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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Quest Lough Derg
Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels on and users of the Shannon Navigation that the Quest Lough Derg event takes place around Killaloe, Co Clare and Ballina, Co Tipperary on Saturday 9 September. To accommodate the event, the Shannon Navigation…
File image of Lough Garadice in Co Leitrim
Waterways Ireland advises all masters of vessels and water users on the Shannon-Erne Waterway that Inland Fisheries Ireland will be conducting a fish stock survey on Lough Garadice in Co Leitrim next week between Monday 4 and Thursday 7 September.…
File image of the Kingfisher Trail alongside the Shannon-Erne Waterway near Ballinamore in Co Leitrim
Waterways Ireland advises all masters of vessels on and users of the Shannon-Erne Waterway that tree trimming and hedge cutting will be carried out at various locations during the autumn/winter period from September 2023 to February 2024. During this operation,…
Elodie Bonafous in good spirits in the Celtic Sea en route to The Fastnet Race
Irish sailor Tom Dolan, aboard Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, had been leading the pack in the first stage of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. However, after breaking to the northeast from the top group at the Isles of Scilly, he spent several…
Racing at the 2023 GP14 Summer Open Championship at Rush Sailing Club in North Dublin
Niall Henry and Ossian Geraghty from Sligo Yacht Club emerged as the 2023 GP14 Summer Open champions, held at Rush Sailing Club on August 19-20. The event saw a strong turnout from sailors across the country, including a notable presence…
Hannah Potter & Orlaith Connolly (Clontarf Y&BC) with a bit of “interesing” weather on the way, racing Swift to second in the Silver Fleet in last weekend’s IDRA 14 Nationals at Lough Ree YC
Simon Revill is something of a Force of Nature in the racing of the historic IDRA 14 class. But then, that’s what you’d probably expect from someone who is a potent mixture of Irish and Yorkshire ancestry. While he has…
The current Isles of Scilly passenger vessel Scillonian III has served between Penzance Harbour (as above) and Hugh Town, St. Mary’s since 1977. It was built by Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd and Afloat’s adds the north Devon shipyard in recent years was acquired by Harland & Wolff.
Shipbuilder, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings is in the running to build and operate two new ferries to serve the remote Isles of Scilly, 24 nautical miles off Cornwall in south-west England. The shipbuilding group which has facilities on both sides…
Demersal trawls generally have higher levels of bycatch and discarding, but there have been improvements in the selectivity of gear over the past two decades
Banning demersal trawling would lead to higher CO2 emissions as consumers switch to more protein produced on land, according to a new scientific paper. Writing in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, researchers agree that demersal trawling can be highly…
The Isle of Arran at Campbeltown, Mull of Kintyre, the summer ‘tourism’ ferry route that connects the peninsula with Ardrossan in south-west Scotland. Read below for politician’s response to CalMac’s proposed cancelling of the service for the rest of the season.
A member of the Scottish Parliament, MSP Katy Clark has said CalMac’s proposals to cancel the Ardrossan-Campbeltown ferry service in the event of breakdowns in other parts of the operator’s network are "disappointing". Katy Clark who is a Labour West…
Capt Paul Colleran and Colonel Paul Fry of the Air Corps holding the propellor blade from the German flying boat, along with Maria Simonds-Gooding who found it on Inis Mhic Oileáin, with the “inis” in the far background,  October 4th 2005
During the Second World War, Kerry was the location for a number of both Allied forces and German air crashes, but one less well-known one occurred on the Blasket Island of Inis Mhic Oileáin (Inishvickillaune) on November 25th, 1940. Wreckage…
Svitzer is to have the world’s first methanol hybrid fuel cell tug (MHFC) built in a project with Robert Allan Ltd as it enters a second phase to design the vessel, which represents a key step in Svitzer’s mission to lead the decarbonisation of towage services worldwide.
A leading global towage provider, Svitzer part of the Danish shipping giant, A.P. Moller-Maersk, has announced the launch of the second phase of its project to design the world’s first methanol hybrid fuel cell (MHFC) tug. Svitzer has conducted technical…
Solitaire du Figaro race leader Tom Dolan will aim to position for a favourable, fast spinnaker-reaching approach to the Fastnet today as he closes on the Kinsale Leg One finish line
With 152 miles to the finish line of leg one at Kinsale, Ireland's Tom Dolan leads the Solitaire du Figaro race on Wednesday morning (0630 hrs) as the fleet races across the Celtic Sea. Land's End, which the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec…
Ronan and John Downing's Half Tonner Miss Whiplash competing at Royal Cork Yacht Club's 'At Home Regatta' 2023 in Cork Harbour
After the high winds of Saturday’s opening day of the Royal Cork Yacht Club 'At Home' in Crosshaven, the second day made for a welcome change, with a flat sea and less wind. Between cruisers and dinghies, the RCYC had…
File image of Lough Scur on the Shannon-Erne Waterway
Waterways Ireland advises all masters of vessels on the Shannon-Erne Waterway that diving operations will be taking place between Lough Scur and Lock 9 on Wednesday 30 August to remove debris from the navigation channel. Masters of vessels and all…
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Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users on the Erne System that dredging operations on the Kesh River in Co Fermanagh are continuing. Dredging at the mouth of the Kesh River (West Section) has been completed as of…
The Under-25 J24 'Kinsailor' team from Kinsale Yacht Club are congratulated by Royal Irish Commodore Jerry Dowling (second from left) for their win at the J Cup Ireland on Dublin Bay
The Commodore of Kinsale Yacht Club, Matthias Hellestern, has congratulated the club's Under 25 team on another success.  As Afloat reported, the Under-25 Kinsale team competed at the J Cup Ireland in the J24 division and managed to stay in…
Chimaera in 2016 flying her first North Sails 3Di RAW mainsail and 3Di RAW Code 1 jib - still in use today for club racing
Victory was hard fought for Barry Cunningham and his team at the J109 National Championship on Dublin Bay last weekend. The team felt they underperformed in Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta so it was fantastic for this one to go their…
Basil Bourgnon (Ednred) has invested in the west before Land’s End
Tom Dolan of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan is making his mark in the Solitaire du Figaro ace as he positions himself to the west alongside leader Basil Bourgnon of Edenred. Dolan is currently in sixth place and well-prepared for racing across the…
Tom Coulter from East Antrim BC and Portrush YC in Co Antrim topped the 23-strong ILCA 6 fleet at the Howth National Championships
Of the 15 Northern Ireland competitors in the ILCA Nationals at Howth Yacht Club recently, the best showing was that of Tom Coulter from East Antrim BC and Portrush YC in Co Antrim, who topped the 23-strong ILCA 6 fleet…
The superblue moon was clearly visible over Dublin Bay on Tuesday, August 29th. The previous occurrence of a blue moon took place in 2015. The next is 2037
Sailors on the west coast who have a clear eastern horizon should have some of the best views of the “super blue moon” which may be visible over Ireland for the next three nights. Astronomy Ireland says that having a…

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