Menu

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
Challenge and change for Rolex Middle Sea Race
The Rolex Middle Sea Race, which this year starts on Saturday, 17 October, has witnessed many changes and challenges over its forty-one year history and 2009 is no exception. For the first time ever the race will start from Malta's…
Interesting nights for Cork in Clipper
Squalls and varied conditions are keeping things interesting for the crew (26 men and 17 women) of Cork during this stage (Race 2, day 23) of the Clipper round the world yacht  Race, while current race leaders Team Finland, along…
DBSC Turkey Shoot 2009
Dublin Bay Sailing Club are all geared up for their annual Turkey Shoot – and looking forward to great numbers and great sailing once again. "These Sunday mornings will definitely take your mind off all the other mundane things", says…
Cork Clipper crosses the Equator first
Cork, Ireland crossed the Equator at 0316 UT today and offered their gifts to Neptune but will hold off on the ceremony until later today when the watch system brings the entire crew together for an hour. Our onboard video…
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) and GUL has announced a three-year partnership which will see Irish Olympic and Academy Sailors supplied with high performance quality apparel leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games. GUL has a strong reputation with national…
27th Howth Yacht Club Laser Frostbites
Dust off that Laser parked in the corner of your front garden and get down to Howth Yacht Club for November 1st! Howth has the biggest and longest running Laser Winter sailing series in the country. Racing starts at 11am…
Marinerscove Romps Home
Royal Cork October League: Brothers Nin and Peter O'Leary brought Marinerscove home first in both of yesterday's races in class zero of the O'Flynn Exhams October league.What started out as a dull grey day turned into a sparking afternoon on…
HYC League Still Blessed with Sunshine
Tight finishes both on the water and on handicap were the order of the day for the penultimate sailing of this year’s Howth Yacht Club's Autumn League which was again blessed with fine conditions, with a pleasant 12-16 knot westerly…
Kearney joins UK Dinghy Champions
Ireland's Ross Kearney from Belfast Lough joins a total of 29 champions from some of the most highly competitive dinghy classes in the UK who have signed up for this year’s Endeavour Trophy which is taking place at Burnham-on-Crouch this…
Cork now 5th and out of Doldrums
href="http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/cork/index.php/CrewDiaries" target="_self">Cork's diarist Nick Headly wrote two days ago that they have to keep remembering how the winter is setting in at home while they're stifled in the humidity. With the exception of California, the whole fleet is currently positioned…
ISA Plans to Move
After 50 years in Dún Laoghaire, the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) is seeking a new home that will combine a national watersports centre with administrative headquarters. The claim that the ISA and its staff of 13 is planning the moving…
Building The Ilen, a mysterious and ancient craft
It would be a dream come true for some people – working with some of Ireland's few remaining traditional shipwrights, refitting Ireland's sole surviving sea-going sailing ship: The Ilen. Photos: Courtesy of Kevin O'Farrell and Gary MacMahon/AK Ilen Company  Ketch…
Cork not steathly for Clipper Doldrums
Now the leading boats are on the verge of dipping into the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone), more commonly known as the Doldrums, a couple of the teams have decided to go use their Stealth Mode option to try to…
South Meath Jet Ski Club The South Meath Jet Ski Club was originally formed by a group of PWC and Powerboat enthusiasts from the village of Longwood in south county Meath. The Club's goal is primarily to protect the sport…
South Coast Garda Sailing Club The Garda Siochana (Irish Police Force), Sailing Club was formed in October 1993 to promote sailing and all its benefits among members of the Force. The Force now has two clubs – one on the…
Ruffin'It taking part in the 2008 Lambay Race, June 2008. Standing: Martina, Peter and Daniel, and sitting: Carlos and Mags Sailing In Dublin Club (SID) Sailing in Dublin Club (SID) is a small friendly club based in Dun Laoghaire, Co.…

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]