Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Baltimore Lifeboat Launches Twice On Friday As Rough Seas Herald Winter Storm
30th December 2017 RNLI Lifeboats
#RNLI - Baltimore RNLI launched twice in the space of a few hours yesterday (Friday 29 December) — firstly to provide a medevac from Heir Island, and later to assist bodyboarders in difficulty at Barleycove. The volunteer crew launched their…
#Weather - Barely a month after Storm Caroline, a Status Orange gale warning is in effect on all Irish coastal waters and on the Irish Sea as Storm Dylan is forecast to sweep over the country this evening (Saturday 30…
#Rowers of the Year: The Afloat Rowers of the Year for 2017 are Shane O’Driscoll and Mark O’Donovan. The two formed the Ireland lightweight pair which won European and World Championship gold. They also won gold in each of the…
Dun Laoghaire Regatta was the Sailing Highlight of 2017
29th December 2017 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
Here on Afloat.ie, in recent weeks we’ve carried several formalised reviews of the 2017 sailing season at home and abroad in its many aspects, and have looked forward to what 2018 may bring, and what it should bring. Yet as…
SAR Pilots Asked To Help Correct Navigation Chart Revised After Rescue 116 Tragedy
29th December 2017 Coastguard
#Rescue116 - The Irish Aviation Authority has appealed to SAR and other pilots to help correct its latest aeronautical chart introduced this past summer, as The Irish Times reports. The updated visual flight rules chart was published in response to…
Franck Cammas Returns To Volvo Ocean Race As Dongfeng Navigator For Leg 4
29th December 2017 Ocean Race
#VOR - Earlier today (Friday 29 December) Dongfeng Race Team announced that Franck Cammas, skipper of 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race winner Groupama, would stand in for injured navigator Pascal Bidegorry for Leg 4 of the current race. “Franck is joining…
Howth Yacht Club's Gordon Maguire & Ichi Ban Crew Confirmed as Overall Winners of Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2017
29th December 2017 Sydney to Hobart
As Afloat.ie indicated yesterday here, Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban with Howth Yacht Club's Gordon Maguire onboard has been confirmed as the overall winner of the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart. With 28 races under his belt, this is the culmination of…
Red Bay RNLI Called Out to Walkers on Fair Head in Freezing Temperatures
28th December 2017 RNLI Lifeboats
Volunteer lifeboat crew with Red Bay RNLI were called out this evening (Thursday 28 December) to reports that two walkers were stranded on the Boulder Field at Fair Head, Antrim, in freezing temperatures. Red Bay RNLI located the missing walkers…
#Rowing: Damian Browne twice capsized and suffered facial injuries but has continued to row in the Atlantic Challenge race. The Galway man, who competes as Gullivers Travels, posted a remarkable video on his Facebook page below telling of how he…
#BelfastLough - A 'drunk' captain found in charge of his ship at Belfast Port on Boxing Day has been fined £1,000. The Irish News writes that Patryk Tetzlaff (38) was four times over the limit while in charge of a…
#MarineScience - Celebrating 20 years of service in July was the Marine Institute's RV Celtic Voyager, the second decade reached marked a significant milestone for Ireland's first purpose built research vessel. The RV Celtic Voyager was built in the Netherlands…
It’s Now Irish-Australian Sailors All the Way on Sydney Hobart Race Leaderboard
28th December 2017 Sydney to Hobart
A time penalty of one hour. That is the punishment meted out today by the International Protest Committee to Mark Richards and the hundred footer Wild Oats XI for the near-collision with Jim Cooney’s LDV Comanche in a port-and-starboard incident…
The Irish National Sailing School (INSS) on Dublin Bay have published a video showing their highlights from August's 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race on board the Dun Laoghaire School's J109 Jedi. Skippered by Kenneth Rumball, Jedi (now for sale on Afloat.ie…
#RNLI - Carrybridge RNLI’s new B-Class Atlantic 85 lifeboat Douglas, Euan & Kay Richards launched on its first callout yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 27 December 2017) along with the station’s rescue water craft. The volunteer lifeboat crew based on Upper Lough…
Volvo Ocean Race: Team AkzoNobel Ghost Into Melbourne After ‘Character-Building’ Leg 3
28th December 2017 Ocean Race
#VOR - All seven boats in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet have now finished in Melbourne, with Team AkzoNobel ghosting through Port Phillip Bay in near calm conditions to cross the line just before 10:30am local time on Thursday 28…
Third Sydney-Hobart Race Overall Victory for Howth's Gordon Maguire
28th December 2017 Sydney to Hobart
Gordon Maguire, originally of Howth Yacht Club but now well established as a leading figure in Australian sailing, looks set to be confirmed for his third overall win in the annual Rolex Sydney Hobart Race this (Thursday) morning writes W…
Calm & Cruel - That’s the Derwent River’s Special Hobart Race Torture
27th December 2017 Sydney to Hobart
If sailing has a more exquisite form of torture than the final miles of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, then we don’t really want to know about it writes W M Nixon. Having experienced proper offshore sailing southward since clearing…
Crossing the line 26 minutes after Wild Oats XI, LDV Comanche will take the provisional line honours winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race to the protest room. Jim Cooney told Mark Richards: “Yes, I’m going to pursue it.” “OK, no…
Volvo Ocean Race: Scallywag Leads Turn The Tide On Plastic Into Melbourne
27th December 2017 Ocean Race
#VOR - Fifth place in Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race went to Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag, who managed to hold off Turn the Tide on Plastic for the second consecutive leg. Skipper David Witt steered Scallywag across the Melbourne…
The notoriously light and flukey night sailing conditions of the Derwent River in the final stages of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race are frustrating what has been an otherwise textbook performance by Jim Cooney's super-maxi LDV Comanche writes W M…
