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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
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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…
The mighty John Alden schooner Puritan is just one chapter in Bob Fannin Jnr’s very varied history of sailing experience
Bob Fannin Jnr feels most at home on the high seas. For as the Bristol-based writer, broadcaster and university lecturer told the members of the Cruising Group at his former club of Howth on Tuesday night, when sailing the sea,…
Ballycastle, on the island’s famous Causeway Coast, will host the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series on Friday, July 19th and Saturday, July 20th
Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, is all set to host a leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2024. This July, the global event will witness the world’s best cliff divers competing against each other on the beautiful Causeway Coast.…
Cian McCarthy addresses the Kinsale Yacht Club gathering saluting his achievements with Sam Hunt in the 2023 Sydney-Hobart Race
Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt were honoured at home on the Easter weekend by Kinsale Yacht Club, the West Cork club joining a long list of organisations that saluted the duo's Christmas 2003 achievements competing in Australia's Sydney Hobart Race.…
Ireland's Finn Lynch moved up nine places in the ILCA 7 class to 11th as the thermal sea-breeze conditions for which Mallorca’s Bay of Palma is world renowned returned to allow a full programme of competition to be completed on Tuesday, getting the giant 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by Iberostar Olympic classes regatta back on course after Monday’s schedule was curtailed by strong winds and big waves
Great Britain’s Olympic hopeful Micky Beckett took advantage of a dramatic change of conditions at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca on the second day of the World Cup Series event. Ireland's Finn Lynch also made good on a lighter…
Spinnaker division boats compete in good breeze and sunshine in the first race of the Axiom Spring Series for cruisers at Kinsale
The Axiom Private Clients Spring Series 2024 at Kinsale Yacht Club got underway on Easter Monday with a fine turnout of over 30 cruisers and 1720 sportsboats in both the Spinnaker and Whitesail divisions. The racing lived up to its…
‘Full on’ ‘…crazy’ ‘…nuclear’ ‘…big winds opened the 53rd Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by Iberostar
With gusts to over 30 knots at times and a big, untidy swell which has been built up by nearly two weeks of strong winds in the Balearica Islands, of the ten Olympic scheduled events only the Formula Kite Men…
TicTac, skippered by Peter Frazier (left) and Antrim Boat Club Antrim Winter Series overall winner, FA2 (Charlie McAllister and Jeff Harrison)
There is not much in the way of shelter when the wind is in the north on Lough Neagh, so the fleet from the Club in the north west corner was greeted for the first race of the second half…
Juliet Ryan was the Optimist 'Brassed-Off Cup' winner at Howth Yacht Club
The annual Brassed-Off Cup for Optimists which has been running in Howth for 21 years, was held on Sunday in breezy south easterly conditions over a relatively flat sea with some strong gusts to test the boat handling of the…

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]