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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
An ILCA 6 race start on the only day of racing at the 2024 Irish Sailing Youth National Championships at the Royal Cork Yacht Club
Not many were surprised when the Irish Sailing Youth National Championships, which have been taking place at the Royal Cork Yacht Club since Thursday, concluded early due to the landing of Storm Kathleen and a deteriorating forecast for the following…
Members and guests of Cockle Island Boat Club at a Civic reception in Bangor City Hall marking their 50th anniversary
The Eagle Wing emigrant ship is reputed to have sailed from Groomsport on the south. shore of Belfast Lough in 1636 with 140 passengers and was the first attempt by Ulster-Scots folks to emigrate to America. At 140 tons, it…
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Racing at Bangor Regatta in June promises to be keener than ever with the appearance in the Coastal IRC and YTC class of not one but two Swans. The Swan 40 Sloop John T is better known outside Northern Ireland…
The Italian Class40 Alla Grande Pirelli in the 2023 Normandy Channel Race, which took in turning marks at the Tuskar and Fastnet Rocks. The first of the Class40 fleet – the French boat Unicorn – confirmed entry this week in the 2024 SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow on June 22nd
This weekend is expected to see the Entry List for the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race on June 22nd going through the 40 mark, with a good selection of boats already providing a healthy mix of internationally-renowned craft lining up…
Micky Beckett won ILCA 7 gold with a day to spare, on day five of the World Cup Series at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca
Great Britain’s Micky Beckett has won ILCA 7 gold with a day to spare, on day five of the World Cup Series at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by Iberostar. Matching Beckett’s feat and conquering the Nacra 17 mixed…
It seems that the Irish Sailing League is going to be a big success this year! We're receiving a lot of enquiries and entries on our website, and we're expecting to reach our maximum capacity of 16 boats very soon.…
Royal Cork flags show that Friday's racing at the Irish Sailing Youth National Championships is cancelled Due To strong winds
The second day of racing at the 2024 Irish Sailing Youth National Championships at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour has been cancelled due to strong winds.  Organisers completed a successful first day of races on Thursday for over 90 boats and…
Tom Dolan (right) is a key member of a three-strong international crew, skippered by top Figaro racer Gildas Mahé (centre). The team, which also includes young Spanish racer Pep Costa, will compete in a 3,430 nautical mile Transatlantic course from the French Atlantic coast to reach Marie-Galante off the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe
Irish offshore solo racer Tom Dolan is taking advantage of a break in the Figaro circuit to participate in a new crewed Class40 race - the Niji 40. Dolan is a key member of a three-strong international crew, skippered by…
RYA Northern Ireland logo
RYA Northern Ireland has launched its Active Clubs Grants scheme, which offers funding for Northern Ireland clubs aiming to grow and retain their membership. Priority will be given to clubs who are running programmes for women and girls, people with…
Clementine Van Steenberge (left) of the National Yacht Club, sailing with new crew Jessica Riordan of the Royal St. Goerge Yacht Club lead the 29er skiffs at the Irish Sailing Youth Nationals at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour
Over 90 boats and more than 100 sailors competed on a wet opening Thursday at the Irish Sailing Youth National Championships ahead of Storm Kathleen's expected arrival in Cork Harbour this weekend. The Royal Cork Yacht Club-hosted event saw three dinghy…
With the first Viking Marine ISORA Coastal Race cancelled on Saturday due to strog winds, all eyes are now on the second. race scheduled for next Saturday, April 13th at 11am
Due to Saturday's extreme weather forecast, ISORA's first coastal race is postponed until a date to be agreed upon amongst those skippers who entered the race. As Afloat previously reported, ISORA boss Peter Ryan issued the Sailing Instructions (downloadable below)…
Royal Cork duo Seafra Guilfyole and Johnny Durcan competing at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca
On light-wind day four of the World Cup Series event at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, Irish competitors maintained their overall positions, with one day left to sail before the medal races on Saturday. The light sea-breeze condition on…
Some of the junior 4.7 fleet racing in the ILCA Munster Championships 2024 at Baltimore Sailing Club in West Cork
For ILCA sailors Easter always means the Munster Championships in Baltimore Sailing Club in West Cork. Despite the early Easter this year the Munster Championships lived up to all expectations, with nearly a hundred boats travelling from around the country,…
29er action at the 2021 Irish Sailing Youth National Championships held in Cork Harbour. The 2024 event returns to Royal Cork Yacht Club this morning
Over 170 young sailors are set to compete in Ireland’s largest youth regatta, which starts today, April 4th at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour. The 2024 Irish Sailing Youth National Championships, which will be hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club…
Simon Knowles' J109 Indian is confirmed for Saturday's first ISORA coastal race from Dun Laoghaire Harbour
ISORA's first Dublin Bay Coastal race of the season is in doubt due to this Saturday's forecasted strong southerly winds. A new JPK design is set to challenge reigning ISORA champion Rockabill VI in the Viking Marine-sponsored race to and…
Royal Cork duo Seafra Guilfyole and Johnny Durcan have moved up one place to 24th overall at the Trofeo Princesa Sofía Trophy in Mallorca
Another sea breeze day kept the giant 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by Iberostar rolling through a demanding schedule of races. Across the classes are some marked, understandable differences between the mindsets of those who are in the throes 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]