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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
Competitors get ready for the start of the 2022 DMYC Kish Race. The 2023 race starts this Sunday
Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC) on Dublin Bay has reported a steady flow of entries for this weekend's highly anticipated Kish Race. In a recent announcement, the club has introduced a new perpetual prize for the first Under 25 Skipper…
The dinghy park of the 70-boat Fireball European Championship at Portroz in Slovenia
Two Irish boats are lying in the top ten overall in the 70-boat Fireball European Championship at Portroz in Slovenia. Josh Porter and Cara McDowell are lying 7th overall and Adrian Lee and Ossian Geraghty are in 10th place. Claude…
Dramatic scenes as the helicopter creates swell making the rescue of Ocean Globe Race competitor Stéphane Raguenes more challenging. Three crew members entered the liferaft to assist in the lift
An injured crew member from the 53ft French Yacht TRIANA, racing around the world in the McIntyre Ocean Globe, was successfully rescued yesterday after a dramatic long-range helicopter mission. The alarm was raised early on the morning of 18th when…
The ship’s bell from the wreck site of steam ship, S.S. Dundalk on display at the port-town’s Louth County Museum.
Dundalk is where a team of divers from the Isle of Man visited the Co. Louth port town so to bring the bell of the steam ship flagship, S.S. Dundalk back to a grateful town. As EnergyFM reports, divers of Discover…
Top US sailor Eddie Cox from Melges USA flew in for a Melges15 training clinic at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Irish Melges 15 sailors got some high and low-speed lessons in boat handling and sail trim in Dun Laoghaire Harbour last weekend. With top US sailor Eddie Cox from Melges USA flying in, tips and tricks were raining down all weekend. Saturday…
Lough Ree Yacht Club was the perfect venue for the massive fleet of 172 Optimist sailors
The last IODAI Regional Championship of the year saw a massive fleet of 172 Optimist sailors descend on the midlands club of Lough Ree last weekend to compete in the Connaught Championships. After a busy summer, it was fitting to…
43rd annual Gortmore Bell Race winners on Lough Derg: (from left to right) Stefan Uhlemann, Robert Bourke, Donie O'Donnell, Stephen O'Mullan and John Lawless
A local Limerick sailing team has emerged victorious in the 43rd annual Gortmore Bell Race, held on September 9th on Lough Derg. The race is considered the longest inland sailing race in Ireland and attracted 18 entries from various sailing…
Triana, which has an injured crew man onboard, is currently 210 nautical miles South West of Portugal. The McIntyre Ocean Globe race is a retro race in the spirit of the Whitbread Round the World Race. Fourteen yachts are competing in the eight-month adventure
The Portuguese Rescue Coordination Center is working with the McIntyre Ocean Globe crisis management team to coordinate a long-range helicopter medivac of injured sailor Stéphane Raguenes on board the French yacht TRIANA. The yacht is one of 14 entrants that…
The late Mick Hunt working on the restoration of the Galway hooker An Lady Mor in 1985

Mick Hunt RIP

18th September 2023 Galway Hookers
Afloat.ie regret to record the death at the age of 83 of Mick Hunt of Howth and Connacht, who was best known for his restorations and sailing of traditional craft, but was equally adept at bringing new life to old…
George Radley Jnr's Skipper 700 Pat Mustard was second overall in Cove Sailing Club's Friday night IRC cruiser racing
David and Richard Marshall headed the Wednesday night dinghy league series at Cove Sailing Club in Cork Harbour in their Rankin R30. Second was Owen O’Connell in Rankin R61, and third was Maurice and Frances Kidney in their R12. Rankins…
The AC40s at the preliminary regatta of the 37 America's Cup in Vilanova i la Geltrú from 14th to 17th September
With NYYC American topping the final series standings after a simply stunning day at Vilanova i La Geltrú where they took their chances, front-ran like demons and sailed incredibly smoothly, it was all-on for the Match Race Grand Final against Emirates…
Boatbuilders working on restoring Galway’s maritime heritage are part of the upcoming Galway Docklands Festival
The heart of Galway's maritime heritage comes to life with the much-anticipated Galway Docklands Festival, taking place from September 29th to October 1st, 2023. As Afloat reported earlier, the three-day festival promises an unforgettable experience celebrating Galway's rich marine industry,…
Sandy Askew's Flying Jenny crew emerged as the overall champions of the Royal Southern Yacht Club's Cape 31 September Regatta
Flying Jenny emerged as the overall champion of the Royal Southern Yacht Club's September Regatta on the Solent and secured their second overall win of the Cape 31 Race Circuit. The regatta featured various weather conditions throughout the weekend, with…
Flying Fifteens racing for 2023 East Coast Championship honours on Dublin Bay
The last “salt-water” regatta for the Irish Flying Fifteen fleet was hosted this past weekend by the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. Early in the week beforehand, the forecast was for a robust Saturday and a more genteel Sunday…….and…
Celestial, the overall winner of the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has announced that the 78th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is off to a great start with 66 entrants signed up, just 99 days before the historic race on St. Stephen's…
The Ruffian Golden Jubilee calendar All Ireland Team Racing Championship was hosted by Mayo Sailing Club in the first weekend of September
Following the success of the Ruffian 23 50th anniversary celebrations in Portaferry in June, the next major event in the Ruffian Golden Jubilee calendar was the All Ireland Team Racing Championship hosted by Mayo Sailing Club on Saturday and Sunday,…

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]