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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Polish sailor Lilly May Niezabitowska continues to show a solid performance in the ILCA 6 U21 Women's European Championships in Mallorca
A retiral in race nine of the 2024 Women's U21 European Championships dropped Ireland's Paris 2024 representative in the ILCA 6 class, Eve McMahon, off the podium in Mallorca this afternoon. The Irish girl led the regatta most of the week, but a below-par…
Making a repositioning passage off the Leinster coast, Frazer Mariner, following annual survey at New Ross Boatyard, is currently today bound for Carlingford Lough, where the Frazer Ferries company operates one of four routes on the island of Ireland. Above the 20 car/100 passenger ferry transits Dalkey Sound, south of Dublin Bay as part of the return leg, having also covered in for the company’s Passage East ferry service in Waterford estuary. In the background, container ships Amelie Borchard and Ranger, while in the centre is Transfennica’s con-ro carrier, Timca on short-term charter to ICG/ Irish Ferries inbound to the capital from Holyhead, north Wales.
A small coastal ferry, Frazer Mariner, with a bridge amidships above the vehicle deck, is this afternoon on a repositioning passage from the south-east bound for Carlingford Lough, writes Jehan Ashmore. The 20-car, 100-passenger ferry had made an en-route call…
The ro-ro freight-only vessel MV Bore Song is to operate on Stena Line’s new Dublin-Liverpool (Birkenhead) route for unaccompanied freight traffic. The ship to be introduced in mid-April will boost freight capacity on the route by 30% and replace the ropax Stena Horizon, which had been operating in freight mode only and temporarily, as the company searched for a longer-term solution with the introduction, AFLOAT add of the 25,586 tons ship built in 2011 by FGS, Flensburg, Germany, for Bore Shipowners of Finland. In more recent years, the ship served Transfennica, whose Timca is currently on short-term charter to competitor, Irish Ferries running also out of Dublin but to Holyhead, north Wales.
Stena Line has secured a freight only ro-ro vessel, Bore Song, to operate on its Dublin-Liverpool (Birkenhead) route with the ship boosting freight capacity on the Irish Sea route by 30%. The Swedish operator of the Dublin-Liverpool dedicated freight service has…
Transfennica’s Timca on charter for Irish Ferries, above departing Dublin (serving routes to Wales and France), is a freight-only container/ro-ro (con-ro) carrier; however, its capability to convey 640 TEU containers (see cell guides, left/aft of the superstructure) is made redundant, given the ferry operator does not carry this cargo mode. An ICG container division, EUCON, however, uses lo-lo vessels, which has increased with a sixth such ship, MV Ranger, which started service after departing Rotterdam (Waalhaven) on Wednesday and which arrived in Dublin Bay this morning.
Transfennica's Timca, on short-term freight charter for ICG's Irish Ferries Dublin-Wales/France routes, is due to end when Norbay returns to Rosslare this weekend, releasing Oscar Wilde, if all goes according to plan, writes Jehan Ashmore. Since late February, the chartering…
Pictured at Dodder Valley Park in Dublin are L-R: Lorraine Beirne, Project Co-ordinator, Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE (DURL), and Dermot O’Kane, Head of Sales, Esri Ireland. Esri Ireland is announcing that its digital mapping system is helping DURL to prevent 13 million litres of polluted wastewater from entering Dublin rivers annually, by locating misconnected household appliances that are expelling polluted water
The Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE (DURL) project, a joint venture between South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils, has prevented roughly 13 million litres of polluted wastewater from entering Dublin rivers annually by using Esri Ireland’s digital mapping system. The…
Swedish-born Birgitta Curtin and her Irish husband Peter initiated the Burren Smokehouse in 1989. Its products include award-winning cold and hot smoked organic and wild salmon
The Burren Smokehouse in Co Clare is expanding with a €171,000 investment in new equipment and energy efficiencies, which includes a Brexit-related grant. The artisan food outlet has been approved for grant- aid of €76,900 under the Brexit Processing Capital…
Dressed in dry suits and PPE, the Loughs Agency staff participants received a thorough briefing from NIFRS instructors on navigating fast-flowing currents
Loughs Agency staff traded their water testing kits for wetsuits and rescue lines after undergoing vital swift water training with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS). The collaboration stemmed from NIFRS seeking information about potential training exercises on…
Students at ATU - MSc students Shanlle Gilkes (left) & Adara Jaggernauth (second from right) in ATU with Dr. Deirdre Brophy (Project Supervisor & MFRC Leader) and & David O’Sullivan, Our Shared Ocean Programme Manager
