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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
UCC Reign as Intervarsity Irish Champions
#teamrace – A very exciting and eventful finals series on Saturday, produced an all UCC final, with UCC1 facing off against UCC2. UCC1 won the first three races of the five race final which saw them being crowned Intervarsity Champions for…
Foxall & Kenefick Perform in Persian Gulf
#tourofarabia – Cork and Kerry offshore sailors continue a strong performance in the Persian Gulf this week with Damian Foxall's Oman sail/EFG crew outwitting Crosshaven's David Kenefick sailing on Team Averda to lead the Tour of Arabia. 'Brutal conditions' were reported…
Dinghy Frostbites & Spring Chicken Series Fall Victim to Strong Winds
#dbsc – Strong westerly winds gusting to 40 knots put paid to both the DBSC Spring Chicken handicap keelboat series and the DMYC dinghy frostbites on Dublin bay today.The cruiser event was abandoned just before its first gun this morning.…
Spanish Win Latest VOR Leg As Top 3 Finish Within 8 Minutes
#VOR - MAPFRE have crossed the line at Auckland to take victory in the fourth leg of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, just minutes ahead of their closest rivals Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – with Irish bowman Justin Slattery among…
Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) Seek Full Time Racing Administrator
#rorc – The Royal Ocean Racing Club is looking for a full time Racing Administrator to join the Race Team in Cowes. Primary duties involved in the administration of the Racing Programme are; supporting race competitors entering races, organising volunteers, managing…
Who Will Get Birthday Surprise in Volvo Ocean Race?
#vor – Birthday boys Charles Caudrelier and Ian Walker were planning to dampen each other's celebrations as Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race continued to go down to the wire on Friday. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Walker/GBR) held a…
Who Will Be Crowned Irish Sailor of the Year 2014?
#sailoroftheyear – That final decision on the ISA/Afloat.ie Sailor of the Year 2014 award will be announced at the Sailing Awards celebration in Dublin on the afternoon of Friday March 6th March at a ceremony which will also see each Sailor…
Less than 60nm Separates Six Volvo Ocean Race Yachts
#volvooceanrace – Victory in the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race was so close that Dongfeng Race Team skipper Charles Caudrelier (FRA) could almost taste it on Thursday, but with just over 500 nautical miles (nm) to go, he…
The Foiling Laser – Who Will Be First In Ireland?
#laser –  The invention of a new bolt-on foiling kit means the foiling experience is open to more sailors than ever before. As Afloat.ie previously reported in 2013 after four years of product and design testing, Peter Stephinson and Ian Ward…
RORC Caribbean 600 Multihull Record Broken By Phaedo
#rorc – Lloyd Thornburg's MOD 70, Phaedo3 crossed the RORC Caribbean 600 finish line in Antigua at 20:35:30 AST yesterday in an elapsed time of 1 day, 9 hours, 35 minutes and 30 seconds. Phaedo 3 has broken the multihull race record…
Irish Olympic Laser Trial For 'Aquece Rio' Expected
#aquecerio – Ireland is expected to issue details of its selection trials shortly for The Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta 2015, the second of two Rio 2016 Olympic Test Events with the first being held in 2014. Only one athlete…
RORC Caribbean 600 Start Aerials
#rorc – Video highlights from Day One of the RORC Caribbean 600, with incredible aerial footage of the high performance yachts in spectacular ocean racing conditions.
Royal Yacht Squadron to Hold Bicentenary Regatta in Cowes
#rys – The promise of a spectacle of timeless classic versus cutting edge modern is emerging early in the year as the entries for the Royal Yacht Squadron's Bicentenary start to lay down the gauntlet for the summer of sailing…
Trimaran Phaedo 3 Leads RORC Caribbean 600 Fleet
#caribbean600 – 66 yachts started the 7th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 yesterday, with hundreds of race fans watching the impressive fleet from Fort Charlotte and Shirley Heights. Irish crews are racing in several boats across the fleet, details…
Fireball Dinghy Racers Make Time for 2015 Summer Sailing Plans
#fireballsailing – While the Frostbites of 22nd February were cancelled due to adverse wind conditions, though I spotted Shane McCarthy coming back in to the Coal Harbour through “hell’s gate” with a flogging main in his Solo, it may have…
Records Set To Tumble At RORC Caribbean 600
#rorc – Records are predicted to tumble for the seventh edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 this week, which has one of the most spectacular line ups of high performance boats racing anywhere in the world. Interviews with participating crews…

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]