Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#national18 – The National 18 Class has adopted the exciting new Phil Morrison designed hull and production has started with twelve hulls already on order for 2015. News of the new N18 hull design story broke on Afloat.ie just over…

#vestas – Volvo Ocean Race's ship-wrecked nine-man Team Vestas Wind crew finally made it back to civilisation today, telling of their amazing escape from a collision with an Indian Ocean reef which grounded their boat. The unshaven, exhausted team in…

#rnli – The Staff of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) selected Dun Laoghaire RNLI lifeboat as the beneficiary of the 2014 Hope You Give (HUG) charity fund paid into over the year by the staff of DLRCC.Above, Mary Kennefick, representing HUG…

#dieselfuel – The current controversy rumbling on in various outlets – most notably in the Irish Times letters pages – about how the Irish government has been dealing with EU Directives for differentiating between duty on diesel fuel for fishing…

#rayc – The Royal Alfred Yacht Club held its Annual Black Tie Dinner and Prize-giving on Friday 21st November in the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire.  A packed dining room was treated to an excellent meal, fine wines and after…

#JeanieJohnston - Almost a month after returning from essential maintenance in a dry-dock, Jeanie Johnston is still undergoing major work this week but now focused at her stern while moored at her customary Dublin city-centre berth, writes Jehan Ashmore. Afloat.ie…

#islandnation – On this edition of THIS ISLAND NATION podcast I question Government policy towards two aspects of the marine sphere and ask how much confidence can be placed in the much-hyped plan to create Ocean Wealth writes Tom MacSweeney. Several times…

#sailorofthemonth – Successes in the first two races of the current Volvo Ocean global contest have placed Justin Slattery in an unassailable position for our Sailor of the Month for November. Completely absorbed in his fifth world race which is…

#topper – Throughout the summer season at the Royal Cork Yacht Club some new brightly coloured red, blue and white sails have been making their presence felt on the waters of Cork Harbour writes Claire Bateman.These are the sails of the…

#urbanbeach – Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company (DLHC) has welcomed the award of planning permission for its proposal for a floating swimming pool and urban beach at the historic East Pier of the Harbour. Permission was granted by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown…

#rorc – After leading the RORC fleet out of the Canary Islands yesterday afternoon the Finot-Conq 100, Nomad IV, sailed by Jean-Paul Riviere, was leading the race until gear failure forced the French Maxi to head back to the Canary…

#marinescience – Ireland's marine researchers have won €5.5m in the latest EU Horizon 2020 competitive funding in the areas of Blue Growth and Sustainable Food and Security. This represents 4.7% of total EU budget awards and 5% of Blue Growth,…

#foynes – Foynes Yacht Club dinghy fleet has exploded this summer and is going from strength to strength writes Elaine O'Mahoney. It started with a conversation in the club bar in the latter part of the summer amongst a small…

#fireballsailing – Seven Fireballers headed out to the bay on Sunday afternoon for race 5 of the DMYC Frostbite series, a race in the bay gave the fireballs a chance to stretch their legs on a longer course but with…

#volvooceanrace – This graphic picture (above) shows the stricken Team Vestas Wind from the Volvo Ocean Race lying in a reef in a remote Mauritius archipelago of St Brandon after being grounded there at the weekend. The team and race organisers…

#rssailing – Gifted with a northerly breeze of around 12 knots the DMYC Dinghy Frostbite race committee set a longer than usual trapezoidal course outside the harbour, signalling five laps to the 6  RS 400s and 3 RS 200s that…

#dbscturkeyshoot – One could have been forgiven for having a severe case of déjà vu yesterday morning as the DBSC Turkey Shoot had almost the exact same conditions as in the previous weeks racing writes INSC's Kenneth Rumball. The wind…

#vor – Volvo Ocean Race control have been in touch with the shipwrecked Team Vestas skipper Chris Nicholson. The transcript of the above audio interview is below: Hey Chris, Mark Covell here calling from Race Control.Hey Mark, how are ya?Yeah…

#hyc – Ronan Cull continues to dominate the 40th Laser Frostbites at Howth Yacht Club. Cull showed no let up in demonstrating a master class in Laser sailing to the rest of the fleet. Concerns that the forecast of a…

#rorc – After two delays to the start due to horrendous weather conditions, the RORC Transatlantic Race in association with the International Maxi Association started from Puerto Calero Marina at 1000 UTC, Sunday 30th November. It was third time lucky…