Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

The Flying Fifteen class have been offered a start in the annual Fastnet Race which opens the Calves Week sailing festival in West Cork on Tuesday 8 August. It will mark a first for the 20-foot one-design keelboat class that…

On a day that started with grey skies and torrential rain showers in my part of the world, the latter part of the day presented an evening of sunshine and light winds for a fifteen-boat fleet of Flying Fifteens in…

Seventeen boats contested the Flying Fifteen Westerns in Connemara this past weekend with visitors from Strangford Lough (1), Dunmore East (2) and Dublin Bay (6). Early arrivals on Friday were treated to an evening’s sail on a Galway Hooker and…

With six Dun Laoghaire-based Flying Fifteen crews contesting the Western Championships in Connemara and one other absentee, a turnout of ten boats for the second Saturday of DBSC 2023 wasn’t too bad a head count and those who made the…

As the Flying Fifteen World Championships in Australia pass the halfway point, Ireland's John Lavery and Alan Green will be hoping that a full series can be sailed following a black flag penalty in race seven that has knocked them…

After six races sailed and five to count, Ireland's John Lavery and Alan Green are in the top ten of the Flying 15 World Championships at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Australia. Steady sailing from Dublin Bay's Lavery and Green saw…

77 boats from 4 continents are entered, with overseas entries travelling from as far away as South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, New Zealand and all over Australia to compete at the 2023 Flying Fifteen World Championship (March 9 -…

Two National Yacht Club boats from Dun Laoghaire – the stronghold of Irish Flying Fifteen sailing – will contest the 2023 World Championships next month in Fremantle, Western Australia. Former Irish national champions John Lavery and Alan Green, along with…

One of the largest one-design fleets in Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Flying Fifteens, gathered at the end of November in the Royal St. George Yacht Club to mark the close of the 2022 season. In contrast to the previous…

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones;” Mark Anthony’s speech on the death of Julius CaesarFrom Shakespeare’s play…

The Dun Laoghaire Flying Fifteen fleet held their AGM last night, chaired by the outgoing Captain, Jill Fleming and attended by seventeen members with representation from the three Dun Laoghaire clubs which have “Fifteens” on their decks, the National Yacht…

Eleven Flying Fifteens played out the last act of the 2022 sailing season under sunshine conditions on 5th November in good winds from a westerly direction. The early part of the day saw the freshest breezes, but they eased slightly…

On the eve of the third round of the Flying Fifteen Frostbites, hosted by the National Yacht Club, we were all shocked to hear that our dear friend Ben Mulligan had passed away. Ben was an integral part of the…

Afloat.ie regrets to record the death of Dun Laoghaire sailor Ben Mulligan. A successful helmsman in many forms of yacht racing over a lifetime of sailing at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, he was the skipper of the top Flying Fifteen 'Enfant…

The Lough Derg Freshwater One Design regatta last weekend was, for most, a two-day event reduced to one, and for the Northern Ireland sailors who made the long journey to Dromineer somewhat disappointing, especially for the Belfast Lough Flying Fifteen…

Niall O'Brien and Ronan O'Brien won the Irish Flying Fifteen's last regatta of 2022 at the weekend when they claimed the 2022 Freshwater One Design Regatta title on Lough Derg. It is the second win of the season for the Connemara duo, who…