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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
Provisional ICRA 2010 bands published
Provisional IRC class bands for ICRA's Liebherr Cruiser Nationals in the Royal St George are now up online. Sailors can download a word document with all the details and contact the organisers with any feedback. The link to the bands…
New Trophy for Offshore Race from Cork to Dublin
A new sailing trophy will be awarded to the winning yacht in a new offshore race from Cork Harbour to Dublin as part of the build up to the Irish Cruiser Racer Nationals to be held on Dublin Bay from…
Corkman helps drive BMW to victory
Cork sailor Revelin Minihane joined Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts this week in winning the second round of the 2010 RC44 cup in Austrlia. Minihane, in the pit for the BMW Oracle team, was part of a crew that dominated…
Irish Fireballs slip further in Barbados
Chips Howarth and Viv Townend continue to build what looks like an insurmountable lead sailing at the Fireball World Championships, notching up two further wins in yesterday's light airs. Their scoreline now reads 1-3-3-1-1-1, putting them 11 points clear at…
Hamilton's 'Dunmoanin' wins IDRA 14 DBSC Race
North Westerly winds and volcanic ash may have caused havoc for airline passengers today but the ten knot breezes preoved perfect for Tuesday night Dublin Bay Sailing Club racing on Dublin Bay. Frank Hamilton's IDRA 14 dinghy Dunmoanin was the…
Foynes to Stage Mermaid Championships
Foynes Yacht Club has been chosen to host the Mermaid National Championships.  The competition, last hosted in Foynes in 2004, will see almost forty sailing boats of a classic 1950’s design, racing daily for seven days on the estuary waters…
The New Cork Clipper ready and waiting in Panama
The new Cork Clipper yacht is waiting for its crew to arrive in Panama to rejoin the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. The ten boat Clipper Race was cut to nine in January when the original Cork Clipper hit…
UK J80 Nationals Take Place on the Irish Sea
The Tacktick Suunto J/80 UK National Championship 2010 commences this week. The event will be hosted by the Cardiff Bay Yacht Club from Wednesday 5th May to Saturday 8th of May. Racing will take place in the Bristol Channel under…
Heads Out of the Boat for RORC's Cervantes Trophy Race
A big variation in wind strength and direction gave the competitors in the RORC Cervantes Trophy Race plenty to think about; spotting the changes in the conditions and reacting to them proved crucial. Sailing Logic’s Reflex 38, Visit Malta Puma,…
ICAP Leopard Prepares for Transatlantic Record Assault
ICAP Leopard, the 100ft super-maxi racing yacht owned by Helical Bar PLC chief executive Mike Slade, is this week berthed in New York’s bustling financial district as she prepares to launch her assault upon the west-to-east monohull transatlantic sailing record…
Townend/Howarth dominate Fireball worlds
Serial world champions Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend (GBR) continue to lead the 2010 Fireball Worlds after day two of sailing in Barbados. The pair have already counted a hat-trick of Fireball World Championships, winning the title in 2003, 2005…
Commodore Appeals for Big Turnout for Second ISORA Race
After a record turnout for its first race of the season to Holyhead a week ago ISORA Commodore Peter Ryan has appealed for a similar effort for next weekends race from Dun Laoghaire to Arklow and back. This ISORA race will be…
Butler and Moore Best of Irish Fireballs in Barbados
Fireball International Week, the warm up to next weeks world championships, concluded in Barbados yesterday. Dublin's Noel Butler and Seamus Moore were the best of the Irish with two 14s leaving them in 16th overall. Neil Spain and Franis Rowan…
Gareth Flannigan is April's Sailor of the Month
Gareth Flannigan of Ballyholme is the Afloat.ie/Irish Independent “Sailor of the Month” for April after rising through the 43-strong fleet at last weekend’s busy East Coast SB3 Championship in Dublin Bay. Mobility was the core concept for the 20ft SB3…
VOR port opens first Indian marina
The Indian port of Kochi, which hosted a Volvo Ocean Race stopover during the last edition of the race, has opened the first world-class marina on the entire subcontinent.The Ocean Blue group which built the marina supplied the stopover with…
Sea Dubai start with 4 wins from 5
Team Sea Dubai, with Dubliner Dave McHugh on board, settled into joint second place with Team Aqua in the RC44 Austria Cup after superb sailing on day one. The team had drafted in decorated Dragon sailor Harm Muller Spreer at…

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]