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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
Antix Lines out for Channel Race
The Channel Race is the last RORC offshore race prior to the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race and some well known boats will be competing in the race which will last between 24-36 hours on a flexi-course. The top…
Volunteer Falls to Death on Tall Ship
A 68-year-old sailing volunteer fell to his death over the weekend from the yardarm of a tall ship. Gregory Vance Gushaw was preparing the Star of India, a 205-foot windjammer, to set sail when he slipped off his spot on…
Cork Week News, Videos and Photos HERE!
Back at your desk this morning? Looking to review Cork week? We've gathered all Afloat.ie's Cork week 2010 news, videos and gallery links HERE. Forum threads HERE. Dave Dwyer (Marinerscove) and Paul Kirwan (Erisslannan) are awarded the boat of the week…
Follow the Match Race Challenge Online
The organisers of this weekend's inaugural International Match Race Challenge are attempting to make the regatta a multimedia spectacle, with live reports on the action in Dun Laoghaire's Scotsman's Bay relayed to a constantly updated website. The new site, live…
Cork Welcomed Back to Hull in Fantastic Finale to Clipper Round the World Yacht Race
A spectacular welcome greeted the crews of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race as they arrived back in Hull at the end of their 35,000-mile circumnavigation. For the non-professional crew onboard the ten ocean racing yachts, the return…
'Hyfive' Continues Winning Way on Dublin Bay
With several key boats competing at Cork week there was no racing for Cruisers Zero on Saturday but there was plenty of other action across the 17 divisions of the Dublin Port sponsored Dublin Bay Sailing Club. Continuing their winning…
Butler and McCarthy Dominate Fireball Leinsters in Howth
Noel Butler and Shane McCarthy lived up to their pre-event billing as favourites for the Fireball Leinster Championship at Howth YC this weekend. The National Champions ended up eight points clear in the 20 boat sailing fleet. The southside pairing…
Last Day Video from Cork Week 2010
The final video from Cork Week 2010 at Crosshaven is over the fold .Well done to Marinerscove (Dave Dwyer) and Errislannan (Paul Kirwan), Cork's boats of the week here:
Final Day: Erisslannan and Marinerscove are Cork's 'Boats of the Week'
It's no longer of  Boat of the Week but boats of the week at Cork week this evening as Dave Dwyer's Mills 39, Marinerscove.ie and Paul Kirwan's Sigma 38, Errislannan have been jointly awarded Cork's top award. You could feel the tension on…
O'Dowd is Top Irish Youth in Ninth
A fifteenth place finish in the last race was enough to give Matthew O'Dowd ninth overall in the 2010 ISAF Youth Worlds in Istanbul, Turkey, which drew to a close in near-perfect conditions today. Although he placed third for much…
Steve White announces bid to break the 'Westabout' Solo Circumnavigation Sailing World Record
Professional sailor Steve White has announced his intention to break the current world record for circumnavigating the globe single-handed, non-stop the "wrong way", against the prevailing winds and currents. Steve will be sailing a Volvo Open 70, which would usually…
Top Ten Finish on the Cards for O'Dowd
Matthew O'Dowd clings to the ISAF Youth Worlds Top Ten going into the last day of racing today, having posted mixed results in a shifty day off Istanbul yesterday that allowed the boy's fleet put in three races. His tenth…
Day 4 Cork Week Vid is a Cracker! Watch HERE!
Looking more like a leg from the Volvo Ocean Race, Cork Week yesterday enjoyed an epic day four and this Digby Fox video (below) proves it! A 20 knot ripper!
Zu Wins Windy Dublin Bay Race Tonight
Winds gusting to 20 knots greeted tonight's Dublin Bay Sailing Club fleet for its regular Thursday night league. Peter Dee's Dragon Zu was the winner of the Dragon class. Full sailing results are posted over the fold. Dublin Port Dublin…
Day 4 Cork Week (High Speed) Photos HERE!
Photographer Bob Bateman followed the five super zero yachts today as winds at Cork week hit 20 knots. Report HERE.
Day Four: Surfs up at Cork Week
Well it doesn't get better than this; gusting over 20 knots with wind over tide, kicking up the surf, the penultimate day of Cork Week was a day for some ballistic racing and a few dramatic sailing moments writes Louay…

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]