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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
Simon Coveney TD on the helm of the Irish Defence Forces J109 Artful Dodjer (IRL1713) as they cross the finish line as winners of the 150-mile first race of the 2024 inter-services Beaufort Cup at Volvo Cork Week
The overnight offshore race for the Beaufort Cup came to a finish off Roches Point on Tuesday. The 150NM race around the Fastnet Rock was won by the Irish Defence Forces racing J/109 Artful Dodjer, claiming Line Honours as well…
Fiona Young's Albin Express North Star in command in IRC Three division of Volvo Cork Week Regatta
Fiona Young's Albin Express North Star of the host club is the clear leader of a mixed Volvo Cork Week IRC Three division on three points. The Crosshaven helmswoman took three firsts, while her Royal Cork clubmate Conor Phelan, who scored 4,2,2…
The orange-hulled Farr Half Tonner '2 Farr' (Boardman, Kelly, O'Leary) scored 2,1,1 to lead the IRC Two fleet at Volvo Cork Week
The Rush Sailing Club and Baltimore Sailing Club team on the distinctively coloured Farr Half Tonner '2 Farr' (Boardman, Kelly, O'Leary) leads overall after three close races sailed in the IRC Two fleet at Volvo Cork Week. Three windward leeward…
The 14-boat 1720 European Championships is being sailed as part of the Volvo Cork Week Regatta off Cork Harbour
Defending champion Ross McDonald of Howth Yacht Club is back in the driving seat of the 2024 1720 European Championships after three straight wins on day two of Volvo Cork Week Regatta. On the second day of the championships, winds were from 320…
Royal Irish's Barry Cunningham in the J109 Chimaera continues to lead overall in the IRC One division of Volvo Cork Week Regatta
Consistent sailing from Royal Irish's Barry Cunningham in Chimaera means the Dublin Bay J/109 continues to lead overall in the IRC One division of Volvo Cork Week Regatta, according to provisional results. Despite the onboard assistance, however, of Italian Melges ace Stefano Cherin…
Overall IRC Zero leader Nicholas Burns' Blitz (HKG 2709) pictured centre continues to lead after day two of Volvo Cork Week Regatta
Flat seas, wind from 320 degrees up to 15 knots, and sunshine were a marked contrast to Monday's Volvo Cork Week opening races off Cork Harbour; still, the same result prevailed at the top of the IRC Zero division. After six races…
As a concession to advancing years, the late Padraic de Bhaldraithe of Galway Bay gifted himself the new gaff cutter Mrs Mouse which was, as he put it,
President Michael D Higgins has led the tributes to the late Padraic de Bhalraithe, "The Boatman of Barna", whose natural talents as a teacher and mentor went far beyond the classrooms of Galway and Connemara. These talents enabled him to…
Curator Sandra Heise will talk about the fascinating life of the Asgard yacht, from its revolutionary history to its storied restoration
The life and times of the Asgard yacht, from its revolutionary history to its restoration, are the themes of a talk by National Museum of Ireland (NMI) curator Sandra Heise this week. Entitled “Asgard: From Gun-Running to Recent Conservation”, the…
Rankin dinghy racing in Cork Harbour
Maurice and Frances Kidney, in Rankin Number 12, continue to lead the Wednesday Night Dinghy League overall at Cove SC in Cork Harbour. After ten races in which 33 dinghies have sailed at various stages, they have 11.5 points, just…
Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey (31) is the most experienced woman on the British sailing team, with Freya Black in the 49er FX class, and the pair “have every chance of being on the Olympic podium” in Paris
Olympic sailor Saskia Tidey who has competed for both Ireland and Britain says she didn’t know her father, Don Tidey, had been kidnapped until she was a teenager looking up her family name on a computer at school In an…
The National Yacht Club and Royal St. George combination of Clementine Van Steenberge and Jessica Riordan were in race-winning form on day one of the Youth Sailing World Championships after the opening day on Lake Garda, Italy
Two of Ireland's four competing boats are in the top ten, and another is just shy of it after the opening day of the Youth Sailing World Championships on Lake Garda, Italy. On the world stage in Italy - The…
Denis Hewitt's Mills 309 Raptor from Dun Laoghaire is a competitor in the Coastal Class of Volvo Cork Week, one of three classes that saw their opening race of the week abandoned due to a missing mark of the course
Volvo Cork Week organisers intend to rerun Monday's abandoned coastal race later this week following the regatta's international jury decision to uphold a protest against the Royal Cork race committee on the opening day of the biennial regatta over a…
The Irish Defence Forces on starboard tack in the J109 Artful Dodjer (IRL1713) prepare to cross the Crosshaven RNLI crew on the Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo in the first race of the 2024 inter-services Beaufort Cup at Volvo Cork Week in Cork Harbour
Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, skippered by Royal Cork Admiral Annemarie Fegan, racing for the Crosshaven RNLI leads on the water with 83 miles to go in the 24-hour Fastnet race of the 2024 inter-services Beaufort Cup The race started on…
Kinsale Yacht Club's Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin sailing 1720 Dutch Gold leads after the first three races of  the class European Championships at Volvo Cork Week Regatta
After three races sailed at the 1720 European Championships, Kinsale Yacht Club's Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin sailing Dutch Gold leads by five points with three scores in the top five of the 14-boat fleet. Defending champion Ross McDonald of Howth Yacht Club, who…
The seven-boat IRC One Cork Week fleet set out on one of their windward-leeward courses in blustery easterly winds on the first day of racing in Cork Harbour
Royal Irish's Barry Cunningham has scored three straight wins in a blustery first day of racing in the IRC One division of Volvo Cork Week Regatta, according to provisional results. Cunningham, helming one of the four J/109 designs in this division,…
The Groomsport Lifeboat panel image pictures Christine Scholes (left) and Ann Blachford. The last coxswain of the Groomsport lifeboat, Robert Waterson, was Ann’s grandfather and Christine’s great uncle
An exhibition celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the RNLI is currently running in the Long Gallery at the North Down Museum in Bangor on Belfast Lough. Over the years, the charity’s volunteers have answered the call to rescue day or…

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]