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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
Golden moment - Figaro 2024 winner Tom Dolan Rrelaxing with the La Solitaire du Figaro trophy
Figaro winner Tom Dolan, in a review of the past season, says that winning the French race was much more than just a sporting success. " It is the culmination of several years of unremitting work, resilience, and moments of…
The German TP52 Red Bandit, skippered by Carl-Peter Forster is the overall winner of the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race
At 17:00 CEST on Wednesday, 23 October, the winner of the 45th edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race was announced as the German TP52 Red Bandit, skippered by Carl-Peter Forster. The Royal Malta Yacht Club has confirmed that none…
2024 Howth 17 Champion Erica of 1988 vintage steaming ahead of the 1898-built Aura, while the Puppeteer 22s negotiate their way around a lone Squib. The reason for the popularity of the Poolbeg Smokestacks on Dublin Bay is revealed. They speak to us as highly-refined versions of the classic and beloved lighthouse shape, whereas the much-loathed Kilroot Chimney on Belfast Lough is a brutally large and crude cylinder
The final weekend of October sailing at Howth came last Saturday (October 19th), as the members have to use the up-coming Hallowe'en Holiday Weekend to check out that their boats and yachts in Croatia and other more reliably sunny coasts…
Monkstown Bay dinghy racing will be followed by the club's annual laying-up supper, where the Autumn League prizegiving will also take place
The sailing season will end at Monkstown Bay in Cork Harbour this Saturday on the final day of the MBSC October League. Ronan Kenneally and Richard Harrington hold the first two places overall in Class 1, after each won a…
Off Malta's striking capital, Valletta, Scallywag claims line honours in the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race
Maxi competitors in this year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race got to use their complete sail wardrobes. Taking place mid-autumn in the Mediterranean, the race is renowned for varied conditions but 2024’s was even more extreme. On the first night competitors…
The presentation of the model of the Cork Harbour One Design Jap by the Love family to the Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven with (left to right) son Clayton Love III, RCYC Admiral Annamarie Fegan, son Neil Love, widow Barbara Love, and daughter Sarah Love
The great Clayton Love Jnr was suitably honoured at his death - aged 94 - with many tributes, including this appreciation in Afloat.ie on 9th March 2024.  But with every passing day since, the increasing awareness of the enormous contribution…
RYA NI Chair Susan Mcknight presents with Denise Watson at the Royal Yachting Association Northern Ireland's 50th Anniversary celebrations in the Belfast Harbour Commissioners Barnett  Room
The enormous Barnett Room , with its curved ceilings, stained glass windows, and artwork, was the grand venue in the Belfast Harbour Commissioners office for the Royal Yachting Association Northern Ireland's 50th Anniversary celebrations. As explained in the event programme,…
Chillax is an X-37 designed by Niels Jeppesen (photo of sister-ship)
The Rolex Middle Sea Race 2024's group of Maxis in the early stages got themselves into a growing lead getting through the Straits of Messina east of Sicily. Then astern of them, another substantial group of varied sizes also manage…
The Viking Marine Frostbite Series 1 commences on Sunday 3rd, November and runs through to December 22nd at Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay
By this time in two weeks, the first of the 2024/25 DMYC Viking Marine Dinghy Frostbite races will be behind us, weather permitting, but to date, the entry is quite modest, at 37 boats in total. The ILCA 6s lead…
Close racing on Lough Erne at the 34-boat 2024 GP14 Hot Toddy event
The weekend of 19/20 October saw the GP14 fleet return to Lough Erne Yacht Club for the Hot Toddy, the final event of the 2024 calendar. The warnings that Storm Ashley was due to batter the country did not deter…
With a haul of World youth titles Ireland's Eve McMahon has been shortlisted for a 2024 World Sailor of the Year Award
Eve McMahon took another first for Irish sailing this week when she was announced as a finalist for the Rolex World Sailor of the Year award. As regular Afloat readers will know, the Irish Sailor of the Year and Paris…
Scallywag 100 claims a 2024 Middle Sea Race impressive elapsed time of 2 days, 21 hours, and 33 minutes
Huang-Seng Lee’s Scallywag 100 (HKG) crossed the finish line of the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Raceat 09:43:29 CEST on Tuesday, 22 October, to take Monohull Line Honours in an elapsed time of two days, 21 hours, 33 minutes, 29 seconds. The…
The GBSC-chartered J/122 Noisy Oyster and
Three boats were dismasted by the vicious localised squall that put paid to the Middle Sea Race chances of nearly twenty boats in all, But Galway Bay SC's Mark Wilson and his crew of all the talents on the chartered…
Organisers are hoping to grow the fleet for the 2025 Scottish Series on the waters of Loch Fyne
The British and Irish sailing calendars are so crowded that it's wise to jump in early, and the Clyde Cruising Club in Scotland has done this by setting the dates for the Scottish Series eight months ahead. Tarbert in Loch…
An unofficial Squib ladder (downloadable below) for the 2024 season shows a Kinsale Yacht Club boat in the lead  after five events
Class aficionado Vincent Delany has produced a 'Squib Ladder' for the 2024 season based on results from five events.  The ladder is not an official document from the Irish Squib Class, but Delany's data shows that a healthy fleet of…
Pictured at the Cork Person of the Month presented to Annamarie Fegan, the first woman Admiral of the RCYC in 300 years are Annamarie Fegan (front left) and Ann-Marie O’Sullivan, AM O’Sullivan PR (front right) and rear L/R: Manus O’Callaghan, Awards Organiser, Tony O’Connell, O’Connell Photography, Oonagh Buckley and Ian O’Driscoll of Masterkabin.
Annamarie Fegan is Cork Person of the Month for October in recognition of her contribution to Cork sailing life, including her pioneering role in becoming the first female Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) in over 300 years.…

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]