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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
MGM Boats On Board as Kinsale Sovereigns Cup Partner
Sailing Preparations are well underway for The Sovereign's Cup that takes place from 22nd to 25th June 2011, as Kinsale Yacht Club is gearing up to welcome 140 boats and their crews for a fantastic four day sailing and social…
19 Enter (and a Dozen in the Wings) for Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race
Offshore racers Jedi, Aquelina and at least five J yacht designs – including George Sisk's new J111, Wow – are entered for next month's Dun Laoghaire to Dingle offshore sailing race (D2D) from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire…
Equinox Eclipses Storm off Howth
Howth Yacht Club's WEDNESDAY Sailing SERIES 1 (RACE) 18/05/2011 Class 1 IRC: 1, Equinox R McDonald; 2, Storm P Kelly; 3, Trinculo M Fleming; Class 1 HPH: 1, Trinculo M Fleming; 2, Equinox R McDonald; 3, Storm P Kelly; Class…
Ireland Just One Point off Second Overall at Melges Worlds
Ireland's Melges 24 'Embarr' crew skippered by Conor Clarke stay in fiftth overall after three days racing at the Melges World Championships in Texas. Conditions yesterday were much fresher than the first day and the Irish crew are finding physical…
Collins 14th, Duncan 16th at SB3 World Championships
Royal Cork's Mel Collins continues to move up the leaderboard of the SB3 World Championships finishing 11,10 and 22 in the gold fleet today to place 14th overall and overhauling Howth Yacht Club's Ben Duncan now in 16th place. Results…
Antigua On All-Island Visit
The brigantine-rigged tall-ship Antigua sailed into Dublin Port this morning in advance of next weekend's Strangford Lough Festival, writes Jehan Ashmore. The vessel had sailed from France and entered Dublin Bay from the Kish Lighthouse before setting a course for the South…
Aura Tops the Seventeens in Howth
Howth Yacht Club Tuseday and Saturday series 1 17/05/2011 17 Footer SCRATCH: 1, Aura I Malcolm; 2, Leila R Cooper; 3, Isobel B & C Turvey; 17 Footer HCAP: 1, Leila R Cooper; 2, Isobel B & C Turvey; 3,…
Ireland's Embarr Now Fifth at Melges Worlds (Pics here!)
Ireland's Embarr helmed by the Olympic Gold Medallist Nathan Wilmot has lost the lead after the seond day of racing at the Melges 24 World Sailing Championships at Corpus Christie, Texas.  The Irish boat skippered by Dubliner Conor Clarke stays…
Collins Takes a Well Earned Second on Day Two (Video here!)
A second in the last race of today's SB3 World Championships gives Royal Cork's Mel Collins 17th overall and keeps the Crosshaven trio top Irish crew in Torquay. Howth's Ben Duncan – racing for New Zealand – is 11th overall.…
Oram's Fireball Continues Winning Streak
With less than a month to go to the first race of the Fireball World Championships in Sligo it was obvious why the Fireball class turnout on Dublin Bay was strong tonight. Steven Oram's new Fireball continued its winning streak…
New CEO Announced for Galway Volvo Ocean Race Festival
Lets Do It Global, the organisation behind the Irish entry in to the Volvo Ocean Race and the  Galway Race finish has announced a new Chief Executive Officer. It has also announced it is 'closing a seed fund' to support…
Requirements for Recreational Craft at Tall Ships Races
The latest Marine Notice from the DTTAS includes important information for recreational craft expected to attend the Tall Ships Races in Waterford from 30 June to 3 July. www.dttas.ie http://www.afloat.ie/sail/tall-ships/ Race organisers and the Waterford harbour master have issued an…
Lord Mayor to Preside over Old Gaffers' Parade of Sail
Dublin's Lord Mayor Gerry Breen will assume the traditional title of Admiral of the Port of Dublin when he presides over the Parade of Sail on the Liffey later this month. The parade on Sunday 29 May is a highlight…
Sneak Peek at Volvo Dun Laoghaire's 360 Entries So Far
With still eight weeks to go to the first race in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta there are 360 entries now in from across 24 classes. July's event stood at just 22 entries six months ago but it grew steadily over…
Ireland Leads Melges Worlds by Single Point
A top flight Irish sailing crew leads the Melges 24 World Championships by a slender one point advantage after two tough races in Corpus Christie Texas yesterday. The five man crew led by Dublin skipper Conor Clarke finished last week's…
SB3 Worlds Day One: Collins Leads Irish Hopes at Torbay Worlds
Royal Cork Yacht Club's Mel Collins is top Irish boat in 24th place after the first days racing of the 2011 SB3 World Championships in Torbay. Scroll down for pics and Video. Collins Finishes 11th Overall.  Results here Collins scored…

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]