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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
Smyth and Bradley Ready for Fireball Europeans
Pavlov, SE Czech Republic 18:48 local time. Flags of at least 8 Nations fly from the Yacht Club Dyje - GBR, IRL, CZE, SLO, BEL, GER, SUI, FRA are here in varying numbers, the Czechs having the biggest contingent writes…
Defending Champion Enters Final After Light Air Contest
As a high pressure sits over Ireland the big question at tonight's Royal Cork celebration dinner for the All Ireland championships is what wind will there be for tomorrow's final? After a second day of heats and with some racing…
Big FF Turnout in Carlingford
Strong tides, light winds and a fleet of 34 boats produced an end of season finale for the Flying fifteen class on Carlingford Lough this afternoon. The fleet drawn from Strangford Lough, Carrickfergus, Dunmore East, Dun Laoghaire as well as…
WOW is First Home in Cruisers Zero DBSC Race
DUBLIN PORT Dublin Bay Sailing Club Results for 25 SEPTEMBER 2010 BENETEAU 31.7 Echo- 1. Thirty Something (Gerry Jones et al), 2. Violet Flame (B.Murphy/L.Osbourne), 3. Extreme Reality (P.McSwiney/E.O'Rafferty) BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Thirty Something (Gerry Jones et al), 2.…
Greystones Sailors Lead RS400s in Cushendall
Simon Herriott and Tom Moran from Wicklow's Greystones Sailing Club are leading the RS400 fleet after day one of an open sailing event in Red Bay, Cushendall. Robin Flannigan from Ballyholme is helming the second place boat, while Robert Galligan…
Cork Harbour's Walsh on Top After First Round of the 'All Ireland'
Local helm Nick Walsh representing the National 18 dinghy class is guaranteed a place in the  final of the All Ireland sailing championships this weekend after wins this afternoon. Conditions were excellent with northerly breezes and flat water and a strong flood…
Silver to Ireland Youth at EUROSAF Team Racing European Championship
The 2010 EUROSAF Team Racing European Championship took place from 17 to 19 September in Venice, Italy. Ten teams took part racing in RS Fevas with the title going to the Italian Youth team. After the terrible weather conditions on…
Half Tonners Head for Cowes in 2011
The Half Ton Class Europe is proud to announce that, after some deliberation it has chosen Cowes as the venue for the 5th Half Ton Classics Cup. The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club is to host the regatta, which is open…
60 Register (including one Irish) for Middle Sea Race
With just a month to go until the start of the 2010 Rolex Middle Sea Race, over 60 yachts have registered for this ever-challenging 606-nautical mile offshore race, which starts from Grand Harbour in Malta on 23 October 2010. There…
Laser SB3 Open Day in Dun Laoghaire
Sailors who would like to try out a Laser SB3 might be interested to learn of an Open Day at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday 9th October. The Dun Laoghaire SB3 fleet is inviting sailors to…
Waterford Tall Ships Races 2011 Participant Sails into Dublin
The Jubilee Sailing Trust's (JST) three-masted 'flagship' STS Lord Nelson arrived into Dublin today (Wednesday) as part of her sail-training programme. The barque is one of over 30 tall ships so far confirmed out of an expected 70 entrants for…
420 Training at Malahide
Malahide Yacht Club will be hosting a series of 420 coaching days on the Broadmeadows, Malahide, over four Saturdays in October. The four sessions will run from 9.30am to 5.30pm on Saturday 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd October and are…
Cumann Seoltoireachta an Spideil Host 420 Champs
The 420 Class Connacht Championships took place on the weekend of 18th & 19th September at Cumann Seoltoireachta an Spideil, Spiddal, Galway. In spite of the absence of any of the regular circuit competitors a strong entry of 18 boats…
ISA Issues Entry list and Flights for All Ireland Sailing Championships 2010
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has issued its entry list and flight draw for this weekend's Helmsmans or 'All Ireland' Sailing Championship at the Royal Cork YC. All three helmsmen from this year's victorious Irish Commodores' Cup team are competing. In…
31 Boats Puts Irish Fireball Fleet on a High in Dunmore East
31 Fireballs contested the last domestic regatta of the season at one of the Class' favourite locations Dunmore East. Included in the entry was Brian O'Neill from Strangford Lough, currently the northern representative of the fleet, Michael Ennis another northern…
Fresh start to Howth's Autumn League
The 2010 Howth Yacht Club Autumn League – sponsored by WD-40, Crystal Holidays and The Food Room - got underway in fresh south-westerly winds with the first races for the 130 entries in ten classes. While conditions were damp to…

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]