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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
The IRC 2 boat, the French J/111 SL Energies (Laurent Charmy) winner of the 2022 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race is returning to defend her title next month in the biennial race
Fastwave, the French 2022 winner of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race, is returning to defend its title. The addition of SL Energies Groupe Fastwave to the race has bolstered the already strong line-up. Skipper Laurent Charmy will sail his…
Cork Harbour's Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan from Royal Cork Yacht Club have scored 41 points and are in 27th place after the first day of racing at the 49er European Championships in La Grande Motte, South of France. Their scores for the day were 20, 6 and 15. They are currently competing against Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, who are leading the Irish selection trials for the single Irish 49er place at the Paris Olympics
The outcome of the final Irish Olympic sailing selection trial for Paris 2024 remains finely balanced between two rivals after the first qualifying races in La Grande Motte in the South of France. Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove from Dublin's Howth Yacht Club and Skerries…
Pip Hare pictured dockside during the Bermudes 1000 race in Brest in 2022
Pip Hare’s Vendée Globe campaign is sailing into some choppy waters with news that the veteran offshore solo sailor needs more funding by this summer or the boat likely won’t race in November. As Marine Industry News reports, Hare’s team…
Houston Yacht Club in Texas is no longer the only HYC to own a Melges 15 as a done are on their way to Dublin's Howth Yacht Club
Howth Yacht Club in Ireland is set to receive a full container of 12 Melges 15s next week, as the class continues to grow rapidly. This arrival will double the Irish fleet to 24 boats, with a strong fleet of…
May's RORC Myth of Malham Race Winner Rob Craigie’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino will again be racing Two-Handed with RORC Commodore Deb Fish in June's Round Ireland Race from Wicklow Sailing Club
The overall winner of RORC Myth of Malham Race, after IRC time correction, was June's Round Ireland Race entry Rob Craigie’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing Two-Handed with RORC Commodore Deb Fish. It's another win of a RORC points championships…
J109 Jukebox was the  IRC Class 2 Warsash Spring Championships winner
Cork Harbour tactician Mark Mansfield maybe setting his sights on the upcoming European Championships, as part of the JCup Ireland at the Royal Irish Yacht Club on Dublin Bay and the IRC European Championships the following weekend at the same…
Olympic Silver Medalist Annalise Murphy is a guest speaker at Women At The Helm Regatta 2024
The 2024 Women At The Helm Regatta (WATH) will be hosted by the National Yacht Club over the weekend of May 24-26. The event encourages female sailors who may not normally lead, to step up and make the move from crew to helm.…
Seol Sionna's St Ayles skiff Ealu and the Shannon Hooker Sally O'Keeffe attracted the holiday crowd to the quay at
The secret of Querrin is that it is secret. Or at least it used to be. This quiet community-minded place along the blessed south-facing coast of County Clare, on the north shore of the Shannon Estuary between Poulnasherry Bay and Carrigaholt…
The two Irish 49ers of Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove from Dublin's Howth Yacht Club and Skerries (IRL 99) and Crosshaven's Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan from Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL 11 on port) are pictured on a startline during a warm-up race at La Grande Motte in the South of France
Irish Olympic sailing fans have their eyes fixed on the 49er European Championships that kicked off in La Grande Motte in the South of France this morning. This event is the final trial for Paris 2024 selection, and the international…
Top tactics put Spain in the driving seat to win overall at SailGP in Bermuda
In an impressive display of tactical decision-making and expert manoeuvering, Diego Botin’s young Spanish team won the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix over season leaders New Zealand and Australia. Held on the iconic waters of Bermuda's Great Sound, the race saw…
Third overall, the Royal St. George Yacht Club's Adrian Lee of Dun Laoghaire on port tack in CSA Racing 1 division at Antiqua Week 2024 with second overall Sir Hugh Bailey's local Farr 45 entry, Rebel (ANT 3030) on starboard
The Royal St. George Yacht Club's Adrian Lee of Dun Laoghaire has finished third overall in his Swan 60 Lee Overlay Partners II at Antigua Sailing Week in the Caribbean. Lee, a previous winner of the Caribbean 600 Race, finished…
French sailor Yoann Richomme is the Transat CIC Race winner
French sailor Yoann Richomme has won the 15th edition of The Transat CIC, a historic solo transatlantic race across the North Atlantic from Lorient in Brittany to New York. Richomme, sailing his Finot Conq-Antoine Koch designed PAPREC ARKÉA, crossed the…
The National Yacht Club's first 'Cruise in Company' sail of the season saw an impressive turnout of 20 boats in Scotsman's Bay at Dun Laoghaire Harbour for a sail to Greystones Harbour in County Wicklow on Sunday, May 5th
The National Yacht Club's first 'Cruise in Company' sail of the season saw an impressive turnout of 20 boats. The boats gathered at Scotsman's Bay on Sunday, May 5, at 12:30 p.m. before embarking on a leisurely 12-mile journey south…
David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers' Wallycento Galateia, en route to her third PalmaVela victory with Cork's Justin Slattery, Nicholas O'Leary and Kelvin and Rory Harrap as part of the crew (Rory is pictured on the bow)
Two of Cork's top big boat sailors were onboard Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s superyacht Wallycento Galateia in the first victory of the season at Palmavela Regatta in Palma, Majorca on Sunday. Double Round the World Race Race winner Justin…
RORC Cervantes Race Winner 'Black Sheep' is entered in the 700-mile Round Ireland Race
The winner of last month's RORC Cervantes Trophy, Black Sheep, the UK-based Sun Fast 3600 skippered by Trevor Middleton, has become the latest entry into next month's SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race, adding further excitement to an already exotic fleet.…
IMOCA Transat CIC solorace leader Yoann Richomme at the helm of Paprec Arkea
While the IMOCA race leader Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) was still making more than 20 kts this evening, a nerve-racking slow down is still expected for the final miles to the finish of the Transat CIC solo race from Lorient…

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]