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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Team Malizia is flanked by a flotilla at the Kiel Fly-By on 9 June last year during the penultimate leg of The Ocean Race 2022-23
Organisers of The Ocean Race have confirmed Kiel.Sailing.City as the host of the start of The Ocean Race Europe during a press conference in Kiel on Wednesday morning (14 February). The second edition of the European race, which was confirmed…
File image of Bundoran RNLI’s inshore lifeboat
Bundoran RNLI came to the aid of two people who got trapped at the bottom of a cliff in county Sligo on Wednesday afternoon (14 February). The inshore lifeboat was requested to launch at 2.41pm following a report from the…
Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Three Sinn Féin MLAs have brought a motion to the newly restored Stormont Assembly for action to save Lough Neagh from its pollution crisis, as The Irish Times reports. MLA for North Antrim, Philip McGuigan described the situation on the…
The latest IMDO Unitised Traffic Report shows that overall, unitised volumes, which encompasses both RoRo and LoLo markets, were below trend in Q4 2023, and have stagnated throughout the year. Above AFLOAT’s photo captured a containership which regularly operates a short-sea feeder service linking the Irish ports of Dublin, Waterford, Cork and mainland Europe.
The latest Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) Unitised Traffic Report for Q4 2023 has been published with an Executive Summary below. As part of the Marine Institute, the IMDO is Irelands' dedicated, development, promotional and marketing office for the shipping…
Saoirse by moonlight off Ibiza at New Year, 1932. Saoirse was rigged as a brigantine when she sailed to Ibiza, but thanks to Conor O’Brien’s willingness to have a notably long main gaff boom aloft on the aft mast, the rig change had been done using the same compact ketch masts that sailed her round the world
Conor O'Brien’s outstanding pioneering achievement was in demonstrating that a sailing vessel as small as his own-designed 42ft Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse could complete a global circumnavigation through the vast expanse of the Southern Ocean, south of the Great Capes. The…
Campaign Manager of the environmental group Fair Seas - Dr Donal Griffin
“It is not good enough to designate parts of the marine environment as conservation areas without talking to the people, groups and businesses which use and depend on an area for their livelihoods and recreation.” That comment from the Campaign…
Ben Garner and Sam Williamson racing Tabu Soro at the 2024 Fireball Worlds in Geelong, Australia
The fifth and sixth championship races of the 2024 Fireball Worlds were held on what was supposed to be a lay day, in switchy and gusty southerly winds. The conditions were challenging, with big shifts, big gusts, and some of…
Explorers Sharks +  schools outreach module and resources launched by shark enthusiasts Cerys and Hugo Johnston with lead author Cushla Dromgool Regan (Explorers Education Programme) and shark expert Graham Johnston (Marine Institute)
The Marine Institute Explorers Education Programme team has launched a new set of resources for primary schools, aimed at promoting Ireland’s rich marine biodiversity in the classroom. The new class projects, called Fin-tastic Sharks+, will focus on the 71 species…
RS Fest 2024 will occur over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of July under the watchful eye of principal race officer John Leech
The RS Fest is back for 2024 after a hugely successful weekend in Blessington last year; this time, the fleets are heading to Lough Derg Yacht Club. The core ethos remains the same of all RS Sailing to have family-orientated…
The ILCA squad representing Northern Ireland at the 2024 Celtic Cup were Lewis Thompson, Daniel Palmer, Charlotte Eadie and Rory Pollard
Ten of Northern Ireland’s Topper and ILCA sailors travelled to Plas Heli in Pwllheli for the Celtic Cup earlier this month (3-4 February). This annual event sees the best youth and junior sailors from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland compete…
A 1720 competing in the second race of the 2024 DBSC Spring Chicken Series on Dublin Bay
The AIB DBSC Spring Chicken Series on Dublin Bay came to an exciting conclusion last Sunday as 'No Show', the 1720 sportsboat, clinched the top spot. The second race of the six-race series saw sunny conditions accompanied by a good…
Dubai hosted a thrilling start to the opening races for the SB20 World Championship
Dubai witnessed a spectacular start to the SB20 World Championship as forty-eight teams, with over 12 nationalities, took to the water for four races. The highly anticipated event commenced with two general recalls due to unstable wind and significant shifts,…
The legendary Commodore John Paul Jones of the US Navy during the American War of Independence against Britain
February the 14th is mostly known as Valentine’s Day, but it has a significance in maritime history far removed from romantic exploits – other, of course, than the romanticism of sailing the seas…..! In 1813, it was the day when…
Floating (oil) production and storage offloading vessel (FPSO) the MV Searose FPSO is at Harland & Wolff, Belfast for upgraded works to the 150,000dwt vessel which had been to the shipyard before in 2012, when AFLOAT captured in the facility’s Belfast Dry Dock, one of two building docks at the Queens Island site.
A Canadian flagged Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel which arrived at shipyard, Harland & Wolff, Belfast is to undergo a £61m base contract to deliver a mid-life upgrade of the large ship, writes Jehan Ashmore The contract for…
The Victorian-era Roscarban Bridge over the Shannon-Erne Waterway in Co Leitrim
Waterways Ireland advises masters of all craft on the Shannon-Erne Waterway that repair works will be taking place at Roscarban Bridge in Co Leitrim from Wednesday 14 February until mid-March. During these works, a mechanical platform will be hung from…
File image of Rosslare Harbour RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat
Rosslare Harbour RNLI’s volunteer crew were requested by the Irish Coast Guard on Sunday evening (11 February) to assist five crew on board a stricken fishing vessel. The all-weather lifeboat was launched shortly after the shout at 5.26pm and quickly…
Inland Fisheries Ireland chief executive Francis O’Donnell
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) chief executive Francis O’Donnell addressed the Oireachtas on Tuesday (13 February) on the State body’s programme to mitigate barriers to fish passage on Irish rivers. “Migratory species such as Atlantic salmon, sea trout, sea lamprey, river…
File image of the fishing fleet in Howth Harbour
Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue has launched a public consultation on fishing with trawls inside the six-nautical-mile zone and the baselines. Speaking on Tuesday (13 February), Minister McConalogue said: “Five years ago, in December 2018, a transition to a ban on…
Roy McKay leads a group of ILCA 7s around the weather mark at the Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
After an adverse weather-enforced hiatus of three Sundays without sailing, a reduced Frostbite fleet took to the waters of Dun Laoghaire Harbour to resume activity in the Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. While the forecast…
A morning of catch-up. Puppeteer 22 Champion Alan Blay racing his GP14 in hot pursuit of Conor Twohig in Sunday’s intense morning of Frostbite Series racing at Howth, when three races were completed
Although some five day forecasts had made any resumption of Howth’s Frostbites seem unlikely, a sudden change of tone and a very welcome weather window arrived over the weekend. After a three-week enforced break, when each named storm had seemed…

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