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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
Howth Yacht Club's Shane Diviney Wins Warren Jones Youth Regatta in Perth
#hyc – Howth Yacht Club's (HYC) Shane Diviney, a former Dublin City University student now based in Australia, was on pit duty for Chris Steele's winning 36 below team in Perth for the Warren Jones Youth Regatta this week.  Steele…
Irish Sailing Association Seeks CEO For New 'Irish Sailing Foundation'
#irishsailingfoundation – The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) is seeking a Chief Executive Officer for a new 'Irish Sailing Foundation' (ISF) to raise €2.75m annually in 'philantropic' sailing funding to 'improve performance at Olympic level, increase the level of competition for those…
First Race of DBSC Spring Chicken Series This Sunday
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's first event of 2015 begins on Sunday morning with the first of its 'Spring Chicken' Series, a series of six races to be held on Sunday mornings from 1st February to 10th March. Handicaps and start times…
Annalise Drops To Seventh in Miami, Finn Lynch Makes Gold Fleet At First World Cup Regatta
#sailingworldcupmiami – Annalise Murphy sustained a drop of five places overall after a second result in the 30s took its toll on her overall score in Florida yesterday. The Dun Laoghaire Laser Radial sailor moves from second to seventh overall as…
World's Oldest Yacht Finally On Way For Conservation in Isle Of Man
#oldestyacht – What may well be the world's oldest yacht, the 1789-built 26ft schooner Peggy in the Isle of Man has finally been lifted out of her historic berth under Bridge House in Castletown in the isle of Man, and has…
Annalise Stays Second After Shifty Day At Sailing World Cup Miami
#SailingWCMiami – A third in race five yesterday at the Miami Olympic classes regatta kept Ireland's Annalise Murphy hopes of overall victory this Saturday very much alive. The Dun Laoghaire sailor, who finished fourth in the London Olympics, is in second…
Ben Ainslie's Team Take to The Waters of The 35th America's Cup
#benainslie – Ben Ainslie Racing were the first America's Cup team both on – and under – the race course waters of the 35th America's Cup last week, when the team conducted an initial training camp in Bermuda. "It's been great…
Tall Ship Topples During Storm in America
#tallship – A revolutionary war replica tall ship has been toppled by strong wind gusts during the snowstorm that's pounding Rhode Island in the United States. The 110-foot ship was extensively damaged when it fell on its side at the…
Clipper Race Seeking Irish Crew Coming to a Yacht Club Near You!
#clipper –The Clipper Race Team is visiting locations across Ireland, to meet potential future race crew looking to get on board the Derry~Londonderry~Doire team for the 2015-16 series and help make its third race campaign the most successful to date.…
Is Sir Ben's America's Cup Team 'Virgin' On A New Investor?
#AmericasCup - Sir Ben Ainslie's next bid for the America's Cup may have secured the backing of Sir Richard Brandon's Virgin empire, as the Daily Telegraph reports. It's understood that the billionaire businessman and adventurer – who recently hosted the…
Annalise Murphy Moves into Radial Second, Finn Lynch Leads Irish Laser Hopes in Miami
#SailingWCMiami – Irish Laser Radial Sailor Annalise Murphy moved up one place to be just two points off the lead after four races at Miami Olympic sailing classes yesterday. A third in race four – in winds up to 20 knots –…
Dongfeng Win VOR Leg Three, Leading All the Way from Abu Dhabi to Sanya
#vor – It was an unbelievable end to a magnificent Volvo Ocean Race leg for Dongfeng Race Team. After leading the fleet virtually all the way from Abu Dhabi to Sanya in China, over more than 5,000 miles of intense…
#dusc – Dublin University Sailing Club will be holding it's second Alumni Regatta at the Royal St. George Yacht Club this March 7. The event was founded with the aim of uniting Trinity sailors throughout the ages. It was seen…
Annalise Murphy Off to A Flying Start in Miami, Finn Lynch Leads Irish Laser Men
#SailingWCMiami – First it was sunny and bright then It was storming and raining sideways and then It was sunny and bright. Just like home. Those familiar conditions may have helped Ireland's Annalise Murphy get the 2015 Olympic saiing season off…
Cudmore's Historical 18 Campaign Ends With Broken Tiller
#haroldcudmore – No sooner had we reported on Cork sailing legend Harold Cudmore's commanding start to the Historical 18 Australian championships in Sydney Harbour than it ended.  Cudmore's chances title were dashed when Yendys capsized off Nielsen Park on the…
Belfast Expects 80 Tall Ships For 2015 Races & 500,000 Spectators
#Tallships – From 2 to 5 July 2015 tall ships from across the world will anchor in Belfast port for the start of The Tall Ships Races 2015. Organised by Sail Training International, The Tall Ships Races will be welcomed…

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]