Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

The unique 18ft Shannon One-Designs have lived through some decidedly mixed times in Ireland during their hundred years of setting the sailing pace on the great lakes of our lordly river. And the two special Centenary Regattas at their main…

The first appearance of a Galway Hooker on the Dutch canals is likely to create a lot of attention and there may even be links found between the traditional West of Ireland boat and historic vessels in Holland  The ‘Galway…

The pace of this first full post-pandemic sailing season in Ireland has been such that when we reached what might be thought of as the mid-point around July 15th, there was a real need for a rapid re-charging of the…

The mast is everything to Pat Lawless. So, before his yacht, Green Rebel, went back into the water this week on Valentia Island and he headed for Dingle in “a nice light breeze” on his final preparations to take part…

Time was when the Hill of Howth was the only part of Ireland above water. Admittedly that was about 600 millions years ago, and our rare old Howth rocks were down around where Australia is now located before they took…

If you can’t beat em, join em, and that’s one view of a surprise move by the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) to become a partner in a two-gigawatt floating wind farm project off the coast of Donegal. The KFO has…

It may seem a bit odd to talk about Volvo Cork Week 2022, which gets going this weekend, as being “the exuberant expression of the spirit of Cork sailing”, when any detailed study of the hugely-varied entry list eloquently affirms…

With the almost melancholy passing of Mid-Summer’s Day, the sailing season is taking on a different look, a distinctly-changed mood and flavour. For in normal times – if anyone can remember when you could talk of such things – there…

Northabout, the 47-foot Westport expedition yacht of Jarlath Cunnane from Mayo, which with a crew, many of them Galway Hooker sailors, completed an Arctic circumnavigation of the world with a transit of the Northeast Passage north of Russia, has been…

When 23-year-old Michael Chapman Pincher enlisted as crew for an Atlantic voyage back in 1974, he had never sailed so much as a dinghy. Nor did he realise that the skipper of Gay Gander and his sailing companion were actually…

We can only be wishing this morning that the traditional-type low pressure areas which march across the Atlantic from New England towards Old Ireland could take aboard some of the strict Sabbatarianism of the regions they’re passing through in their…

It is “on time and on budget”. That’s the Marine Institute’s new 25 million euro research ship, RV Tom Crean, due for delivery this autumn. Named after the Kerry polar explorer who worked with both Ernest Shackleton and Sir Robert Scott,…

With the four year pandemic-imposed gap since the previous edition in 2018, today’s restoration of the biennial SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race from Wicklow has been attracting an unprecedented amount of countdown attention and discussion. There has been an across-the-board…

Irish fishing industry leaders have warned that the costs of marine diesel are so high they are challenging the resilience of the Irish fishing fleet. CEOs of the main Irish industry organisations say fishing operations are being made uneconomical and…

After 42 years of the 704 miles biennial Round Ireland Yacht Race from Wicklow, there must be hundreds – indeed, possibly thousands - of sailors throughout Ireland and beyond who will be pausing thoughtfully from time to time during the…

“There was a lot of work, hull planking, fitting the stem post, caulking, filling, fairing, sanding, priming and painting. We lost over two years on the project due to Covid and this old girl was in a worse condition than…