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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Irish Cruising News. Sailing, Offshore, Ocean and Bluewater
Howth Yacht Club's Bon Rendell with Anthony Doyle and John Davis from the Oyster 565 Tír na nÓg in the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean
Two Irish Oyster yachts, Tír na nÓg and Rí-Rá, have arrived at the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean as part of the Oyster Round the World rally that began in January, after an adventurous journey.  Bob Rendell's Oyster 565 sailed across 3,300…
The mighty John Alden schooner Puritan is just one chapter in Bob Fannin Jnr’s very varied history of sailing experience
Bob Fannin Jnr feels most at home on the high seas. For as the Bristol-based writer, broadcaster and university lecturer told the members of the Cruising Group at his former club of Howth on Tuesday night, when sailing the sea,…
Peter Haden (Irish Cruising Club, left), of Ballyvaughan on Galway Bay, becomes the inaugural awardee of the Friendship Cup from Bob Medland of the Cruising Club of America at the ICC Annual Dinner in Cork in Saturday night
The Annual Dinner of the Irish Cruising Club in Cork on Saturday night was outstanding for many reasons, with the most important being the first awarding of the Friendship Cup. This was presented to the ICC last year at the…
An orca interaction with a yacht on the Iberian peninsula
As the cruising season arrives along the Atlantic coasts of France, Portugal, Spain, and through the Strait of Gibraltar, sailors are being urged to remain vigilant for potential orca encounters. The Cruising Association (CA) has issued a warning to sailors…
Marking Jarlath Cunnane’s 80th birthday in Castlebar Co Mayo were (from left to right) Jean Murphy, Louis Keating, Maeve Keating Séamus Breathnach, Jarlath Cunnane and Michael Brogan
Northabout crew from the Irish yacht’s historic polar circumnavigation marked the 80th birthday of their expedition skipper Jarlath Cunnane in Mayo last weekend. The adventurer, boat builder and holder of the prestigious Blue Water Medal, was joined by fellow sailors…
Kirsten Neuschäfer receives the 2023 Blue Water Medal from CCA Commodore Jay Gowell
The 2023 Cruising Club of America (CCA) awards ceremony was held at the New York Yacht Club on Friday, March 1, highlighted by the presentation of the Blue Water Medal to solo round-the-world sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer. The prestigious Medal was…
Ashley Perrin (Antarctic Ice Pilot) and her husband Merfyn Owen, were awarded the 2023 Royal Cruising Club Trophy on Friday at the New York Yacht Club
On Friday at the New York Yacht Club, Ashley Perrin and Merfyn Owen received the 2023 Royal Cruising Club Trophy from the Commodore of the CCA (Cruising Club of America). The trophy was awarded “For their extended circumnavigation and excellent…
Man in charge – in addition to long distance cruising, Ed Wheeler has given years of service to the Irish Cruising Club and the Royal Ulster Yacht Club
Ed Wheeler’s extraordinary career in sailing has ranged from racing the first International Cadet dinghy to be seen on Belfast Lough in the early 1950s (he won Ballyholme YC’s famous Lufra Cup for the big-fleet end-of-season pursuit race) to solo…
Double jobber…..Colin Leonard of Strangford Lough and Ballyholme won Silver at the ILCA Masters in Australia in February, and also collected an Irish Cruising Club award
There seem to be two Colin Leonards prominent in the sailing scene in the north, but in fact, it’s one and the same man making the best of several possibilities. Colin Leonard of Ballyholme was tops in the medal stakes…
ICC Commodore David Beattie’s steel cutter Reespray at the Fastnet Rock. As her hull lines are based on Joshua Slocum’s world-girdling Spray, this means that the basic shape is more than 250 years old
Last night’s Annual General Meeting of the 1929-founded Irish Cruising Club in Dublin was more than the usual agenda-guided review of a year of activity afloat, a time-honoured long look at twelve months of varied cruising and voyaging on waters…
A Kinsale Yacht Club meeting has been scheduled for Friday, March to develop a cruising schedule for the season
Kinsale Yacht Club intends to “re-establish and grow” its Cruising Fleet this season. The County Cork club will “reinvigorate the cruising section of the club,” according to Vice Commodore Anthony O’Neill. Niall McCann will undertake co-ordination of the Cruiser Fleet.…
Oyster yachts starting their 27,000-mile adventure! Ireland's Ri Ra (IRL 7060) is pictured centre at Nelson's Dockyard, Antigua
Two Irish yachts, Tír na nÓg (Robert Rendell of Howth) and Rí-Rá (Patrick and Hugh Blaney of Dun Laoghaire) were part of a twenty-one Oyster yacht fleet that crossed the start line of the Oyster World Rally at Nelson's Dockyard,…
The World ARC circumnavigation rally set sail on 13 January from Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, under bright blue Caribbean skies
The 13th edition of the World ARC circumnavigation rally set sail on 13 January from Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, under bright blue Caribbean skies. For the 27 yachts, the first destination is Santa Marta in Columbia, before heading through the…
Definitely not Clew Bay. Northabout in brash ice in the Canadian Arctic
“Seal meat tastes strong and is best eaten, we found, with plenty of onions and curry”. You better believe it. For it comes from an even more reliable source than the proverbial horse’s mouth. It’s one of the many conclusions…
Kirsten Neuschäfer mid-GGR2022 race at media stop in Hobart, Tasmania
Kirsten Neuschäfer, of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is awarded the Blue Water Medal for 2023 in recognition of the tremendous effort, determination, and skill she exhibited during her 235-day solo circumnavigation in Minnehaha, a Cape George 36 sailboat. Out of…
The first boat ever to be awarded a major perpetual cruising trophy was Royal Ulster YC member Dr Howard Sinclair’s 26ft Brenda, which received the new Challenge Cup of the Cruising Club in 1895 for a Round Ireland cruise. Built as a straight-stemmed racing boat to W E Paton’s designs in Belfast in 1886, Brenda was converted for cruising in 1891, and in 1894 she was lengthened forward with a “modern” stem to Dr Sinclair’s own designs by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus
In a week’s time, Sailing on Saturday will resume normal service with a preview on December 23rd of the up-coming Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race on December 26th, both generally and from an Irish angle, for we…