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
RORC Easter Challenge Includes (Free) Coaching On the Solent
#rorc – While it is always tempting to spend money on new sails or other go-faster widgets, coaching is often overlooked by amateur crews as a means of gaining boat speed through improved trim and set-up or just generally getting…
Calypso Leads DBSC Spring Chicken Series. Download Results Here!
#dbsc – Calypso, a Beneteau Oceanis 36, leads a 38–boat fleet by a single point after five races sailed in DBSC's Spring Chicken cruiser handicap series. After a discard has been applied there is a tie for second place between…
Caroline Leonard

Caroline Leonard

10th March 2015 DBSC
#dbsc – Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) is mourning the loss of its former vice–commodore Caroline Leonard, a stalwart of the Dun Laoghaire yacht racing scene who died yesterday. Caroline, a member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club since 1991, was for many years…
Team Vestas Wind Was 'Unaware Of Any Navigational Danger' Before Grounding Says Report
#VOR - Team Vestas Wind "was unaware of any navigational danger, in its vicinity, incorrectly assessed the minimum chart depth at Cargados Carajos Shoals to be 40 metres and understood that it was safe to sail across the shoals." That's…
Fireball Dinghies Led by Dun Laoghaire's Butler & Oram
#dbsc – To a racing observer from the shore, the start of yesterday's Frostbite was very odd! At the scheduled start of 14:00, the first two classes the PY Class and the Lasers got away in proper order writes Cormac…
Shifty, Gusty For RS200s & RS400s Dun Laoghaire Race
#RS – A strong gusty breeze scared off more than a few of the usual competitors from the DMYC Frostbite Series on Sunday the 8th of March, and a reduced fleet were left wondering as two o'clock approached whether or…
Howth Laser Dinghies Confront Steep Waves for Final Frostbite Races
#laser – Seventeen Laser dinghies braved the cold blustery conditions for the final two races of Howth Yacht Club's Spring Series. It was an interesting preamble to the Round Island race on Saturday 14th March. The racing was incident packed. In the…
O'Leary Seventh in Viper Class At Bacardi Miami Sailing Week
#royalcork – At Bacardi Miami Sailing Week, Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary – who was crowned Afloat's Sailor of the Year on Friday –  has finished seventh overall in the 32-boat Viper fleet. Racing with Howth's Dan O'Grady and Cork clubmate Tom…
Anthony O'Leary & Commodore's Cup Team Take 'Sailor of the Year' Accolade
#soy – The new stars of the Irish sailing firmament are Anthony O'Leary (57) of Cork and the successful Commodore's Cup team. In a gala ceremony in Dublin this afternoon to celebrate the many achievements of our sailors in 2014, O'Leary…
Sailor of the Year 2014 To Be Announced This Afternoon
#sailoroftheyear – The voting is over, the judges have decided and today the 2014 ISA/Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year will be revealed at a Dublin city centre ceremony.  Over 200 invitees are gathering this afternoon to celebrate some remarkable achievements…
Foxall Joins China's Volvo Ocean Race Dongfeng Team
#vor – County Kerry's Damian Foxall, one of the biggest names in offshore sailing, is joining the Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) for the forthcoming treacherous Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race.Caudrelier and Foxall were on the Groupama boat…
Start Times & Handicaps for Next Sunday's DBSC Spring Chicken Series
#dbsc – After two weekends of abandoned racing, this week's weather forecast gives a much more favourable picture for Sunday's fourth race of the Rathfarnham Ford sponsored DBSC Spring Chicken Series. Attached below are the start times & handicaps for the…
UK Fireball Nationals Head For Hayling Island
#fireball – Hayling Island Sailing Club will be hosting the UK Fireball National Championship in August 2016 exactly 50 years after the club hosted the inaugural World Championship. HISC was one of the first clubs to adopt the Fireball after…
Dublin Bay Sigma 33s Set to Race As Part of DBSC Cruisers Two Class
#sigma33 – The Sigma 33 Class on Dublin Bay will race in Cruisers 2 for the first time in 15 years it has been confirmed by Sigma 33 class captain Paddy Maguire. The Sigma's will receive results in 2015 as…
Glen Sailing on Dublin Bay Video
#glen – This video, shot and edited by Ki Duong on board Glenshane of the Dun Laoghaire Glen fleet celebrates the 2014 season. The Glens have been sailing and racing on Dublin Bay now for 50 years and continue to thrive. As you can see…
Lough Ree Yacht Club Mirror Dinghy Coaching in the Sleet & Snow
#mirror – The Irish Mirror Dinghy Association's winter training started this weekend in rather tricky weather conditions. 14 hardy sailors headed out on to Lough Ree in gusts of 20 knots on Saturday morning, under the excellent coaching guidance of…

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]