Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Galway Oyster Festival Welcomes Global Competitors for 72nd Celebration
25th September 2026 Galway Harbour
Competitors from 17 countries are due to compete at this weekend’s Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival, which returns for its 72nd year this weekend (September 25th to 27th 2026). The festival marks the official start of the native oyster…
Rick Tomlinson Brings ‘High Latitudes’ to RIYC for Sailability
25th September 2026 Royal Irish Yacht Club
World-renowned yachting, marine and wildlife photographer Rick Tomlinson will bring his ‘High Latitudes’ presentation to the Royal Irish Yacht Club (RIYC) in Dún Laoghaire on Thursday, 5 November, in aid of Sailability. Tomlinson’s photography regularly features on Afloat.ie, particularly his…
George Jesters have won the 2026 Irish Team Racing Association National Championships at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire, defeating Pourquoi Papa 3–0 in the championship final. The winning six of Liam Glynn, Rosa Lyden, Jack Fahy,…
![Medal Dash: The Melges 15 fleet will bring a two-race Medal Series finale to Dublin Bay for its final class championship of the 2026 season. Photo: [CREDIT]](https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000q27CmGCmwHo/s/848/I0000q27CmGCmwHo.jpg "Medal Dash: The Melges 15 fleet will bring a two-race Medal Series finale to Dublin Bay for its final class championship of the 2026 season. Photo: Afloat")
The Irish Melges 15 class will borrow from the format used at this summer’s ILCA World Championships on Dublin Bay when its fifth and final class event of the 2026 season concludes with a two-race Medal Series at the Royal…
A thatched cottage with its own slipway to the Shannon-Erne Waterway has come on the waterfront property market in Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim, with an asking price of €185,000. Fionn MacCumhaill Cottage is a two-bedroom detached property extending to 67 square…
Dear Customers, We hope you have had a great sailing season. It has been a good one. We are half filled up with winter service sails, with boats being lifted in around the country. Our first delivery is nearly ready…
Irish sailor Pete Hogan spent 60 days this summer circumnavigating Great Britain in his 1982 Jeanneau Symphonie, sailing around half of the 1,600-nautical-mile voyage single-handed. From Scotland and the North Sea to Whitby, Dover and the English south coast, he…
Kinsale sailor Sam Hunt is in the thick of the Corinthian battle at the Melges 24 World Championship in Harbor Springs, Michigan, where he is racing as crew aboard Stuart Simpson’s British Team Barbarians. Hunt is racing aboard Stuart Simpson’s…
Although global wind maps had been showing a clear line of windless doldrums running due west from the coast of Guinea in Africa until 24 hours ago, the doldrum area close southeast of the Cape Verde islands has suddenly come…
Three skippers share the lead after a testing opening day of the 2026 Dublin Match Cup, as changing conditions forced World Match Racing Tour racing from Dublin Bay into the shelter of Dún Laoghaire Harbour. Fourteen teams from eight nations…
Chris Bake’s Team Aqua, steered by Royal Yacht Squadron Commodore Robert Bicket, has won the King’s Cup on the Solent as the curtain-raiser to the 2026 44Cup World Championship in Cowes. The charity event brought the Royal Yacht Squadron together…
Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Autumn League gets underway at Crosshaven this Sunday, September 27, with racing continuing each Sunday through October. The Autumn League starts at the Royal Cork in Crosshaven this Sunday, formerly known as the ‘October League’ but…
Coventry University student Oliver Weaver has won the 2026 Superyacht UK Young Designer Competition after an intensive live challenge to create a 50-metre explorer yacht at the Southampton International Boat Show. Oliver Weaver, an Automotive and Transport Design student at…
Corrib Féile-Flow Celebrates Lough Corrib Heritage and Waters
24th September 2026 Maritime Festivals
The organisers of the second Corrib Féile-Flow event have expressed delight at the public response. The three-day event celebrating the natural, cultural and built heritage of the Lough Corrib catchment brought together community groups, local stakeholders, environmental organisations, architects, schools,…
Irish sailor Karl Smith will take another significant step towards his 2027 round-the-world campaign when he races his Class40 Racing to End Parkinson’s in the RORC Transatlantic Race from Lanzarote to Antigua in January. Smith, racing with David Rowen, is…
Aurelia, ValenTina, ReQuest and Rockabill VI are among the entries for Sunday’s race and cruise. Twenty-four boats had entered the Leisnter Boats sponsored Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club’s 2026 Kish Challenge by Wednesday evening, ahead of the event on Sunday,…
O’Connell Leads Tight Monkstown Bay Finale as Club Honours Youth
24th September 2026 Monkstown Bay Sailing Club
Davy O’Connell takes a one-point Class 1 lead into the final race of Monkstown Bay Sailing Club’s September league, as the Cork Harbour club also celebrates its young sailors’ success at the Optimist Connacht Championships. Davy O’Connell in his Laser…
More than 70 marine apprentices were recognised at Southampton International Boat Show as British Marine put training and future careers in the spotlight, with a record turnout for its Careers & Apprenticeship Evening. British Marine has named Jack Hayden of…
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and its statutory partners are investigating a fish kill in Tullamore, Co Offaly that has claimed the lives of 69 fish, primarily brown trout. The incident occurred on the Tullamore River in Tullamore town. Fish mortalities…
Tramore Lifeboat Crew Rescue Two People and Dog after Vessel Breaks Down
24th September 2026 RNLI Lifeboats
Tramore RNLI rescued two people and a dog after their 18ft boat broke down and began to drift towards Tramore beach earlier this week. The volunteer crew launched their inshore lifeboat at 4.50pm on Monday afternoon (21 September) following a…
