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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
The National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire hosts the ILCA National Championships from August 23rd to 25th
With the Olympic Games just around the corner, the National Yacht Club is buzzing with anticipation as members and the sailing community eagerly look ahead to the upcoming events in Marseille. Finn Lynch will be representing NYC when he competes…
22 Mirror dinghies contested the 2024 National Championships on Lough Ree
Double Ree Regatta never disappoints! 22 Mirrors from all corners of Ireland made it to Lough Ree Yacht Club to participate in the year's premier double-handed event. For the Mirror class, it was the National Championships, and the class got…
A 420 Leinster Championships race start at the Double Ree 2024 regatta on Lough Ree
Lough Ree served up a thoroughly enjoyable weekend of sailing with wind, chop, gusts and lulls, showers, and sunshine to entertain the large 420 fleet assembled as part of the Double Ree festival of double-hander sailing. Winners Max Sweetman and…
Afloat Magazine, August 1984, with huge attention for West Cork and the Schull Centenary Regatta
Is it that time already? The 40th staging of Calves Week? For it seems like only twenty years ago that we planned our annual cruise to take in southwest Wales, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, before shaping the course…
Marine scientist, sailor and classic boat activist Padraic de Bhaldraithe
Further tributes have been paid to marine scientist, sailor and classic boat activist Padraic de Bhaldraithe, who has died aged 77. As The Sunday Independent reports, it was among the rock pools and on the deck of Galway Hookers, still…
Saturday saw absolutely champagne conditions at Mullaghmore, strong winds of between fifteen and twenty knots North-westerly and big, big waves for the Ulster Fireball Championships
The Irish Fireball Association summer Championship circuit blasted ahead at the weekend with some stunning sailing conditions at Mullaghmore Sailing Club. With an entry of 25 boats for this Ulster Championship momentum in the class continues to build ahead of…
A boat transporter delivers dinghies for the ILCA 6 European Championships on Belfast Lough at Ballyholme Yacht Club
Newbies to the Ballyholme suburb of Bangor on Belfast Lough tend to call the shops at a crossroads The Village, and now there is another village at Ballyholme – at the Yacht Club –  the ILCA 6 Euros Competitors' Village…
Newcastle RNLI D class lifeboat tows the catamaran in challenging conditions
Newcastle RNLI came to the aid of two sailors on Friday afternoon (19 July) after their catamaran got into difficulty in Newcastle Bay. The volunteer crew were requested to launch their inshore lifeboat by Belfast Coastguard at 4.21 pm and…
Royal Cork yacht Miss Whiplash has moved up to second overall in IRC Two of Volvo Cork Week
Volvo Cork Week organisers have updated the regatta's overall IRC Two class results following a protest on the final day of racing by the regatta's technical committee against second-placed competitor Swuzzlebubble. The updated results do not affect the winning Half…
A computer-generated image giving an aerial overview of the proposed Maritime Village and interface with SPAR, looking north
Dublin Port Company (DPC) is submitting a planning application to An Bord Pleanála for a 15-year permission for its 3FM Project, the third and final project from Dublin Port’s Masterplan 2040 at an estimated cost of €1.1 billion (2024 prices).…
ValenTina ahead (as nature intended) in Cork. Johnny Treanor's J112e ValenTina (NYC) keeping herself in the frame ahead of the Tingle family's Alpca at Volvo Cork Week 2024. ValenTina's overall win of the Kinsale Kettle by fractions of a fraction of a point was a dream result, as she's a new boat to keep the agents happy, she's from Dublin Bay to keep visitors happy, and yet the sharpening man on board is Cork's own Prof, Maurice O'Connell
"Never mind the weather, have we a good racing breeze?" That became the mantra for Volvo Cork Week 2024. And the eclectic fleet competing had a busy time of it, with the Race Officers putting through a remarkably complete programme.…
Tom Shanahan's victorious J109 Ruth is among a fleet of up to 14 boats preparing for the 50-mile ISORA Dublin to Arklow fixture
This month's 2024 K2Q Dublin to Cork race winner is confirmed for next Saturday's ISORA race to Arklow. Tom Shanahan's victorious J109 Ruth is among a fleet of up to 14 boats preparing for the 50-mile fixture, which will, unfortunately,…
Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club's Gavin Vaughan (right) with his brother Mike raise a glass at the Fastnet Rock off West Cork during their fundraising circumnavigation of Ireland in memory of their friend Neale McCullough
Gavin Vaughan of Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough has always wanted to sail around Ireland but not in the famous race. So spurred on by the death of his longtime friend and crew Neale McCullough, who…
Sovereign's Cup Director Michael O'Sullivan announced a new sponsor and the appointment of a Principal Race Officer for the 2025 Cup at Kinsale Yacht Club
No sooner had one major event been wrapped up on the south coast than Cork yacht clubs announced the next one. Kinsale Yacht Club has revealed a new sponsor for its biennial 100-boat Sovereign's Cup in 2025. Newly appointed Cup Director…
David Gorman's 'Fomo' is the overall leader of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club's AIB Saturday Summer Series
David Gorman's 'Fomo' is the overall leader of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club's AIB Saturday Summer Series in the club's biggest one-design keelboat fleet. The National Yacht Club sailor leads the 26-boat fleet on 23 points from club mate Niall Meagher in…
The superyacht Gitana briefly visited Dublin Bay on Saturday afternoon (July 20th). The Cayman Island flagged 45-metre sloop motored into Dublin Bay and anchored off Dun Laoghaire Harbour at teatime.  The Dubois design only stayed for a few hours before motoring out…

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]