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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
Cork Quarter Tonner Jason and Dominic Losty's Illes Pitiuses won the Quarter Ton Cup in 2014
2016 Marks the tenth anniversary of Coutts' title sponsorship of the revival Quarter Ton Cup Irish boats have been to the fore winning the Corinthian division of the Cup twice in the past five years. In 2012, George Kenefick's Tiger (1989…
Early days – The Firefly proved a great success in its early years with the first boats selling for just £65.00!
The dinghy synonmous with team racing in Ireland (and also early Olympic Games endeavours) celebrates an important birthday this year and the UK class is making a special effort to push the boat out. Designed in 1938 by Uffa Fox,…
Strong winds forced the postponement of the first day of the Laser European Championships in Palma
With winds gusting to over 30 knots, the fleet was kept ashore for the opening day of the Laser Europeans (126 entries) and Laser Radial Women’s Europeans (99 entries). Ireland is well represented at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria…
Harry Durcan takes a swim. See what happens next on the full video below
Champion youth sailor Harry Durcan of Royal Cork took a swim during heavy weather training at last week's 420 dinghy training camp in Schull, West Cork. The near miss between the two 420s was captured on video and can be…
The poor condition of Moonduster's varnished stern. The full video on facebook (below) reveals the current state of the 1988 Round Ireland record holder
There has been plenty of comment on social media about the current condition of the much loved Irish yacht Moonduster, the former Round Ireland record holder skippered by the late Denis Doyle of the Royal Cork Yacht Club. See the…
Firefly racing for Irish varsity honours at Kilrush in County Clare
UCD reigned at the Varsity Team Racing Championships at Kilrush Marina in County Clare, the last national event of the year in the college sailing calendar. The event was organised by Trinity sailing and DIT Sailing Club.  Teams from around Ireland…
Damian Foxall was aboard Phaedo. Scroll down for the video
Hurtling around the Caribbean at speeds in excess of 30 knots and topping out nearer 40, often barely a boat length apart, the epic duel between MOD70s Concise 10 and Phaedo3 came to a conclusion after 32 hours of hot…
RORC has confirmed Conor Fogerty's BAM as the class three winner in the Caribbean 600
Howth Yacht BAM skippered by Conor Fogerty has won Class 3 in RORC's Caribbbean 600 race after a tense battle over the last 24 hours where there were only minutes to spare against some international competition in the 600–mile race…
Eric de Turkheim’s individualistic Teasing Machine from France has had a magnificent RORC Caribbean 600 race, finishing a good third overall in an event which favoured the bigger boats and especialy the Maxi 72s.
The overnight leader, George Sakellaris’s Vrolik-designed Maxi 72 Proteus, is confirmed as winner of the RORC Caribbean 600 at noon today (Thursday) as time runs out for smaller craft still battling against wayward conditions further back along this cat’s cradle…
Annalise Murphy carries big hopes to Rio this Summer
Fourth in London four years ago, National Yacht Club sailor Annalise Murphy is focused on a bid for Olympic glory but success in Rio is unlikely to be plain sailing she tells the Irish Times this morning. Murphy has spent…
The Maxi 72 Proteus has finished in the RORC Caribbean 600, and currently heads the leaderboard in IRC Overall
UPDATE 2200hrs: The RORC Caribbean 600 continues to be a race of swings and roundabouts as different boats come to the fore depending on which part of this multi-island course they’re sailing along writes W M Nixon. There are stages…
The Irish Sailing Association Cruising Conference attracted 90 sailors to Howth Yacht Club for a range of talks
The inaugural ISA Cruising Conference at Howth Yacht Club attracted 90 sailors for a very informative day last Saturday.  ISA President David Lovegrove opened proceedings and Keynote speaker Eddie Nicholson and his crew entertained with an excellent show on their adventures…
Download the start times for next Sunday's races below
DBSC will attempt to stage the second race of its Spring Chicken Series after a fortnight of cancellations due to strong winds. Starts and handicaps for the 46–boat fleet are downloadable below for Sunday's race. 
Watch The World Sailing Show - February 2016 below
In the February Sailing Show, Ireland's own Annalise Murphy might be interested in checking out an interview with arch rival Evi Van Acker, the Laser Radial Bronze medallist from London 2012. Entitled 'Getting to know Evi van Acker', the Belgian star…
Top rated IRC boats such as Anthony O'Leary's Antix from Royal Cork have a choice of IRC events this summer
In 2016 the IRC Rating rule, administered by the RORC Rating Office (and owned by RORC in partnership with UNCL in France) will be used to battle out no less than eleven regional and special championships around Great Britain and…
MOD70 Phaedo3 Smashes RORC '600 After Epic Duel
Hurtling around the Caribbean at speeds in excess of 30 knots and topping out nearer 40, often barely a boat length apart, the epic duel between MOD70s Concise 10 and Phaedo3 came to a conclusion after 32 hours of hot…

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]