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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Movanagher Lock on the Lower Bann
Waterways Ireland advises all masters of vessels on and users of the Lower Bann navigation that emergency repair works are being carried out on Movanagher Lock until next Friday 23 June. Passage through the lock southwest of Ballymoney in Co…
UN senior advisor on oceans Vincent Doumeizel is speaking at the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas on Saturday, June 17
Stewardship of our coastal waters, our rich seaweed resource and its potential to mitigate climate change is the theme of a discussion involving two leading marine experts at the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas this Saturday, June 17th.…
Stena Vision is making its voyage from a shipyard in Gdansk, Poland following a major refit investment programme and is bound for Ireland from where it is due to go into service on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route on 30th June. AFLOAT this morning tracked the cruise ferry in the Kattegat when approaching the anchorage off Göteborg /Gothenburg, the homeport of the Swedish ferry’s owners. Originally named the Stena Germanica when built in Gdansk in 1988 and over the decades has only operated within Scandinavia, until this latest transfer to the Ireland-France route, where it is to join the ropax Stena Horizon on the direct mainland Europe connection.
Stena Line’s latest addition to its expanding Irish Sea ferry fleet, Stena Vision, has departed a shipyard in Gdansk, Poland following a major refit investment programme and is bound for Rosslare Europort. The 39,178 gross tonnage cruise ferry for the…
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) finds that many of the necessary conditions in passenger ports for the entry into operation of the Entry/Exit System (EES) [1] (see link below) are not yet met.
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) finds that many of the necessary conditions for the entry into operation of the Entry/Exit System (EES) [1] and (EU) 2017/2225 are not yet met. The level of implementation of the EES in most countries is…
CHC Ireland has confirmed that it has initiated a High Court challenge to the validity of the tender procedure for the Irish Coast Guard’s new search and rescue contract. Earlier this month, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan confirmed that Bristow…
The Aran Islands RNLI All-weather Severn Lifeboat
The Volunteer lifeboat crew of the Aran Islands RNLI was requested to launch their All-weather Severn Lifeboat at 1.58am on Wednesday June 14 to attend to a woman with an injured ankle in need of further medical attention on Inis…
The new Melges 15 dinghy fleet racing in Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Dublin Bay
Father and son Ronan and Jacques Murphy showed that consistency pays with a string of second places, leaving them with the lowest points for the second night of Melges 15 racing on Dublin Bay. Six short windward-leeward races were sailed…
Europe's longest-running superyacht regatta will swing into action out on the Bay of Palma with the first race set for Thursday 22 June
The clock is on the final countdown to the start of racing at Superyacht Cup Palma 2023 with another diverse and eye-catching selection of some of the world's finest superyachts gathering in the Mallorcan home of Mediterranean sailing. "It's great…
The two millionth cruise liner visitor to Belfast arrived on the Norwegian Dawn
The number of cruise ships expected to dock in Belfast Harbour this season represents a 20% increase on the previous record set in 2019. In 2019, Cruise Belfast opened the first dedicated cruise terminal on the island of Ireland, and…
Barryroe Star of the Sea National School Pupils with Capt and Chief Officer and Rory Jackson
Captain Jacek Berenek of the container ship, ‘Independent Horizon,’ on its regular monthly call to the Port of Cork’s Deepwater Berth at Ringaskiddy, explained to the pupils of Barryroe National School from West Cork where he would launch their mini-boat…
Hamilton Shipping logo
Hamilton Shipping is currently recruiting for a Port Agency Assistant based in its busy Dublin Port office. Established in 1919 with offices in Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Galway and Foyle Port, Hamilton Shipping is one of the most experienced and…
Kinsale Yacht Club salute: (from left) Brian Carroll, KYC Cruiser Captain, Tom Roche, Meridian; Finbarr O Regan, ArtfulDodjer; Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt, Cinnamon Girl and Matthias Hellstern, Commodore Kinsale Yacht Club
