Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
#Rowing: All the Ireland crews at the Coupe de la Jeunesse in Hazewinkel in Belgium will compete in A Finals after a very good set of results in this morning’s heats. The Ireland men’s quadruple and single sculler Georgia O’Brien…
The great solo sailing challenges of world sailing are acquiring added stature as sailing is enmeshed in ever-more-advanced technologies. With fully-crewed vessels, interest in the people involved as individuals seems to decline in an inverse ratio to the rising graph…
#MarineScience - A team of scientists have discovered the deepest known occurrence of a cold water coral reef known as Solenosmilia variabilis in Irish waters. The marine scientists, led by the Marine Institute with the National Parks and Wildlife Service…
#RSAero - It’s a seventh-place finish for Sean Craig in the Aero 7 at the Rooster RS Aero Worlds in France. After a gruelling 15 races over five days, the third discard kicked in – allowing Germany’s Marcus Walther and…
#Lancer - The unmanned miniature yacht Lancer is heading back to Ireland – and may make landfall in Kerry or Cork within weeks. The 1.5m boat made the news when it was found washed ashore in Connemara by local girl…
Red Bay RNLI Rescues Two Men After Yacht Gets into Difficulty off Rathlin Island
28th July 2017 RNLI Lifeboats
Red Bay RNLI in County Antrim has rescued two men this afternoon (Friday 28 July) after their 10m yacht encountered steering problems off Rathlin Island. The volunteer crew launched their all-weather lifeboat at 9.50am following a request from Belfast Coastguard…
#RNLI - Baltimore RNLI launched this morning (Friday 28 July) to locate a vessel sending an alarm from their positioning beacon off the coast of West Cork. The Irish Coast Guard requested the launch just before 10am after it had…
#RNLI - Lough Derg RNLI’s volunteers were surprised to find a man whose cruiser had grounded near Hare Island had spent the night alone stranded in the lake as he was reluctant to call for help. Valentia Coast Guard requested…
The Irish Optimist Sailing team are on their way to Burgas, Bulgaria to take part in the European Championships. Two hundred and fifty sailors will participate in the week-long event with ten races expected from 30th July to 5th August. The…
#CruiseLiners - A new cruise liner terminal for Cobh could be up and running by 2020, as the Irish Examiner reports. Port of Cork commercial manager Captain Michael McCarthy says Ireland’s only dedicated cruise ship berth needs to take advantage…
BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power), 2. Crazy Horse (F Heath & I Schuster), 3. Fiddly Bits (Timmins/Quigley/Murray/Breen) BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Prospect (Chris Johnston), 2. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power), 3. Crazy Horse (F Heath & I Schuster) CRUISERS 0 - 1.…
The fleet in the International Moth Worlds 2017 at Lake Garda have finally boiled down to “only” 220 boats after some early estimates reckoned they should be expecting between 240 and 250 writes W M Nixon. But as it is,…
There are those who think that attributing characteristics of sentient life to the appearance of a boat is quaint to the point of serious irritation writes W M Nixon. So those opposed to such hyper-anthropomorphism may as well look elsewhere…
Irish Cruising Club’s Mega–Rally in Northwest Spain Concludes in Bayona Tonight
27th July 2017 Cruising
The sixty-boat twelve-day Irish Cruising Club Cruise-in-Company in northwest Spain comes to a conclusion in Bayona tonight after an impressive display of well-planned logistics by lead organiser Peter Haden and his team writes W M Nixon. This saw the many…
#CowesWeek - Maurice O’Connell and three other Irish sailing stalwarts are headed to the Isle of Wight to join the crew of Tschüss, Christian Zugel’s MAT 1180, for Cowes Week. Navigator Ross Monson, boat captain and pit boss Johnny Mordant,…
#RSAero - Sean Craig, Ireland’s lone entry in the Rooster RS Aero Worlds, is currently in fifth place in the Aero 7 division after three days of racing at the Yacht Club de Carnac in France. As of yesterday evening…
Rounding Ballycotton Lighthouse on Saturday afternoon was satisfying, after a long beat from Crosshaven in the restored Royal Cork Ballycotton Race. Over the 15-mile course which took about three hours a Northerly breeze veered through to an Easterly whisper and then -…
Early Launch For Newcastle Lifeboat To Stranded Sailor At Ardglass Marina
27th July 2017 RNLI Lifeboats
#RNLI - Newcastle RNLI volunteer crews were woken by their pagers at 3.34am yesterday morning (Wednesday 26 July) after a lone yachtsman ran aground at the mouth of Ardglass Marina in Co Down. The all-weather lifeboat Eleanor and Bryant Girling…
The Irish Lights issued a statement about the South Arklow Lightship that didn’t tell the full story. Their official explanation that it was missing off station was that it had “disappeared.” In reality it had been sunk! Dr. Michael Kennedy…
#RNLI - Clifden RNLI launched their inshore and all-weather lifeboats on Tuesday night (27 July) to reports of a pleasure boat in difficulty east of Davillaun Island. The eight people on board had been to Inishbofin for the day and were returning…
