Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Luckily for East Antrim Boat Club the weather for its Christmas Regatta in Larne Lough didn’t live up to the forecast and there was a lot less wind than expected. Despite the constantly shifting breeze the race officer Richard Doig…

Helen’s Bay is a small village on the Belfast to Bangor railway line on the south shore of Belfast Lough and is named after Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Clandeboye, who lived in the early nineteenth century. It’s not recorded…

The Strangford and Lecale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is looking for Youth Rangers. Lecale is a peninsula in the east of County Down and lies between Strangford Lough and Dundrum Bay. It was designated an AONB in 1967…

Erin McIlwaine is an 18-year-old sailor from Kilkeel on the South Down coast and a member of the nearby Newcastle Yacht Club and Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay. Erin has recently teamed up with Ellie Cunnane…

A Viking burial site was discovered at Ballyholme Bay on the North Down coast in 1903 suggesting that the Vikings landed there. Although the Belfast Kayak Club landed there, too last weekend on their Christmas outing, they certainly didn’t grab…

In true proverbial fashion, the weather for the races in Part 1 of the Antrim Boat Club Winter Series came in like a lion and out like a lamb. And for the last two races in the series winds were…

Hot on the heels of several stories in Afloat about women appointed as Club Commodores, East Antrim Boat Club has joined the ranks again for 2023 as Lucy Whitford has been given that position for the third time. When she…

It was that time of year again for the keen Stand Up Paddlers to get into the Santa and Elf costumes and take to the water in Bangor Harbour on Belfast Lough. Eighty-two went afloat and raised £600 for the…

County Fermanagh in the west of Northern Ireland is home to a myriad of loughs and lakes, the largest of which is the well-known Upper and Lower Lough Erne, but one you don’t hear much about is Lough Head near…

Northern Ireland's Ballyholme Yacht Club and County Antrim Yacht Club have both been announced as finalists in the RYA Club of the Year 2023. Although six miles apart on opposite sides of Belfast Lough, the clubs were formed within about…

Litter is the scourge of many coastlines, and Bangor in North Down in Northern Ireland is no exception. But one person (and there are many) regularly litter picks in an adopted place (#AdoptASpot) on Seacliff Road, near the Long Hole…

The conditions for Race 3 of the Antrim Boat Club Winter Series were not just as gusty as the previous weeks but nevertheless, it was blowing hard. With its situation on the North shore of Lough Neagh at the mouth…

What do keen big boat and dinghy racers do when they want a rest from the usual inshore and offshore circuits? On the North Down coast, they gather twice a week with their one-design radio-controlled model yachts either in Groomsport…

Searching online for B&B by the Sea more than likely brings up a list of Bed and Breakfasts, but there is soon to be aired a 15-part series of BBC programmes with that title. It is billed as “ A…

Portrush Yacht Club on the Causeway Coast in North Antrim in Northern Ireland, has taken the initiative of providing a warm and welcoming place for members of the public and community groups who may be feeling the pinch of the…

Antrim Boat Club on the northeast shore of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, welcomed the start of the winter series on 6th November, the 51st year of the two-part series. Now, after…

A Swan 36 from the famous Nautor yard in Pietarsaari, Finland was the type of boat that Del Fairley had set his heart on, but the one he found in 2018 on the hard at East Down Yacht Club on…

That Scottish word dreich aptly described the weather at Ballyholme Bay on Belfast Lough the last weekend in October – wet, dull and dreary – but livened up by the colourful windsurfers and wingfoils.They were there for the Ulster Windsurfing…

Upon Reflection is an appropriate name for another resurrected Mirror dinghy which has found a new home at Lough Erne Yacht Club. It’s not often boats are the subject of an exchange deal, but that is what happened when Paul…

Some would say that there were better racing conditions at the end of the 2022 season for the Royal Ulster Yacht Club Autumn Series than during the summer. A total of 13 boats in two classes competed over nine races…