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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
Any Irish Entries for October's Middle Sea Race?
The summer sailing season is halfway through in the northern hemisphere. For some yachts their autumn schedule is coming to the fore. The Rolex Middle Sea Race has long been the season closing offshore race. Last year  73 yachts have…
Irish Oppys Head for Dunmore East
The Irish Optimist Irish National Championships take place next week at Dunmore East in Co. Waterford from 17th - 21st August. Below at the launch of the event  at Waterford Harbour Sailing Club were  (left to right) Anna Potterton (WHSC)…
Roxanne Gets Green Light in Howth Tuesday Series
HOWTH YACHT CLUB. TUE + SAT SERIES 3 (RACE) 10/08/2010 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Leila R Cooper; 2, Rita Lynch/Curley; 3, Aura I Malcolm; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Leila R Cooper; 2, Rita Lynch/Curley; 3, Aura I Malcolm TUESDAY SERIES…
Solitaire du Figaro: Irish Coast Beckons
The first night at sea of Leg 3 of La Solitaire du Figaro proved to be as demanding as expected, with the skippers fighting against high winds, cold weather, drizzling rain, fog and, especially, a very fastidious swell. Several blown…
Indecision Makes the Right Move in Cruisers One
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 10 AUGUST 2010 CRUISERS 1 - 1. Indecision (Declan Hayes et al), 2. Powder Monkey (C.Moore/M.Byrne) CRUISERS 2 - 1. Cor Baby (Keith Kiernan et al), 2. Borraine (Ean Pugh), 3. Red…
Big Breeze Brings Big Results in Weymouth
Peter O'Leary and newly adopted German crew Frithjof Kleen were winners in the single Star keelboat race today but only after an international jury granted redress to the Cork helmsman who crossed the line second at the Skandia Sail for Gold…
Commodores' Cup 2010 Timetable Here!
The Commodores' Cup 2010 racing starts on sunday with two inshore races on the Solent. The full Timetable, programme and points weighting is below: Saturday, 14 August Registration/Skippers' briefing/Opening Reception Sunday, 15 August 2 x Solent inshore races (1.0 each)…
Mark Mills is Designer of Choice for 2010 Commodores' Cup
The ten challenges lodged for the 2010 is the smallest Commodores' Cup fleet size since 2000 when seven teams contested the trophy but in the battle of the designers  it's Afloat's sailor of the year Mark Mills from Wicklow who comes…
Dan Gill Becomes Youngest Ever GP Youth Champion
The GP14 Youth Championship 2010 was held at Sligo Yacht Club on Saturday 24th & 25th July in fresh Force 3 to 4 westerly winds with young sailors from six different clubs vying for honours. Senior sailors within the fleet…
Local Win for Sligo's Niall Henry and James Conlon in GP14s Summer Open
Sligo Yacht Club hosted the GP 14 Summer Open and Irish Youth Championships at Rosses Point on the 24th and 25th July. 26 boats lined up at the start. Gus Henry, himself a GP 14 sailor can always be relied…
O'Driscoll Domination of J24 Fleet Continues
The stranglehold that Flor O'Driscoll and his crew on 'Hard on Port' from the Royal St.George Yacht Club seem to have on the Irish J/24 Class was maintained with yet another win, this time the Northern Championships hosted by Lough…
'Gloves Off' Wins Calves Week Regatta Cup
Near perfect weather and the largest fleet of the week graced the waters off Schull on Sunday for the annual regatta and final day of Calves Week.Withthe start line moved outside the harbour the fleets took in both the Goat and Calve…
O'Leary's New German Crew Makes his Mark in Weymouth
Royal Cork's Peter O'Leary and his stand in German crew Frithjof Kleen are 13th overall after two races in the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta at Weymouth. O'Leary's rival for the Irish Star nomination at the Olympic regatta in two…
Fast Lane to Kinsale, Leg 3 of Solitaire du Figaro to Ireland has Started
The 44 skippers taking part to Leg 3 of the Solitaire du Figaro left Brest today for a 349 miles long route bound for Kinsale.  The start was hampered by the bulk of the fleet clustering the pin end of…
Commodores Cup: Send YOUR Good Luck Wishes HERE!
MANY OF YOU SENT GOOD LUCK WISHES AND NOW YOU CAN SAY WELL DONE TOO! SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE TO LEAVE YOUR CONGRATULATION MESSAGE! The ICRA Team Celebrations in Cowes, Photo: David Branigan After a series of near misses in…
International Dimension to Etchells Nationals
There is a distinctly international flavour to this year's Etchells National Championships sponsored by Euro Car Parks at Howth Yacht Club next weekend (August 14th & 15th), which is hardly surprising with the World Championships taking place at the same…

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]