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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
Places on Offer on Tall Ship Lord Nelson
The Lord Nelson Tall Ship is still looking for enthusiastic participants to join the EU Exchange programme from 30 July to 12 august this summer. The Lord Nelson is a special vessel. It is designed in a way that people…
Tall Ship Festival a Long Term Goal for New Sail Training Manager
Collaboration with other sail training bodies to establish a regular Tall Ships festival in Ireland is one of the long term goals of Sail Training Ireland's new youth development manager. http://www.afloat.ie/sail/tall-ships/ http://www.afloat.ie/sail/ http://www.afloat.ie/sail/tall-ships/item/15385-sail-training-ireland-assumes-mantle-of-asgard/ As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Michael Byrne…
RS Elites Add Colour to Baily Bowl Weekend
Low pressure systems played havoc with the Royal Alfred YC Baily Bowl on Dublin Bay this weekend with visitors from Belfast Lough adding much needed colour writes our Dublin Bay Correspondent. The one design fixture struggled to attract big numbers…
40 Knot Gusts Force Postponement of Leinster RS Feva Championships
The RS Feva Leinster Championships taking place at Howth Yacht Club were postponed today following gusts of over 40-knots in the race area. Today's sailing schedule was initially postponed before the championship was scrubbed at lunch time. The hope is…
Another Win for Sophie as Breezy Conditions Continue
Tralee's sailing sensation Sophie Brown continued her winning form this month when Galway Bay Sailing Club played host to the Optimist Connacht championships last weekend. Brown was the winner of this month's bank holiday Mitsubish Youth championships in Dun Laoghaire.…
'We Did it': Bronze Medal Blog by Maurice O'Connell
Ireland Win Bronze at Melges Worlds (photos, video and overall results below) After three weeks of sailing and tough competition only two races stood between Ireland and the podium yesterday. But after 10 hard races the Irish/Australian Melges 24 crew…
Commodore's Yacht Outfoxes Joker in Breezy Bay Race
Southerly winds gusting to 25–knots brought the DBSC Commodore's modified A35 yacht Gringo home for a fine win in Cruisers One IRC of Dublin Bay Sailing Club this afternoon writes our Dublin Bay Correspondent. Tony Fox's first win of the…
'We're in with a Chance of a Medal' - Maurice O'Connell Blog from Melges Worlds
After a week of strong winds and demanding races Ireland can be in the medals at the Melges 24 World Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas today.  Here, Spi trimmer on the sole Irish entry, Maurice O'Connell, give an insight into…
Collins Ends SB3 Champs in 11th Place
Top Irish perfomer Mel Collins and his Royal Cork crew have ended up 11th overall at the SB3 Worlds in Torquay today. The winners were Geoff Carveth, Andy Ramus, Ian Mills and Emma Clarke (GBR) Video with the winners below..…
Derry-Londonderry Officially Welcomes Yacht and Crew
The Mayor, Cllr Colum Eastwood, officially welcomed the yacht, skipper and crew of Derry-Londonderry to the city at a lunchtime ceremony today. Also there to wish the team fair winds and to offer some winning words of advice was five-time…
Tux takes Second Win in Royal Cork League
Once again there was a superb evening of Royal Cork Yacht Club racing in Cork Harbour last night. There was a strong cool breeze at the start with some debate about a No. 1 or No.2 . No. 1 was…
Ireland Fifth but Gear Failure Holds Embarr Back at Melges Worlds
Conor Clarke's Irish entry Embarr is fifth overall on 34 points but only two points off second place overall at the Melges World Sailing Championships in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas. Pics, video below. Yesterday was another another breezy but a…
Supernova Success on Dublin Bay
Ken Lawless's Supernova emerged the winner of tonight's Dublin Bay Sailing Club Cruisers III race sailed in moderate westerly winds writes our Dublin Bay Correspondent. The Dubois Starfish design beat Papytoo (M.Walsh/F.Guilfoyle) who finished second. Last Saturday's race winner Gung…
Collins Crew Score Race Win at SB3 Worlds
A win for Royal Cork's Mel Collins and his crew on Sibelus today has moved the top Irish boat up four places in the overall rankings. The Crosshaven crew are now in the top ten of the 103-boat fleet going…
Manager Appointed for New Tall Ship Training Body
Tall Ship sailing latest: When Sail Training Ireland for Youth Development was formally launched in mid-April to take on the mantle of Coiste an Asgard while making itself a more accessible body which can sign up individual and corporate members,…
Dun Laoghaire Welcomes World's Top Solo Yachts with Festival des Bateaux
Dublin Bay it set to burst alive with 'joie de vivre' during the only foreign stopover in the world-famous French Solitaire du Figaro yacht race. Dun Laoghaire will be the only international stop in the race, considered the unofficial world…

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]