full DBSC results click read more: DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results…
Ireland take 5 and 12 in New York
Ireland has finished fifth and 12th in the inaugural New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup won yesterday by the host club. No one knew quite what to expect, even though a year and a half of planning went into getting…
Who is Sailing The All Ireland Champs?
The ISA is hosting its 'All Ireland' Sailing Championship at Royal Cork Yacht Club, Crosshaven, Co Cork on 25th, 26th & 27th September 2009. They've yet to announce the invitees but afloat.ie wants your views on who SHOULD be there…
Ryan Seaton and Matthew McGovern, competing in the 49er class, were 21st and 25th in race 4 and 5 respectively at the conclusion of day three of the Olympic Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth yesterday. Irish sailors are competing…
Cork Second But Protest Looms
Ireland's entry in the Clipper Round the World Race has finished second after the first leg of the race to La Rochelle but a protest against them and the first place boat from Finland looms. The Finnish skipper, Eero Lehtinen,…
O'Leary Third in First Race of New York Cup
Cork's Anthony O'Leary lies third after race one of the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup and Dublin's Michael Cotter is in seventh after a blustery open to the event yesterday. The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) won today’s opening…
'Cinnamon Girl'  Goes Sailing
Royal Cork's Cian McCarthy has launched his Class 40 yacht in preparation for Route de Chocolat, a transatlantic race from France to Mexico. After initial trials the boat, the first of a new design from Merfyn Owen and a sistership…
Dun Laoghaire's Annaliese Murphy , competing in the Laser Radial class, is in ninth place overall at the end of day two of the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. The Under 21 World Champion, who won Afloat's Sailor of the…
Round Ireland 2010 adds inshore race
The 30th anniversary of the Round Ireland Race gets a shake-up next June with Wicklow organisers set to run an inshore race for competitors prior to the 704-mile circumnavigation on Sunday June 20th.The change in format has been announced on…
21 Irish sailors have travelled to Weymouth, which will be the home of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta. They are competing, in the Sail for Gold Regatta (14th – 19th September 2009), across 5 different Olympic classes (Star, Radial, 49er,…

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]