Sailing: Barely weeks into the season, sailing championships are already under way as a particularly busy summer beckons.

Last weekend saw the Royal St George YC trio of Andrew Fowler, David McHugh and Max Treacy emerge the overall winners of 12 teams entered by clubs around Ireland in the Smart Telecom Match Racing National Championship at Kinsale YC.

Sailed in Squib keelboats, the event is a pre-qualifier for the ISAF Nations Cup event to be held at the neighbouring Royal Cork YC in September.

The Dun Laoghaire trio automatically qualify, along with the women's crew of Mary O'Loughlin, Karena Knaggs and Gillian Burke, representing Howth YC, for Match Racing's cousin discipline, Team Racing, which takes its turn this weekend when the Chubb Insurance International Challenge returns to Dublin Bay.

A transatlantic club invitation event, three-boat teams compete using Sigma 33-footers drawn from Ireland, Britain and the US. The return event is the Patriot's Cup, sailed in Newport, Rhode Island, every autumn.

More than 100 entries are expected for the Saab Cruiser National Championships next weekend at the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Now in its third year, this initiative by the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) will establish Ireland's best crews from the club level venues around the coast in three titles.

With IRC handicapping firmly established as the best system for rating the myriad sizes and designs in the keelboats, this event is a natural staging post for international competitions such as the Commodore's Cup.

Meanwhile, as the ICRA championship fills a much-needed gap in the progression chain, a revival in offshore skills is being promoted by the organisers of the Lee Overlay Partners Series, to be sailed on the Irish Sea this summer. Under the burgee of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club (RAYC), the races are similar to the old Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association events that attracted a large following in the heyday of the International Offshore Rule during the 1970s and 1980s.

The RAYC races mark a return to overnight sailing that provided main newcomers with their first taste of life at sea, including watch-keeping, navigation and numerous other seamanship skills.

As with the ICRA series, this forms another stepping-stone to events such as the Round Ireland Race and Fastnet Races, which require offshore experience from every participant.

Starting and finishing from Dun Laoghaire, the first race is expected to be around 80 miles and will cover an area from the Rockabill Light off Skerries to the India Bank off Wicklow.