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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 National Yacht Club 29er team of Louise Hanley and Hannah Walsh on Lake Garda
Eight young National Yacht Club sailors from Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay participated in an intensive training programme in Riva Del Garda, Italy recently. Theo Madigan, Daniel McDaid, Felix Dion, Lucas Browne, Louise Hanley, Hannah Walsh, Gemma Brady and…
Greek Sails flotilla holiday yachts moored in Órmos Zoyioryia (Zogiria Bay), north western Spetses, during a flotilla holiday in the Argolic Gulf, Greece
Greek Sailing Holiday talks will be held on either side of Dublin Bay this weekend, covering all aspects of flotilla and yacht charter. The evenings, including Greek snack tasting, will be held on Friday, 7th November, at 8 pm in…
Welsh Sailing take delivery of a brand new fleet of ILCA dinghies
Welsh Sailing has taken delivery of a brand new fleet of ILCA dinghies to support its performance pathways thanks to a major grant from Sport Wales. A total of £131,325 (€156,459) was awarded by Sport Wales to RYA Cymru Wales…
ISORA Champions 2024 -  The Ruth crew skippered by Tom. Shanahan
ISORA applauded its 2024 overall champion Tom Shanahan and his National Yacht Club 'Ruth' crew at the association's annual sell-out black-tie dinner at the National Yacht Club on Saturday, November 2nd. The winning J109 crew and many other prizewinners were saluted…
The 2024 Rolex World Sailor of the Year awards were presented to Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist Marit Bouwmeester, the most successful female sailor at the Olympics in the sport, and the Spanish duo of Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, gold medallists in the men’s skiff at Paris 2024 and winners of SailGP season 4
After a stunning year on the water, sailing’s highest achievers were honoured at the World Sailing Awards ceremony at Singapore’s historic CHIJMES Hall.The 2024 Rolex World Sailor of the Year awards – the 30th year of the awards – were…
The classic IDRA 14s at Clontarf start their 2024 Santa Series with Dublin Port in the background continuing its process of
The Irish Dinghy Racing Association and other clubs may have made some of the significant input into the formation of the IDRA 14 Class way back in 1946. But these days Clontarf is the class's spiritual home, and it was…
What a curious sailing dinghy is the successful Melges 15. Every time you see it from a fresh angle, it looks like some completely different boat. Be that as it may, the Melges 15 is trending big time in Howth – this is top racers Clan McMahon on their way to victory on Sunday
The word is that the Golden Jubilee of Howth's legend-laden Frosbite Series is going to be marked by having its 50th Anniversary next year, when the 2024-25 winter programme morphs into the sparkling new season of 2025 with the Round…
Superyacht Bayesian off Sicily in 2024
A New York Times investigation into the sinking of superyacht Bayesian off Sicily claims its extra-tall mast may have contributed to the capsize. At 72 metres (237 feet) high, the mast was one of the tallest in the world. The…
Tom Purdon and Olivia Hayes competing at the 18th RS 400 Winter Series at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club
The Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club kicked off the 18th year of the RS 400 Winter Series, welcoming back class veteran Dave Cheyne alongside Susan McKnight. The event featured a growing fleet, including newcomers Patrick Hamilton with Sam Kelly…
Blazing the trail – an ILC 37 with Anthony O'Leary on the helm setting the pace for the Royal Cork YC in the NYYC Invitational
The New York Yacht Club's biennial Invitational Inter-club series at Newport RI has seen Royal Cork and Howth campaigning in the sporty Mark Mills-designed ILC 37 One Designs, and they'll be racing again in September 2025. But the closed-shop generally…
The well-campaigned Corby 25, Impetuous, owned by Fergal Noonan of Howth Yacht Club, is ICRA's ECHO handicap Boat of the Year
Following the conclusion of Howth and Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Autumn Leagues, ICRA has finalised scores for the season for its ECHO Boat of the Year competition. The well-campaigned Corby 25, Impetuous, owned by Fergal Noonan of Howth Yacht Club, has emerged…
Close racing in the Monkstown Bay SC Winter Fireball Series
Fireballers don't hang up their dinghy boots for winter in Ireland...the weekend just gone saw some close racing both in the Monkstown Bay SC Winter Series in Cork Harbour and in the Viking Marine DMYC Frostbites series in Dun Laoghaire…
Sail Training Ireland crew on board the Brian Ború tall ship in Cork
Sail Training Ireland is among the organisations to benefit from the latest round of grants from the Dormant Accounts Fund. The training organisation has been granted 50,000 euro through allocations to the Department of Defence. The Civil Defence’s rigid inflatable…
Fireballs and Aeros approach the weather mark in the first race of the Viking Marine 2024/25 DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
The 2024/25 DMYC Frostbites, sponsored by Viking Marine, got underway yesterday in Dun Laoghaire Harbour in overcast but favourable conditions with 13° air temperatures and a light wind from 175° that stayed constant all afternoon , or at least as…
File image of Portora Lock on the Erne System
Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels on the Erne System in Northern Ireland that essential repair work is taking place at Portora Lock in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh from now until next Monday 11 November. During this time, the lock will…
420 dinghy Gold fleet prize winners at the 2024 420 'Ulster' Championships hosted by Malahide Yacht Club
The 420 class had a busy half term that started with three days of class association training at Lough Derg Yacht Club over the bank holiday weekend, followed by the 2024 Ulster Championships at Malahide Yacht Club this weekend. A…

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]