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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
Royal Cork's O'Leary Wins British National IRC Title on The Solent
#rorc – Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary's Ker 39, Antix has won the prestigious British IRC Championship title on the Solent this afternoon. Despitere being one of the smallest boats in Class one the Munster crew continued their impressive display, winning…
#opti – With only three races sailed and no discards applied there were some big casualties at the Skerries based Ulster Optimist dinghy championships today, including a lowly ninth overall for Cork's Harry Durcan, who will be Ireland's only representative…
Strangford Lough Pair Win Northern Flying Fifteen Champs at Red Bay in 20 knots
#flyingfifteen – National Flying Fifteen champions Ian Mathews and Keith Poole of Dun Laoghaire could not match Roger Chamberlain and Charley Horder for Northern Championship honours at Cushendall Sailing Club today. The Strangford Lough pair moved up a gear from…
McCartin & Kinsella Win Fireball Dinghy Open at Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club
#fireball – The Fireball dinghy Open championships have been won by Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella. Second were Kenny Rumball with Brian "Teddy" Byrne/Shane McCarthy and third were Conor and James Clancy. The Classic trophy was won by Neil Colin…
O'Leary's Antix Leads British IRC Championships on the Solent
#antix – Irish Commodore Cuppers are in the frame on the Solent as the RORC British IRC National Championship goes into its third and final day with fickle conditions but stronger than those encountered at the Irish IRC Championships being sailed…
Rumball & Byrne Lead Irish Fireball Open Championships at Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club
fireball – An encouraging turnout of 21 boats made the second regatta of the Irish Fireball Regatta circuit, the Open Championship, at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club writes Cormac Bradley. Dublin Bay had been bereft of any significant wind on…
Dublin Bay Squib Fleet Cruises from Dun Laoghaire to Howth But Ends up in Clontarf
#squib – The key to a successful cruise is good organisation. Plan ahead, select your destination, ensure that the tide is going in a favourable direction, ensure that the facilities at your place of arrival are adequate for your group…
Royal Alfred Make Scoring Change for Bloomsday Regatta
#bloomsdayregatta – Lack of wind for sailing on Dublin Bay today means Royal Alfred Yacht Club's Bloomsday regatta that is being run in conjunction with the ICRA National Championships has made a change to its sailing instructions.  Scoring in certain…
Dead Calm at Day Two of ICRA Sailing Champs on Dublin Bay
      #cruiserracing – With racing abandoned for the bulk of classes there was frustration for the 113–boat ICRA championship on Dublin Bay today and an earlier start than scheduled for tomorrow's final day of competition. Classes Zero and One…
Kenefick Prepares 'Full Irish' For Second Leg of La Solitaire Round Ireland's Fastnet Rock
#lasolitaire2014 – Leg Two of the 2014 Solitaire du Figaro is upon us. We are currently in balmy Plymouth with incredible weather about to be given the race briefing for the next leg. 535 miles from here to our very…
ICRA Fleet Leaders Emerge After Light Air Start to National Championships on Dublin Bay
#cruiser-racing– It may have been light and shifty but Nigel Bigg's Half-tonner Checkmate V from the Royal St. George YC gave a show of strength when he took two race wins in Division Two of the ICRA National Championships that began…
Edwards In Bid To Save Whitbread Winner 'Maiden'
#Offshore - Tracy Edwards - who led an all-woman team to victory 24 years ago in the precursor to the Volvo Ocean Race - has launched a bid to recover her race-winning boat Maiden after it was discovered in serious…
America's Cup Sailor to Race F18 at Ballyholme Yacht Club World Champs
Australian Glenn Ashby was wing trimmer on the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72 in last year's America's Cup. He is a multihull specialist, with 14 World Championships across three classes to his name. Ballyholme Yacht Club, host of the 2014…
Fastest Dinghy in the World – Foiling Moth Clocks 36.5 Knots
#mothdinghy – A former American Fireball dinghy sailor has become the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, clocking up a time 36.5 knots on a foiling Moth dinghy. Charleston's Ned Goss who is well known in performance sailing circles is a…
Berthing on the Boyne as Tallships Arrive for Irish Maritime Festival
#TallshipsBerthBoyne-This morning five beautiful tallships are arriving at the mouth of the Boyne for the second Irish Maritime Festival held along the town quays of Drogheda this weekend (13,14 and 15 June), writes Jehan Ashmore. Once all these tallships are…
American Is World's 'Fastest' Dinghy Sailor
#Fireball - High performance helm Ned Goss has been rated the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, according to Sailing Anarchy. The South Carolina-based Fireball racer was reportedly recorded by his Velocitek meter at hitting a peak speed of 36.5…

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]