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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
Sixteen Flying Fifteens answered the starter's call for DBSC Thursday Series racing on July 18th. File photo.
Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Race Officer John McNeilly was able to create another excellent night of Flying Fifteen racing last night when a good breeze from slightly south of East manifested itself and we were able to have a…
Simon Coveney TD on the helm of the Irish Defence Forces team on the J109 Artful Dodjer, skippered by Brian Matthews, has scored four wins from four races going into Friday's Volvo Cork Week's inter-services Beaufort Cup final
With Cork TD Simon Coveney at the helm, the Irish Defence Forces team, skippered by Brian Matthews, has secured four straight wins going into Friday's final day of Volvo Cork Week's inter-services Beaufort Cup.  Crosshaven RNLI crew on the Grand Soleil…
Ross McDonald of Howth Yacht Club's McBearla crew in Rope Dock Atara is the clear leader of the 1720 European Championships at Volvo Cork Week
Ross McDonald of Howth Yacht Club, who won the national title at Baltimore in June, looks to be making a clean sweep of the 2024 1720 fixtures as he holds what appears to be an unassailable 15-point lead in the European Championship as part…
Frank Caul’s Grand Soleil 37 Prince of Tides has a five-point lead at Volvo Cork Week's Non-Spinnaker IRC One
Three boats from the Royal Cork lead the Non-Spinnaker IRC One class going into the final races of Volvo Cork Week Regatta on Friday. Frank Caul’s Grand Soleil 37 Prince of Tides has a five-point lead over Ian Hickey’s Granada…
Royal Irish Yacht Club's JPK 1080 Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) was the Cruisers IRC Zero winner in Thursday's DBSC race
Paul O'Higgins, sailing the JPK 1080 Rockabill VI, was the winner by over two minutes on corrected time of Thursday evening's (July 18) Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Summer Series in Cruisers IRC Zero. At sub ten knots, conditions were lighter than…
Ireland's Clementine Van Steenberge and Jessica Riordan have dropped to seventh at the World Youth Sailing Championships on Lake Garda, Italy
There was disappointment in the Irish camp when light winds produced a shake-up of the women’s skiff fleet, leaving Dun Laoghaire's Clementine Van Steenberge and Jessica Riordan (pictured top), who led the World Youth Sailing Championships on Thursday morning, in…
The leader from day one, Nick Burns and Andy Pidden’s King 40 Blitz still has control of IRC Zero at Volvo Cork Week
Nick Burns and Andy Pidden’s King 40 Blitz still leads in IRC Zero at Volvo Cork Week, but today, a 4-2.2 (RDG) scoreline has pegged back the Royal Hong Kong YC team to an eight-point advantage. Michael Wilson’s Cape 31…
Jack Young at the helm of the Albin Express North Star, the overall leader in IRC Three of Volvo Cork Week
There is no stopping Albin Express North Star, which scored their seventh straight bullet on day four of IRC Three at Volvo Cork Week, putting them on target for one of the regatta's major perpetual trophies on Friday evening. Principal…
Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble (RCYC) leads in IRC Two by a single point going into the final day of racing at Volvo Cork Week Regatta
After a ding-dong Half-Tonner battle all week in IRC Two of Volvo Cork Week, the Dwyer family's Swuzzlebubble has taken the lead going into Friday's final races.  With Cork Harbour shrouded in a fine sea mist, a light southerly breeze prevailed…
 Barry Cunningham’s IRC One leader J109 Chimaera from the Royal Irish Yacht Club
Overall leader Barry Cunningham’s Royal Irish Yacht Club J/109 Chimaera (RCYC/RIYC) came under pressure on the penultimate day of Volvo Cork Week on Thursday when Dublin Bay clubmate and defending champion John Maybury’s J/109 Joker 2 won both of the day’s races to…
The extensive Solway Firth, between Scotland and England in the northeast corner of the Irish Sea, has massive tides that are continually changing the nature of the place. In times past, this worked well for coastal raiders. And none more…
Over 200 races are expected to be completed at Ireland's biggest team racing event, the Elmo Trophy, at the Royal Saint George Yacht Club event in the last weekend of August
Entry has opened for Ireland's biggest team racing event, the Elmo Trophy, celebrating its ninth edition this year. Teams of youth sailors from around the country and abroad are set to compete in 36 supplied firefly dinghies in Dun Laoghaire…
File image of Larne RNLI’s D class inshore lifeboat at sea
Larne RNLI came to the aid of a man who was drifting out to sea on an inflatable dinghy on Monday afternoon (15 July). The volunteer crew were requested to launch their inshore D class lifeboat at 1.15pm at the…
Ireland's Clementine Van Steenberge and Jessica Riordan lead at the World Youth Sailing Championships on Lake Garda, Italy
In the women’s skiff, Ireland's Clementine Van Steenberge and Jessica Riordan (pictured top) lead the World Youth Sailing Championships as the event passes the halfway stage on Lake Garda, Italy. It was a hard day in Garda with light winds,…
Simon Coveney TD on the helm of the Irish Defence Forces team on the J109 Artful Dodjer, skippered by Brian Matthews, lead after two races sailed in Volvo Cork Week's inter-services Beaufort Cup
With Simon Coveney TD on the helm, the Irish Defence Forces team skippered by Brian Matthews lead after two races sailed in Volvo Cork Week's inter-services Beaufort Cup.  The eight-boat fleet returned to the water after Tuesday's finish of its…
In Volvo Cork Week's Coastal Fleet racing under IRC and ECHO, the National Yacht Club’s Johnny Treanor racing J/112 Valentina scored another two race wins today to extend their lead in the class to three points. According to provisional results…

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]