Menu

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
Refurbished Naval Yacht 'Creidne' Sailing the High Seas
Although not a 'Long Eireannach', the yacht Creidne is nevertheless a proud member of the Naval fleet. She looked very much the part, with her gleaming blue topsides, during manouvers in Cork Harbour for Royal Cork Yacht Club's annual Naval…
Ainslie Heads Up 'Team GB' as Britain Launches Olympic Sailing Team
The road to 2012 glory has just got one step closer for some of the nation's top sailors who today became the first British athletes to be officially selected to compete for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games.…
Sharkbait Wins By a Single Point at SB3 National Championships
Top Race officer Jack Roy did a superb job getting a full schedule of three races in on Friday and three on Saturday at the SB3 sports boat National Championships that were hosted by the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Unfortunately…
Sharkbait Wins SB3 National Championship (Full Results Here)
After six races sailed and against a fleet of 39 SB3 sportsboats there was little surprise that champions 'Sharkbait' sailed by Ben Duncan, Brian Moran and Ric Morris were the winners of the National Championships sailed at the Royal Irish…
Sports Stars Share Fitness Tips
Leading Irish sports stars are at the National Dairy Council stand each day of this year's National Ploughing Championships. They will share their top tips for training and talk about the role diet can play to help people of all…
New German Tall Ship Launched
At noon on September 24th, Germany's first newly built tall ship since 1958 will be christened Alexander von Humboldt II in Bremerhaven. Together with its predecessor, the famous green sailed barque Alexander von Humboldt, the new ship will be moored…
Brisk Sailing for Royal Cork's Naval Race (Photos here)
There was a great sailing breeze for today's Royal Cork Naval Race in Cork harbour and the appearance of the Navy's own Sail Training Yacht Creidne added to the occasion at Haulbowline writes Claire Bateman. Scroll down for photos. The…
Eighth Place Overall for O'Leary at New York Invitational Cup
Anthony O'Leary ended up in the same position as he started the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup after yesterday's final rounds. The Royal Cork crew counted a 15 in the final race to end up eighth, the same as…
Maguire's 'Gwili Two' Wins Penultimate  Sigma Race
Royal St. George Sigma Gwili Two skippered by Paddy Maguire took the gun in Dublin Bay Sailing Club's penultimate race of the summer season on Saturday. Second was Pippa lV (G.Kinsman/K.Blake/M.O'Brien) and third the Irish Champion Sigma White Mischief from…
Eight Teams Advance to Nations Cup Semifinals
In match racing news, Rita Goncalves (POR) and Henrique Haddad (BRA) each won their repechage rounds to qualify to move onto the Nations Cup Grand Final semifinals, to be sailed Saturday. The skippers and their crews join three other teams…
Royal Cork Move up to Seventh in New York
Royal Cork Yacht Club is seventh overall after scoring an impressive third place in yesterday's race nine of the New York Invitational Cup. The Anthony O'Leary skippered yacht moved from tenth to seventh after scores of 3 and 12 in…
'Class Afloat' Tall Ship to Visit Belfast Next Week
Class Afloat, a school that sails on one of the world's most spectacular tall ships, will be in Belfast next week. Weather and sea conditions permitting, SS Sorlandet is expected to arrive in Belfast on September 18th and stay docked…
Cork Week 2012 Chairman Appointed
Royal Cork Yacht Club has announced Pat Lyons will chair the club's biggest sailing regatta next season. Cork Week 2012 at Crosshaven is scheduled to run from the 7th - Friday 13th July 2012 following a decison to move the…
Green Dragon Backer Works His Magic for VOR in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi's The National has an interview with David Hassett, commercial director of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Irish yachting veteran, ahead of the city's hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race. http://afloat.ie/sail/ http://www.afloat.ie/sail/events/volvo-ocean-race/ Hassett was instrumental in bringing the race…
New 'Ensign' Class Takes off for Dublin Bay Sailing Club
Tomorrow is the penultimate race of the DBSC season, a season in which the 350-boat club tackled the long standing problem of crew shortages. Together with Dun Laoghaire's waterfront yacht clubs, DBSC introduced an 'Ensign Class' to extend the possibility…
O'Leary Stays in Top Ten in New York
Anthony O'Leary's Royal Cork Yacht Club crew stay in the top ten overall after scoring two double digit results yesterday at the Rolex New York Invitational Cup. The Crosshaven crew counted a 20 and a 15 in the 22-boat fleet.…

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]