On the eve of its 100-boat Sovereign's Cup Regatta, Kinsale Yacht Club saluted their Volvo Dun Laoghaire Dingle Racers, particularly the two-handed campaign of Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt, who finished second overall.  As Afloat readers know, the stunning performance of…
Water Wag number 47 David & Patricia Corcoran prepares for a race start at Dun Laoghaire Harbour ' />
Dublin Bay Sailing Club Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly set a three-round windward/leeward course for the first of two DBSC Water Wag races on Wednesday evening, June 14th. The conditions in Dun Laoghaire Harbour were warm and sunny in a light ESE 3-5kt breeze.…
Mapped location of the 12 benthic sensors between the Seven Heads and Old Head of Kinsale
The Department of Transport has been advised by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork that on on Tuesday 12 June it deployed 12 benthic sensors between the Seven Heads and the Old Head of…
From left: Charlie Enright of 11th Hour Racing Team with Biotherm’s Paul Meilhat, GUYOT’s Benjamin Dutreux, Team Holcim-PRB’s Benjamin Schwartz and Rosalin Kuiper of Team Malizia at the IMOCA skippers’ press conference in The Hague on Wednesday 14 June
Meanwhile, sailors in both fleets in The Ocean Race 2022-23 are preparing for a challenging Leg 7 towards the Grand Finale in Genoa, Italy. For the IMOCA fleet that has raced around the world, this ultimate leg of the race…
Team JAJO in front in the VO65 In-Port Race in The Hague, Netherlands
The local heroes on the Dutch-flagged Team JAJO made a statement of intent right from the start of the VO65 In-Port Race in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon (14 June) by crossing ahead of the entire fleet on port tack…
Cherbourg Calling: Brittany Ferries in a month's time on Bastille Day (14th July) is to return to service over the summer season/ school holiday period with the fastest ferry crossing on the English Channel, (west of Dover), with sailings operated by Condor Liberation. Afloat adds, this is the only fast-craft ferry running direct links between UK-mainland Europe on the routes of Portsmouth-Cherbourg/ Cherbourg-Poole. Above Afloat captured this dawn scene at the Dorset port where the craft was a week away from temporarily reopening the western Channel routes during May’s half-term school break and as alluded such services will resume next month. Also amongst the very first passengers to use the UK-France link were Normandy veterans sailing to the region to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the D-Day Landing on 6th June, 1944.
Brittany Ferries is to increase sailings on the English Channel when the fast-craft Condor Liberation returns to operating at weekends throughout the summer on the Portsmouth-Cherbourg and Cherbourg-Poole routes. The fastcraft's sailing schedule sees Condor Liberation depart Portsmouth at 07:00…
According to H&W by creating environmentally-friendly tugs and a class of ultra-efficient large barges to service the UK’s Marine Coastal Highway would not only ease pressure on the nation’s roads and reduce emissions, but also help with the Levelling Up and Net Zero ambitions. Above Afloat in April reported of a previous project for the Belfast shipbuilder, where barges for client the Cory Group involves waste management towage operations along the Thames and central London.
Shipbuilder Harland & Wolff Group is to lead a consortium of companies from overseas to develop and build new zero emission tugs suitable for coastal towage duties. The group based in Queen’s Island, Belfast has entered into heads of terms…
Scroll down for a flipbook of event for the DLR Coastival Festival
 Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has launched a digital event brochure for its inaugural Coastival Festival that coincides with Ireland's largest sailing regatta, the VDLR, from July 6th. The flipbook contains the full programme for the eight-day event and is…
The general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport workers (RMT), Mick Lynch has called for an urgent meeting with the new Scottish transport minister to ensure CalMac’s lifeline ferry services in the Western Isles are kept in the public sector.
The general secratary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), Mick Lynch has hit out at the “chaotic way” ferry services in Scotland are being run as he called for a “people’s CalMac” to be created.…

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