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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
Competitors at the first Irish University Sailing Association (IUSA) event of the year hosted by Carlingford Sailing Club
UCD Sailing has kicked off the 2024/25 season with a big win, with UCD 1 finishing 1st place overall in the first Irish University Sailing Association (IUSA) team racing event of the year hosted by Carlingford Sailing Club. 21 teams…
The little boat that thinks it's a big boat. The Cape 31 Pacific Yankee taking the trophy in the Big Boat Series at San Francisco, scorching along to success so smoothly you'd reckon the two guys at the stern are chatting at a tram stop
Just about the last thing you'd think about in dreamy Avoca in the heart of County Wicklow is the serious cut and thrust of big boat racing on the salty sea. Yet this other "Avoca Craft Centre" is focused on…
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Robert Espey of Ballyholme Yacht Club is the winner of this year’s Irish Sailing Champions’ Cup which took place at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club in Cultra, Co. Down after a string of strong results. Espey, who raced on…
A fleet of 29 boats are contesting Royal Cork Yacht Club's 2024 Autumn League 2024 in Cork Harbour. See the photo gallery below
After abandoning the first races last weekend (due to weather, three races were sailed in medium winds for the 29-boat cruiser-racer fleet in Royal Cork Yacht Club's Autumn League 2024 on Sunday. Admiral's Grand Soliel 40 has Perfect Scoreline The…
The huge 2024 ILCA 6 European Championship at Ballyholme Yacht Club
In late July, Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough hosted the huge ILCA 6 European Championship, with almost 370 youth sailors representing 27 European and 11 non-European countries participating. The hard work of the Club Green Team led by Charlie…
Justin Burke's JPK 10.30 ReQuest	 (IRL 53196) was the overall winner of the 2024 DMYC Kish Race on Dublin Bay
After a previous cancellation due to weather, the 2024 DMYC Kish Race - supported by Lenster Boats - from Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay sailed on Sunday (October 6th), albeit to the Shanganagh buoy in Killiney Bay, because of heavy…
James Neville's Carkeek 45 Ino Noir, pictured off Wicklow Head at the start of this year's Round Ireland Race, will race as part of a RORC team in the 2025 Admiral’s Cup to be held next July
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) has approved their first RORC team for the 2025 Admiral’s Cup to be held in July 2025. James Neville’s Carkeek 45 Ino Noir and Per Roman’s JPK 1180 Garm will be racing under the…
Full sail on the second day of racing in the 2023 Sovereigns Cup
Kinsale Yacht Club has officially launched its campaign to attract a world-class fleet to the 2025 Sovereigns Cup. Set to run from Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 June, the regatta will also host the ICRA Nationals under the direction of…
New arrival - National 18 431 sailed by Colin Chapman, Ewen O'Keefe, and Rob O'Reilly sailed in the 2024 'Barry Trophy' Race at Royal Cork Yacht Club
The last race of the 2024 National 18 dinghy class season at Royal Cork Yacht Club was for 'The Barry Trophy', which sailed in the river outside the Clubhouse on Friday evening, October 4th.  It was a drizzly night with…
Victor Wild’s TP 52 Fox 2.0 is the new 2024 ORC Class 0 World Champion held on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay under the burgee of the New York Yacht Club
After six days of competitive inshore and offshore racing within three classes, two new and one returning team have been crowned ORC World Champions at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. These three teams demonstrated an exceptional level of…
The Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club in Co. Down is the venue for the 2024 Irish Sailing Champions' Cup
The highly anticipated Irish Sailing Champions' Cup, which was set to kick off today at the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club in Co. Down, has been postponed due to unfavourable weather conditions. AP over A was flown from the…
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club has cancelled the planned start of its October Dinghy League today. The decision had been taken due to the very high wind strength in Cork Harbour today.
The successful racing yacht Pearl, designed and built by Philip Sainty at Colchester in Essex in 1820 for the Marquess of Anglesey, who became the donor in 1848 of the trophy which - in 1851 - became the America's Cup
The tension is building in Barcelona as the 37th America's Cup series works its tortuous way towards a dramatic conclusion, with the expenditure of what war historians enjoy describing as "much blood and treasure". But while we might like to…
The crew of INEOS Britannia celebrate with the Louis Vuitton Cup trophy
Inches and hard yards were fought for in Barcelona on Friday (4 October) in a classic final race at the Louis Vuitton Cup. And when the dust settled from the on-water fireworks, it was INEOS Britannia that emerged as the…
Royal Ulster Yacht Club will once again celebrate its links with Sir Thomas Lipton and the America's Cup when the Belfast Lough Club presents The Sir Thomas Lipton Memorial Cup (above) in Barcelona
Next week in Barcelona Belfast Lough's Royal Ulster Yacht Club will once again celebrate its links with Sir Thomas Lipton and the America's Cup. Sir Thomas Lipton famously challenged for the America's Cup in his five yachts, each named Shamrock…
The TS Sørlandet, which arrived in Dublin Bay this morning and took anchorage in Scotsman’s Bay off Dun Laoghaire Harbour with trainees going aloft and out on the yards
After visiting Dun Laoghaire Harbour last April, the Tall Ship Sorlandet, the oldest full-rigged ship in operation in the world, is moored in Scotsman's Bay again on Friday, October 4th. Built in 1927 in Kristiansand, Norway, as a training ship…

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]