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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
Big Breeze for Second Race of Royal Cork Autumn Regatta
Strong westerlies that swept Royal Cork's Yacht Club's George Kenefick to success at the All Ireland championships on Lough Derg also blew for the second race of his club's Autumn regatta in Cork Harbour today writes Claire Bateman. Bob Bateman's…
Nick Craig and Toby Lewis are 2011 'Endeavour' Champions
Nick Craig and Toby Lewis representing the OK class have won the Endeavour Trophy after an extremely close fought, two-day championship on the River Crouch. Craig, who has now won the event a total of five times, and Lewis who's…
Strong Conditions for Second Race at Howth's WD-40 Autumn League
In stark contrast to the previous weekend, when lack of wind prevented racing, the second race of the WD-40 Autumn League at Howth Yacht Club was sailed in fresh and gusty south-westerlies which had a bearing on a dozen non-finishers…
Kenefick Wins as Royal Cork Sailors Take 1,2 in All Ireland Champs
23-year old sailor George Kenefick of Royal Cork Yacht Club is the 2011 Waterways Ireland All Ireland Sailing Champion after the tightest of finishes on Lough Derg this afternoon. Kenefick tied with club mate Mark Mansfield on 12 points but…
Team Sanya Takes Third in Qualifying Race
Team Sanya, the Irish–Chinese entry in the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race, took a third place podium position in the Volvo Ocean Race qualifying race in Alicante Spain, behind Team Telefonica in first place and Puma Ocean Race Team in second…
RS Duo Lead Endeavour Trophy
Twenty-year-old James Peters and crewman Alan Roberts are overnight leaders of the 2011 Endeavour Trophy, the UK's champion of champions sailing trophy. RS200 national champions Peters and Roberts sailed an impressive series in today's testing conditions and lead this champions…
O'Leary Exits All Ireland Sailing Regatta
Pre-Regatta favoutite Anthony O'Leary has exited the All Ireland Sailing Championships in the qualfiying rounds. A start line penalty suffered in today's second race of flight two forced him out of the running. The victorious Commodore's Cup captain, the current…
Eight Line up for Breezy All Ireland Finals
Three Cork keelboat sailors top the fleet after today's qualifying rounds of the Waterways Ireland All Irieland Sailing Championships at Lough Derg Yacht Club. Royal Cork's George Kenefick leads on four points. Flor O'Driscoll, orignally from West Cork but sailing…
Kenefick, Mansfield, Allen and Duncan Progress to All Ireland Finals
Two Royal Cork sailors stormed to the top of this morning's opening rounds of the Waterways Ireland All Ireland Sailing Championships. ICRA chsampion George Kenefick scored 1,1,2 to finsh top of the group with 1720 sportsboat Mark Mansfield in second…
Norway Relaxes Law on Leaving Foreign Flagged Yacht
Following the levying of substantial fines on foreign yachtsmen, much pressure has recently been brought to bear on the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and the Norwegian Customs to amend draconian regulations relating to owners of foreign flagged vessels who wish…
Heavy Weight Crews in Demand for Tomorrow's All Ireland Champs
Strong winds forecast for Lough Derg means heavy weight crew are at a premium this morning as skippers attempt to gain a late advantage in selecting crew for tomorrow's Waterways Ireland sponsored All Ireland Sailing Championships at Dromineer. A line…
Safety of World's Tall Ships In Question
Safety on the world's 700 sail training tall ships has been called into doubt, Sail World reports. http://www.afloat.ie/sail/tall-ships/ The concern comes following an investigation into the sinking of Canadian tall ship Concordia off the coast of Brazil last year. The…
Strong Start for Derry-Londonderry in Clipper Race
After a week enjoying all Cape Town has to offer, Derry-Londonderry and the other nine teams taking part in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race have set off on Race 4 of the 15-race series. At 40,000 miles,…
Derry-Londonderry Racing to Australia
Irish entry Derry Londonderry under skipper Mark Light took part in a Parade of Sail in Cape Town, South Africa, beneath Table Mountain, at thestart of Race 4 to Geraldton, Western Australia, in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht…
Poolbeg Welcomes Back Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Winter Talks Programme
Once again the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association's (DBOGA) winter talk programme, makes a welcome return to the Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, Ringsend, in the heart of Dublin Port. During the winter / spring program which runs between October…
RS Class Stage Sprint Sailing Event in Dun Laoghaire
An inaugural RS sailing dinghy Sprint Trophy series at The Royal St George Yacht Club will be held on Saturday, 22nd October 2011. The plan is run up to 10 races over short team racing style courses. Each race is…

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]