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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
Royal Cork Rear Admiral Rob Foster says the “level of interest in Non-Spinnaker/White Sail classes is high
There is a very strong interest from the owners of Whitetail yachts for this year’s Volvo Cork Week, according to the Royal Cork YC organisers. Keelboats Rear Admiral Rob Foster says the “level of interest in Non-Spinnaker/White Sail classes is…
Ultim Challenge Race leader Charles Caudrelier
Not much has changed since yesterday on the Ultim Challenge Race Leader Charles Caudrelier continues to make steady progress in the North Atlantic. He is 300 miles south of the Azores archipelago, and he has been moving at around twenty…
A glittering start to the 15th RORC Caribbean 600 from Antigua on February 19th 2024
Over 500 sailors from around the globe gathered off Fort Charlotte, Antigua, on Monday, 19th February, to participate in a stunning start to the 15th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600. The non-stop 600nm race, which involves sailing around 11…
The ILCA 7 European Championships in Athens was becalmed for a second day, and along with it, the second leg of the Irish Olympic Trial for Paris 2024
Irish rivals Finn Lynch and Ewan McMahon have been left frustrated for the second consecutive day as their Olympic trial was postponed due to high pressure over Greece, leaving the ILCA 7 European Championships without racing in Athens today.  The…
Busy Geeps in the Frostbites at Howth. With a new Howth-based Melges 15 fleet increasingly evident on the horizon, the long-established GP14s have boats from several clubs doing their thing in the current Howth Spring Frostbites
Spring was very much in the air - for the time being anyway - as the intriguing selection of boats in a growing fleet took to the water in glorious sunshine in the HYC Dinghy Frostbites on Sunday, with theprospect…
The Carroll Brothers Elan 40, Chancer from the host club pictured above starting the inaugural 2022 Inishtearaght Race are entered for May's 2024 240-mile offshore race from Kinsale Yacht Club
Online entry has opened for May's 2024 Inishtearaght Race, and Kinsale Yacht Club is reporting a strong south coast entry for the 240-miler. As well as the defending champion, Cinnamon Girl, the Sunfast 3300 was sailed by Cian McCarthy and…
The Irish RS Feva Championships will be staged on Ballyholme Bay on the south coast of Belfast Lough from August 16th to 18th
The RS Feva class has been growing steadily in Northern Ireland in recent years, and to the satisfaction of Northern Ireland's Ballyholme Yacht Club, the club will host the Irish Championships, designated a 'GP 1' event, on the weekend of…
ILCA 7 campaigner Ewan McMahon reaches a new high at 25 in the world rankings in his independent 'Green Rebel' campaign from Howth Yacht Club
As the second trial for the Irish Paris 2024 nomination was becalmed in Greece today at the ILCA7 European Championships, the February World Rankings reveal both Irish trialists are in the top 25. Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club), who finished…
The ILCA 6 European Championships dinghy park in Athens after a light air start to the regatta
Ireland's Paris 2024 qualified Eve McMahon opened her account at the ILCA 6 European Championships in Athens, Greece, today with a 21st place.  With several top rivals absent, the Howth Yacht Club teen has an excellent opportunity to build on her already impressive…
Armel Le Cléac'h’s Ultim Challenge Race technical stopover lasted a little more than two days since it began on Friday in Rio
After a little more than 48 hours of technical stopover in Rio de Janeiro, Ultim Challenge skipper Armel Le Cléac'h and his ULTIM Maxi Banque Populaire XI have returned to the race track. He docked out from Rio at a…
RNLI lifeguards Nick Doran and Dearbhaile McNeill at Portrush in 2021
The RNLI is on the lookout for budding lifeguards to launch their lifesaving careers on some of the most popular beaches in Scotland, Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. Recruitment for this season’s lifeguard team has started nationally in…
RNLI Lifeboats Howth and the Irish Underwater Search and Recovery Unit receiving the fantastic funds raised by the All in a Row Liffey Challenge 2023 at Poolbeg Yacht & Boat Club
Dubliners came together early last December for the All In A Row Liffey Challenge, with the aim of raising funds for RNLI Lifeboats and the Irish Underwater Search & Recovery Unit. The challenge for the rowers and paddlers was to…
Ballyholme Yacht Club's Colin Leonard from Belfast Lough in Northern won a Silver medal at the ILCA 7 World Championships in Adelaide, Australia
Ballyholme Yacht Club's Colin Leonard from Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland achieved a significant milestone in his 23-year journey in the Laser dinghy by winning a silver medal in the Apprentices at the ILCA 7 Worlds in Adelaide this month,…
Ultim Challenge race leader Charles Caudrelier may slow down to optimise his timing to account for a complicated low-pressure weather situation at the end of next week
After having to pitstop in Rio because of the loss of two of his rudders, third-placed Ultim Challenge skipper Armel Le Cléac'h is hopeful of returning to the race course sometime today. At the end of the day yesterday, the boss…
Blessington Sailing Club's Cora McNaughton and  Sean Cronin (left) were the overall winners of the 420 dinghy Munster Championships at Kinsale Yacht Club
Blessington Sailing Club's Cora McNaughton and Sean Cronin emerged as the victorious duo, clinching the top spot with a lead of four points in the 420 Munster Championships held at Kinsale Yacht Club on Saturday. The championships, which attracted a…
Second-placed Ultim Challenge solo skipper Armel Le Cléac’h has docked in Rio de Janeiro for a rudder repair
Since Friday afternoon (UTC), second-placed Ultim Challenge, solo skipper Armel Le Cléac’h has been docked in Rio de Janeiro. He should be overtaken today by Thomas Coville (3rd), who is progressing off the Brazilian coast and was 225 miles south…

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]