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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
Neck and neck from the ISORA start line - Winner J109 Indian (Colm Buckley and Simon Knowles) (left) battle it out with Alan Hannon's Belfast Lough-based JPK 1030 Coquine that finished second in the 28-mile Viking Marine coastal race. Both boats are in training for the 700-mile Round Ireland Race in under eight weeks' time
There was a second consecutive ISORA coastal race win for the Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian crew skippered by Simon Knowles on Sunday after a light to medium air test in the longest race of the Viking Marine series so…
William Walsh and Eoin Byrne in IRL 2118 make a perfect race start on their way to overall victory at the 29er Eastern Championships at the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay
William Walsh and Eoin Byrne of the host club were the clear winners of the 29er Eastern Championships 2024 at the National Yacht Club on Sunday. After eight races sailed off Seapoint on Dublin Bay in light to medium winds, the NYC…
The GP14 Munster Championship fleet converges on a top mark at Killaloe Sailing Club. The two day event showcased the best of Irish GP14 sailing, with impressive performances from seasoned champions and rising stars alike
Killaloe Sailing Club in County Clare played host to the highly anticipated GP14 Munster Championships, the first championship of 2024. The event drew 27 teams from across Ireland to experience the excitement and charm of sailing on Lough Derg. For…
 The Transat CIC - Of the 48 sailors who took the start, 33 are competing in the IMOCA class, 13 in the Class40 class and 2 in the vintage class
The Transat CIC, the legendary solo race across the North Atlantic, commenced on Sunday with 48 sailors setting sail from Lorient, Brittany towards New York. Blessed with sunny skies, cumulus clouds, and a decent 10-15kts of Westerly wind, the sailors…
Ruan O'Tiarnaigh (right) winner of the YTC division of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club Spring Series on Belfast Lough with Tom Bell of sponsors Grange Wines and Vice Commodore Maurice Butler
Inclement weather played havoc with the six-race Royal Ulster Yacht Club Spring Series on Belfast Lough, with Sunday, 7th April, cancelled. However, four races eventually gave overall results. The last outing on 21st April started with little wind, and the…
Denis and Annamarie Murphy's IRC One winning Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo prepare for a hoist on the final day of racing at Kinsale Yacht Club's Axiom Private Clients Spring Series 2024. See the final race photo gallery and prizegiving photo galleries below.
After five races sailed and one discard, Denis and Annamarie Murphy's Nieulargo was crowned IRC One champion at Kinsale Yacht Club's Axiom Private Clients Spring Series 2024 on Sunday. The Royal Cork Yacht Club Grand Soleil 40 crew, skippered by RCYC's Lady…
Ian Williams with crew Richard Sydenham, Gerrard Thomas, Gerry Mitchell, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney and Northern Ireland's Oisin McClelland leads the downwind leg at the 2024 Congressional Cup at Long Beach in California
Multi-talented Irish Finn Sailor Oisin McClelland from Donaghdee in County Down, who recently joined the 44Cup circuit, is in top match-racing form in America this weekend as part of Great Britain’s Ian Williams Congressional Cup crew, which is through to Sunday's…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club committee boat Freebird prepares to start the first Saturday racing of its 2024 summer season for the club's one-design keelboat fleets including Dublin Bay 21s, Beneteau 211s, Dragons, SB20s and Flying Fifteens in the presence of the anchored visiting cruise liner Viking Saturn off Dun Laoghaire
There were ideal conditions for Dublin Bay Sailing Club's first AIB Saturday race of the 2024 season, on April 25th, in medium north-easterly winds and a classic Dublin Bay chop. In a ten-boat turnout, J109s took the top three places…
ISORA's Race 7 - the fourth Irish Coastal Race on Sunday, 28th April, will start at 11.00 and start all classes. The course shall be: Start at DL Outfall, Muglins (S) 53 16.52 N 06 04.58 W, Moulditch Buoy (P) 53 08.548 N 06 01.23 W, East Kish (P) 53 14.35 N 05 53.56 W and finish at DL between pier heads
National Yacht Club organisers have confirmed that the 15-boat ISORA fleet will race a 28-mile coastal race from Dun Laoghaire. As Afloat reported previously, the Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian (Colm Buckley and Simon Knowles) returns to the Dun Laoghaire Harbour line this…
The Magic Moment. The Dubois 40 Irish Independent, with Tim Goodbody (RIYC) as lead helm, rounds the Fastnet Rock on the way to the overall win in 1987
The Royal Irish Yacht Club of Dun Laoghaire is so far the only club in Ireland which has indicated to Denis Byrne, Commodore of the governing Irish Cruiser-Racer Association and Vice Admiral of the Royal Cork YC, that it is…
Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove (above) hold a tiny five-point advantage in the Irish Olympic 49er Trial, meaning the Cork crew of  Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (below) must beat them by five places and finish within the top 20 at the Europeans to win the place with Team Ireland for the Paris 2024 Olympics
Irish Olympic class sailors did not make it to Saturday's medal race final at French Olympic Week in Hyères, France on April 26th, 2024. This week's regatta saw all events conclude their series despite moderate winds and torrential rain on…
ISORA cruiser racers depart Dun Laoghaire Harbour in last weekend's Viking Marine Coastal Series with Jonathan Stanley's J99 Mister Ollie (IRL 1799) to leeward of Tom Shanahan's J109 Ruth (IRL 1383) on port and  Alan Hannon's Belfast Lough, JPK 10.30 Coquine (GBR 1030X) on starboard tack. More light winds are forecast for this weekend's fourth race which has attracted an entry of 15 boats
Having won last Sunday's race, the Howth Yacht Club J109 Indian (Colm Buckley and Simon Knowles) returns to the Dun Laoghaire Harbour line this Sunday at 11 am for the fourth of five races in ISORA's Viking Marine Coastal Series. Forecasts…
Paul O'Higgins's JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI from the RIYC was the Class Zero IRC winner in the first AIB DBSC Thursday evening race of the 2024 season
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's first AIB Thursday evening race of the 2024 season on April 25th got off to a gentle start as light easterly winds died away and led to the abandonment of racing in many classes. However, the…
Crosshaven’s Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan duel with Spain’s Diego Botin and Florian Trittel off Hyères on Monday 22 April
With just Friday’s fleet racing remaining at French Olympic Week at Hyères on the Côte D’Azur, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove lead Irish hopes for the medal race final in the men’s skiff event. However, despite strong form in Thursday’s…
The Famous Project crew hold their teammates in high esteem after their arrival in Portimao, Portugal on Wednesday 24 April
The Famous Project crew have completed on their first all-female ocean passage across the Atlantic on their MOD70 The Famous Project Limosa. The seven-strong crew — which included Ireland’s own Joan Mulloy — arrived in Portimao, Portugal from Antigua on…
Members of Loughs Agency, Enagh Seniors Group and River Faughan Anglers on the banks of the River Faughan
Loughs Agency, in collaboration with Enagh Seniors Group and volunteers from River Faughan Anglers, recently organised a tree-planting event at Teenaght, situated along the scenic banks of the River Faughan near Claudy. Approximately 150 willow saplings supplied by Enagh Seniors…

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]