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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
Shareholders of Harland & Wolff fear that the value of their investment will be wiped out
It is feared by a group of shareholders of Harland & Wolff that the shipyard business is being lined up for a "pre-pack" administration. That would see the east Belfast based shipbuilder group enter into administration, and its trading assets…
A fleet of 85 boats is contesting the GP14 World Championships in North Wales Plas Heli, Pwllheli
Dublin Bay sailors Sean Craig and Stephen Boyle of the Royal St. George Yacht Club and Sutton Dinghy Club lie third overall after the first three races of the GP14 World Championships in North Wales. In a strong performance for…
Clontarf bound – the Howth 17s Leila (3) Echo (16) and Aura (7) approaching The Baily and its lighthouse on their way to Clontarf, while overhead a shower may have threatened, but it never materialised
Carpe diem. Or Seize the Day if you prefer. Either way, 2024 has been serving up a very mixed bag of weather. Yet when we look at the number of major regatta events in which the full programme has been…
Marit Bouwmeester's Paris 2024 gold in Women's Dinghy makes her the most successful female sailor of all time, now with two golds, a silver and a bronze for the Dutch legend
For challenging conditions and lack of reliable sailing breeze, the Olympic Regatta in Marseille will most likely go down as one of the toughest in living memory. Along with the high temperatures, the lack of breeze put a huge strain…
29er Team Ireland in Aarhus was represented by top junior sailor pairs, former World Under 17 World Champions and European Champions Lucia Cullen and Alana Twomey, and a new pairing of the former World Champion Clementine van Steenberge and vice World Champion Jessica Riordan. The third female pairing representing Ireland and hoping for success were Emily Conan and Hannah Dadley-Young. The male teams and members of the Irish Sailing 29er Academy were William Walsh and Eoin Byrne and the Cork duo of Oisin Pierce and Fionn Daly
Team Ireland 29er sailors have returned home ahead of the national championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club this weekend after putting down a gruelling six days on the waters at Aarhus in Denmark at the class World Championships.  Ireland was…
GP14s are contesting their 2024 World Championships at the Welsh National Sailing Academy in Plas Heli, Pwllheli
Irish GP14 Champions will lead a massive 29-boat Irish team into Monday's first races of the 85-boat class World Championships in North Wales. Irish title holders Ross Kearney and Daniel Nelson (RNIYC) are among several top Irish crews expected to…
RS Feva World Champions Ben Greenhalgh and Tom Sinfield maybe compete on Belfast Lough
After the intense week of ILCA 6 European Championship racing at Ballyholme on Belfast Lough recently, the Club will find hosting the RS Feva Irish National Championship next weekend (15th, 16th and 17th) a somewhat easier but important task. The…
A file photo shows DBSC Flying Fifteen helmsman Ken Dumpleton (left) sailing with now DBSC Race Officer John McNeilly
While the reports of other Thursday night DBSC racing suggested that numbers were dramatically down, the Flying Fifteen Fleet managed to buck the trend with at least sixteen boats on the water. The term "at least" is used because at…
File image of Newcastle RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat
Newcastle RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat Leonard Kent was launched on Thursday evening (8 August) after the coastguard received a request for assistance from a yacht which had suffered engine failure. The volunteer crew were requested to launch at around 7.10pm following…
RORC's Griffin24 offshore sailors undergoing coaching
300 sailors applied for the RORC Griffin24 programme, and 20 sailors were selected and took part in six races during 2024. The project has one main aim: To encourage young people into the sport of offshore racing. Over the years, through…
Richard and Timothy Goodbody in the J109 White Mischief won their fifth IRC race of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club AIB Saturday Series
With no Class Zero racing on Saturday, it fell to Class One to represent 'big boat' interests in Saturday's Race 12 of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club AIB Saturday Series. Richard and Timothy Goodbody in the J109 White Mischief won…
Women Take the Helm (from left to right) Rachel Deasy and Sadhbh Murphy on Jaguar during the Tralee Bay Sailing Club (TBSC) Women at the Helm Regatta at in Fenit, County Kerry
Club history was made at Tralee Bay Sailing Club (TBSC) in Fenit, County Kerry on July 20th, as the club hosted its first Women at the Helm event in nearly twelve years. The regatta was a celebration of female leadership, with…
Franck Cammas celebrates with fellow 11th Hour Racing Team crew in The Hague after their first place in Leg 6 of The Ocean Race 2022-23
Franck Cammas, the French sailing champion, has earned another important accolade as he is named the winner of the 2024 Magnus ‘Mange’ Olsson Prize. Cammas has won just about every offshore yacht racing title in the books, several of them…
NI youth sailors made an impression at the 2024 RS Feva World Championships in Bruinisse
Six Northern Ireland youth sailors competed at the recent RS Feva World Championships held in Bruinisse in the Netherlands from 26 July to 1 August. Emily and Annabel Ridout (Ballyholme Yacht Club, 25th overall), Matthew and Peter Ridout (Ballyholme YC, 45th)…
The Royal Irish Yacht Club crew of Rockabill VI, skippered by Paul O'Higgins (right), were the IRC Zero class winners at Calves Week 2024
A final race to the Fastnet Rock saw the conclusion of Calves Week Regatta at Schull Harbour Sailing Club on Friday with points tight at the top of the scoreboard (provisional results published below) in the 61-boat fleet after three breezy…
Magic. Annalise Murphy returns to a triumphant welcome at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire with her Silver Medal from the 2016 Rio Olympics
We invest so much in our Olympic sailors: Money. Hope, Understanding. Emotional Support. Trying to comprehend and meet the Olympians' needs. Trying to know when to come forward. Trying to know when to hold back. Being aware when publicity is…

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]