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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
Morning Results: Inis Mor Back in Front
The latest results in the Conway Media Round Ireland show that Inis Mor had managed to sneak back in front as the fleet began to round the north coast. A 6am report from the race office puts Tonnerre in second,…
Solid Performance by Irish 49er crew
Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern put in a solid performance at the annual Kiel week regatta, with a sprinking of top ten and top five results putting them 12th overall in their 59-boat fleet after nine races. The northern pair…
Current Affairs to Dominate Round Ireland Today
As the leaders of the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race enter the northern end of the Irish Sea, today will be all about current affairs, so be prepared to watch the teams' fates ebb and flow with the vagaries…
France v Holland in tomorrow's Round Ireland Final?
Round Ireland 2010 is half over but only just begun. Winds–as usual–are forecast to be varied on the next leg down the East coast. Experienced Round Ireland pundits say it's too early for predictions. Read this morning's analysis here. Others though have stuck…
May tops the HYC Puppeteers
Gareth May was top of the Puppeteer's in Howth Yacht Club last night. Second was Trick or Treat (A.Pearson) and third the Clarke/Egan partnership sailing Harlequin. Dan O'Grady won the Etchells class. More results here: TUESDAY SERIES 2 (RACE) 22/06/2010…
O'Leary is Laser Sharp on Dublin Bay Dinghy Course
Ross O'Leary sailing a Laser dinghy mastered the light summer breeze in Scotsman's bay last night to win the Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) division of Dublin Bay Sailing Club's Tuesday night race. Second was Gary O'Hare and third Peter Craig, both…
Podcast: Strong Winds on Wednesday Morning
Up to 30 knot winds will sweep the Round Ireland fleet up the west coast for a time tomorrow morning. This latest wind news (and much more) is in weather guru, Mike Broughton's latest weather observations in the podcast below.…
West Coast Podcast Check-In From Dinah's Barry Hurley
Barry Hurley, co-skipper of double-handed entry Dinah (along with Hannah White) has phoned in a quick podcast update describing conditions up the west coast of Ireland for the fleet in the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race. Dinah's division is…
Mixed Fortunes for Cork in Extreme Weather
For the Irish entry it has been 24 hours of mixed fortunes as the team finds the weather going from one extreme to the other. Itís been 24 hours of tricky navigation and careful helming in thick fogas the Clipper…
Lead Changes Hands in Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race
It was all change on the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race leaderboard with on-the-water leader Tonnerre de Breskens taking pole, both elapsed and corrected, at the 9.30am check-in. Tonnerre led both Class Zero and the overall standings, and is…
Fog Robs Squibs of Day Two
Thick fog on Dublin Bay meant a day ashore yesterday for the 140 competitors in the SF Marina Squib Nationals at the Royal St George Yacht Club. Nigel Grogan and Daniel Cripps from Royal Corinthian maintain their lead from the…
Sun Shines on J24 Western Championships
"Lough Ree always had the water and the boats - They just needed the weather!" was the comment from Commodore of Lough Ree Yacht Club; Frank Murray. Summer certainly obliged with blue skies, blazing sunshine, 24 degrees and moderate breeze…
Water Rat Predicts the Round Ireland Winner
In my opinion it's Inis Mor this year for overall honours in the Conway Media Round Ireland Race.  If there isn’t a parking lot after Rathlin, they should hold their time on the guys ahead.  It seems to me that…
Leaders Power Up the West Coast
Just over half the fleet have rounded the Fastnet Rock in the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race, with the leaders stretching their legs in plenty of breeze up the west coast. With between 14 and 20 knots of wind…
Butler and McCarthy Continue to Lead Fireballs After Strangford Weekend
Traditional northern hospitality was strongly in evidence when the Irish Fireball fleet made their debut appearance at Strangford Lough’s East Down Yacht Club. Situated a short distance round the coastline from Killyleagh, EDYC played host to 16 Fireballs, a similar…
Irish Sailors Compete at Kiel
Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks are the top Irish performers at Kiel Week in Germany, sitting in eighth place after two races. The fleet is largely diminished from the 132-boat monster entry at the Europeans, with just 22 Stars showing…

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]