The Our Shared Ocean funding programme, designed to build strategic research partnerships between Ireland and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) has enabled two scholars from the Caribbean island of Grenada to enroll in Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Galway to undertake…
J80 keelboats provided by INSS.ie will be used in the Irish Sailing League 2024 when it sets sail at Dun Laoghaire Harbour in April
With five of the biggest yacht clubs drawn from the south and east coasts already signed up, the inaugural Irish Sailing League 2024, due to kick off in a month's time, is looking great! The initial clubs that have committed…
Aerial view of waves breaking at cliffs on the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland
For the first time ever, this summer Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast will welcome the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Positioned in the World Series calendar as a major mid-season shake-up, the fourth stop of 2024 from 18-20 July has…
RNLI Trustee Paddy McLaughlin, also a volunteer at Red Bay RNLI in Cushendall, pictured with Stephen Conway, Red Bay RNLI Lifeboat
A man overboard exercise with Antrim’s Red Bay all-weather lifeboat and the experience of a dog walker rescued by Cork Harbour’s Crosshaven lifeboat are among topics on tonight’s (Fri, March 22) RTÉ Radio 1 special issue of Seascapes. The programme,…
Forth Warrior workboat
Following the recent pre-lay grapnel run, Greenlink Interconnector Ltd will be conducting offshore and nearshore operations for its electricity interconnector from Friday 22 March to Sunday 14 April, subject to weather and operational constraints. Beach-pull operations in the nearshore are…
File image of Portaferry RNLI’s inshore lifeboat
Portaferry RNLI came to the aid of four people on St Patrick’s Day (Sunday 17 March) after their ocean-going rowing boat sustained a broken rudder and developed steering problems. Belfast Coastguard requested the launch of Portaferry RNLI’s inshore lifeboat at…
Howth's Eve McMahon lies third in the ILCA 6 U21 Women's European Championships in Mallorca
Ireland's Paris 2024 representative in the ILCA 6 class, Eve McMahon (47-33-12), relinquished her lead in the 2024 Women's U21 European Championships after eight races sailed in Mallorca on Thursday after maintaining the top position since the start of the regatta. A…
Manx flagged catamaran Manannan of the Isle of Man Steam Packet is set to return to seasonal service, among them Dublin-Douglas route duties, but not until a safety inspection is carried out by Irish marine authorities as the fast-ferry is in the Irish capital today.
Observed entering Dublin Bay this morning was the Isle of Man Steam Packet’s Manannan, having departed Douglas Harbour, but the fast-ferry was not in service, writes Jehan Ashmore. The reason for the call by the 98m catamaran craft to Dublin…
The annual ESPO Award on Social Integration of Ports' theme for this year’s edition is “port projects or strategies in the field of circular economy that benefit the city and/or the surrounding community.
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) Award on Social Integration of Ports is entering its 16th edition. The theme of this year’s edition is “port projects or strategies in the field of circular economy that benefit the city and/or the…
The Nautitech N44 OPEN catamaran is the Multihull European Yacht of the Year in 2023 and will be exhibited by Key Yachting at Southampton's South Coast & Green Tech Boat Show 2024 in April
The Key Yachting team will exhibit Nautitech and Grand Soleil among the eighty new boats on display at the UK's South Coast & Green Tech Boat Show 2024 at Ocean Village, Southampton, from Friday, 19 April 2024, to Sunday, 21…
420 dinghies are one of the six competing classes at the 2024 Royal Cork Yacht Club Hosted 2024 Youth Sailing Nationals in Cork Harbour in April
With just a fortnight to the first gun, confirmed entries for this year’s Waterman Kelly-sponsored Irish Sailing Youth National Championships in Cork Harbour have reached 165 sailors across the six competing dinghy classes. While the April event is open to all,…
The 126-year-old traditional Dutch Sailing Barge Drie Gebroeders is one of less than a handful in Ireland
In May 2024, a 126-year-old Dutch Sailing Barge named Drie Gebroeders will set off on an epic adventure from Lough Erne in Co. Fermanagh to the eastern Scottish coast, and back again. The goal is to attend two maritime festivals…
Manannan, fast-ferry of the Isle of Man Steam Packet during last week’s berthing trials at the new Liverpool ferry terminal
The Isle of Man Government says it hasn't signed a lease with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. for the new £70m ferry terminal in the Port of Liverpool yet. In the Tynwald (parliament) this week, Treasury Minister, Alex Allinson…

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