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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
Doorly's Deranged in Flying Form
Not even a mid race heavy rain shower could dampen spirits of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club fleet celebrating the arrival of the Figaro fleet in Dun Laoghaire tonight. The 48-boat Figaro fleet are moored in front of the National…
Irish Star Shines Bright in Second Overall
In an impressive show of speed and strength that may yet produce one of the top Irish Olympic campaign performances of all time, Peter O'Leary and David Burrows notched up two more top six results in the Star Class yesterday…
McGovern and Seaton Racing Hard in the 49er Dinghy
After 13 fleet races sailed Ireland's Matt McGovern and Ryan Seaton sit 14th from 24 at the at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta, the Olympic Test Event today. Here's a video interview of the Ballyholme duo after another windy…
200 Crews for Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2011
This year's Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), starting from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on November 20, promises to be one of the biggest ever, as up to 200 crews are planning the 2,700 mile transatlantic crossing to Rodney Bay,…
RS Feva Nationals Start in Cork Harbour Tomorrow
Teenage RS Feva sailors from Ireland and overseas will battle it out in Cork Harbour over three days for the title of Irish National and Open Champion. The event starts on Friday 12 August, with racing over three days finishing…
Sebago Shoeboat is Catch of the Day at Cowes
The authentic hand sewn Sebago deckshoe brand dating back to 1946 has been entertaining the crowds at Cowes this week. The Cowes comeback has been dominated by the 'Sebago Shoeboat' cruising the Medina with gifts for home coming sailors. Sebago's…
Virbac-Paprec 3 rising to the challenge of the Fastnet
On Sunday Virbac-Paprec 3 will be lining up for the start of the 44th Rolex Fastnet Race. Jean-Pierre Dick will be assisted by Guillaume Le Brec as he takes on the 608-mile challenge that runs from Cowes to Plymouth via…
Fastnet Calling for a Dozen Boats of Irish Interest
There are a dozen boats among a fleet of 350 for Sunday's Fastnet race that are either Irish or of Irish interest. Afloat's July 26th story on the Irish in the Fastnet story gave details on some of these boats…
Murphy in Fourth but Big Gap to Third
After two more windy races at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta, the Olympic Test Event, Ireland's Annalise Murphy is up to fourtth overall on 79 points after the series of 10 fleet races were completed yesterday but significantly the…
Britain's Ben Ainslie Sitting Pretty in Weymouth  (Video here)
Three time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie insists he is slowly building up a picture of what London 2012 will be like after another dominating day at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta writes Ben Baker in Weymouth. The 34-year-old has…
SB3 and RS Elite Heading for Belfast Lough Showdown
Over the weekend of 20 and 21 August, Royal Ulster Yacht Club in Bangor will be hosting two sailing competitions, the RS Elite Irish Championships and the Laser SB3 Northern Area Championships writes Betty Armstrong.  These events, which are sponsored…
Jérémie Beyou winner and Overall Leader in Dún Laoghaire
The 2005 Solitaire du Figaro champion crossed the finish line Dún Laoghaire not only to win the second leg but take the overall lead in the four-stage sailing race.  Nicolas Lunven, the 2009 champion was second with Adrien Hardy, who…
Golding announces Bruno Dubois as co-skipper for Transat Jacques Vabre
Mike Golding has joined forces with Belgo-Canadian Bruno Dubois to co-skipper in the 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre, the first race of his Gamesa sponsored campaign leading towards the 2012 Vendée Globe. Dubois, who also partnered Mike in the 2007 Transat…
Jérémie Beyou on BPI wins Dun Laoghaire Leg of Solitaire du Figaro
Crossing the Dún Laoghaire finish line this morning at 09:14:16 French solo sailor Jérémie Beyou won the second leg of 42nd edition of famous sailing race Solitaire du Figaro. It took BPI skipper, who was crowned overall winner back in…
Derry-Londonderry arrives in Madeira at end of Clipper Race Leg
Derry-Londonderry has arrived in Madeira at the end of the first stage of the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race which began in Southampton on 31 July. The team crossed the line outside of Quinta Do Lorde Marina at…
Murphy Drops to Fifth in Weymouth
Lighter winds brought trouble for Annalise Murphy in Weymouth today as her scores of 16 and 18 in the Laser Radial dropped her three places from second to fifth overall in the Olympic Test event. Still the Dun Laoghaire 21-Year…

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]