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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
Squib UK National Championships racing on the Firth of Forth
Northern Ireland's Gordon Patterson and Ross Nolan from the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club are lying third after day three of the Squib UK Nationals at the Royal Forth Yacht Club. This morning (Wednesday) there was absolutely no wind…
Tune-up for the R44 fleet ahead of the third event of the 2024 44Cup season in Marstrand, Sweden
Racing sets sail on Thursday in Marstrand, Sweden on the third event of the 2024 44Cup following on from Puerto Calero, Lanzarote and Baiona in northwest Spain. Racing for the high performance owner-driver one designs will take place over 20-23…
The IODAI Optimist Munsters at Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) attracted a fleet of 122
The 122-boat IODAI Optimist Munsters at Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) last weekend provided great practice for the Irish European teams competing at events in Carrara, Italy, and Monfalcone, Italy, this July and the International Development Team preparing for the…
The Laser/ILCA Summer Sprint is kicking off again on June 29th in Glandore Harbour, West Cork. The Glandore sprint is part of the summer series of races
The popular Laser/ILCA Summer Sprint Series is kicking off again on June 29th in Glandore Harbour, West Cork. It is an open event and runs a simple format of a single loop around the course as a sprint. Five sprint…
Ryan Wilson’s Mat 1010 Elixir from Quoile YC and Carrickfergus SC in lighter airs in Royal Ulster's Ailsa Craig race
The Ailsa Craig race has for 62 years been the highlight of Royal Ulster’s offshore sailing programme. The 80-mile race from Bangor on the north down coast, round the Rock in the Firth of Clyde and back to Bangor, is…
Horse for the big course - Maritime Mystic Meg makes Eric de Turckheim's NMD 54 Teasing Machine, as 5/1 favourite for the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race this Saturday
Billows of white smoke have gone up from the chimney on a lonely cottage high in the Wicklow hills this morning (Wednesday, June 19), and the word has come down from Maritime Mystic Meg on potential betting movements in the…
A three-mast full-rigged ship with traditional rigging Sea Cloud Spirit is cruising on the Irish East coast visiting Belfast and Dublin
The 'largest sailing ship in the world' and probably one of the largest ships to anchor in Belfast Lough at 138 metres in length arrived in the Norhern Ireland port on Tuesday, (June 18th). She is the youngest of the…
Dead fish in the Four Mile Burn, a tributary of the Six Mile Water in Co Antrim, in mid May 2024
Anglers in Northern Ireland say they are “fighting an uphill battle” against pollution incidents that have resulted in a spate of fish kills throughout the region. As BBC News reports, thousands of fish have been lost in incidents across Northern…
Afloat's Irish Sailor of the Year, Eve McMahon makes her Olympic debut this summer at Paris 2024, having qualified in the Women’s Dinghy
The Olympic Federation of Ireland has officially selected the sailing team that will compete at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. Rio Olympian, Finn Lynch, will compete in the Men’s Dinghy, and Tokyo Olympians Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove…
The 76th Edinburgh Cup, the British Dragon Association National Championship will be hosted by South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club
The coastal village of Abersoch is set to host a major event in the world of keelboat racing: the 76th Edinburgh Cup, the British Dragon Association National Championship. This year's championship holds special significance as it coincides with the centenary…
Calves Week Regatta 2024 from Schull Harbour Sailing Club will features its regular race around the Fastnet Rock
With over 35 confirmed entries August's Schull Harbour Hotel sponsored Calves Week Regatta is expected to be close to its 70 boat cut off prior to the early entry discount date of the 1st July. Major changes ashore this year…
RS Aeros race downwind at the National Championships at Howth Yacht Club
Paul McMahon of the host club took home the 2024 Irish RS Aero National Championships in convincing style at Howth Yacht Club over the weekend. The KODC Advisory sponsored event saw twenty competitors including two very welcome visitors from the…
Traditional boat entry Lady Min will be part of the Volvo Cork Week mix next month off Crosshaven
Only four weeks remain until Volvo Cork Week 2024 (15th-19th July), with the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven—the world's oldest yacht club— gearing up to welcome sailors and boats globally. Organisers say this year's event promises over 120 boats…
All a-glow and ready to go - Imp in the travel hoist at Crosshaven Boatyard in last week's Day of Sun. It has been noted that she carries a keel of JPK style, but it was ahead of its time, having been fitted in the late 1990s.  Credit: via Facebook
At the beginning of June, we were happy to run with the story that 2024's weather was going to be the reverse of 2023. Last year, you may remember that there was good weather in late May and the first…
The BoatOne crew assess the damage after their dismasting off Barcelona last Thursday 13 June
The recent dismasting of a brand new AC75 has prompted concern among the America’s Cup community, according to Marine Industry News. Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne was launched in April, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, and was in the middle…
Protestors from local campaign coalition No Gas Caverns on the shore of Larne Lough
Local campaigners shed “tears of joy”, as Belfast Live reports, after the Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled that Edwin Poots acted “irrationally” in approving unilaterally a major gas storage project under Larne Lough. Under the banner of No Gas…

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]