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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
Low pressure springs surprises for Figaro
Equipped with only the most limited means of communication with the outside world, life can be full of surprises for the solo skipper in La Solitaire du Figaro – and not all of them welcome. Just one such bolt from…
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today confirmed there will be 10 sailing events at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Executive Board of the IOC confirmed the line up of events and disciplines for the 26 sports on the Programme…
Plymouth welcomes Fastnet after busy night
This morning (Thursday 13th August), the tally of arrivals on the Rolex Fastnet Race is up to 43 after a busy night with the leading boats in the Class 40 and Zero fleets arriving. Making possibly the best entrance last…
Heading Home

Heading Home

12th August 2009 Racing
A steady influx of boats has continued to stream into Sutton Harbour in Plymouth’s historic Barbican quarter today, the first finishers in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race. At the end of the afternoon, 17 boats have arrived including eight IMOCA…
The ‘Figaristes’ Dilemma - Short Term Gain or Long-Term Profit ?
The sun put in a brief reappearance yesterday evening, but ever since it has been a return to unremitting greyness and damp for the 52 skippers making their way from France to Dingle, on Ireland’s west coast – a phenomenon…
First arrivals

First arrivals

12th August 2009 Racing
Property developer Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard secured a second consecutive line honours victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race in the early hours of this morning. With the mixed conditions the 100ft super-maxi was considerably behind the course record she set…
100ft super-maxi first home in prestigious offshore race
On Wednesday 12th August at 01:09:36 BST ICAP Leopard crossed the finish line to take line honours in the Fastnet race for the second consecutive time. The 100ft super-maxi racing yacht, owned by Helical Bar PLC Chief Executive Mike Slade,…
Clifden Regatta 2009 'great success'!
With 22 yachts racing in two classes, Clifden Boat Club's Annual Regatta was an excellent event this year. Overall winners were Clifden's own Hallmark in IRC and Optique, of Galway, in Echo. Full Overall results? Class 1 IRC, Class 1…
HYC Champion May to the fore
Howth YC TUE + SAT SERIES 3 (RACE) 11/08/2009   17 Footer  SCRATCH:  1, Oona P Courtney;  2, Leila R Cooper;  3, Gladys Cronin/Jones;  17 Footer  HCAP:  1, Oona P Courtney;  2, Sheila D Bothwell;  3, Leila R Cooper TUESDAY SERIES…
Alias wins Dublin Bay Sailing Club Race
Flat seas but gusty south west wind sailing greeted tonight's DBSC fleet. In the Ruffian 23 class it was David Meeke and Martin McCarthy's Alias that won from Larry Power's Paramour. The Sting Brenda Maguire was third. Full results over…
ISORA to Race to the M2 Buoy
Although some of the front runners are currently engaged in the Fastnet race sailing instructions have been issued for the August 22nd Lee Overlay ISORA/Royal Alfred race from Dun Laoghaire to the M2 Weather buoy and back. Racing starts from…
Reining in the Leopard
The ‘when will they arrive?’ lottery has begun this afternoon in sunny Sutton Harbour, the new arrival point for the Rolex Fastnet Race in Plymouth. While a line honours victory for Mike Slade’s 100ft super-maxi ICAP Leopard might seem obvious,…
First Around the Fastnet Rock
At 00:26 GMT this morning Mike Slade’s 100ft supermaxi ICAP Leopard was the first boat in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race to round the Fastnet Rock off the coast of southwestern Ireland. In a 10-15 knot westerly breeze, Karl Kwok’s…
Royal St. George to host  Leinster Match Racing
Hot on the heels of last month’s Dublin Match Racing Open the Royal St George host to the Helly Hansen Leinster Match Racing Championships this weekend. Brian Reilly and Andrew Deakin will sit out this round due to their other…
'Legally Brunette'  approaches the Lizard
Update from Legally Brunette Skipper Paul Egan: "And then last night the winds died. A group of boats "enjoyed" some sailing through the heavy tides around Portland Bill, including ourselves. Having been stalled by the flooding tide we were whipped…
Heading for the Rock
Day 2 update: After a tricky first night at sea, the mid-fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race have experienced a rainy grey day at sea as they slog upwind westward along the English south coast. As expected the big boats…

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]