Betty Armstrong
Betty Armstrong is Afloat and Yachting Life's Northern Ireland Correspondent. Betty grew up racing dinghies but now sails a more sedate Dehler 36 around County Down
RYA Northern Ireland to Run Restricted Youth Championships This Month
4th September 2020 RYA Northern Ireland
The Royal Yachting Association Northern Ireland Youth Championships on 19/20 September will feel the ongoing effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in that a restricted Youth Sailing Championships will be run on the 19th and 20th September at Ballyholme Yacht Club…
15-Year-Old Solo Round Britain Sailor Arrives in Bangor on Belfast Lough
1st September 2020 Belfast Lough
Timothy Long from Buckinghamshire in England is only 15, and by the time he finishes his fundraising solo sail around Britain, he will have 1,600-miles under his belt. In his Hunter Impala 28 'Alchemy' Timothy covers around 45 miles a…
A Notice to Mariners issued on 29th August by Bangor Harbour on Belfast Lough warns that the slipway in front of the Lifeboat house has been closed due to a sunken vessel. On Wednesday night (26th August) the owners of…
Big Welcome for Cruising Association as Boats Revisit Northern Ireland Waters
25th August 2020 Cruising
It's only 160 km by road but the passage north from Dublin Bay for the twelve Cruising Association of Ireland crews who set out for Belfast Lough was a great deal more. With stopovers in Carlingford Lough and Ardglass on…
Topper Traveller Comes to Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland's First Open Event of the COVID-Hit Season
23rd August 2020 Topper
In what is understood to be the first open event in Northern Ireland this year, 41 Toppers including two from Dublin Bay, raced at Ballyholme YC on Belfast Lough yesterday (22nd August) for what turned out to be a lively…
Irish Multihulls & a Weekend of Speed for Ballyholme Yacht Club in October
22nd August 2020 Belfast Lough
The last of three Irish Multihull events this year will be the Northerns at Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough on 17th and 18th October. It also has the grand title of Weekend of Speed, rescheduled due to COVID 19.…
An appropriate title for a GP 14 event to be held (hopefully) in October at the Larne club. The word toddy comes from the toddy drink in India produced by fermenting the sap of palm trees and its earliest known…
Line Honours for Mikey Ferguson on Pip Hare's 'Medallia' in Lonely Rock Race
19th August 2020 Vendee Globe
Belfast Lough's Mikey Ferguson found the Lonely Rock Race on Pip Hare's Open 60, Medallia, shorter than planned due to the impending storm. The race director decided to shorten the course with the turn at Wolf Rock off Land's End…
Twelve celebrities are taking part in the challenge of a lifetime, to row the entire length of Britain, in a brand new, epic adventure series called 'Don't Rock The Boat'. The 5 x 60-minute series will see 12 famous faces…
The all-weather RNLI lifeboat from Donaghadee on the North Down coast launched at 3 am this morning (Tuesday18th) to the Belfast Coastguard's request to assist a 15m fishing boat with one person onboard. The boat, which was on passage from…
Hundreds of Lions's Mane Jellyfish Washed Ashore on Ards Peninsula (Video)
18th August 2020 Northern Ireland Waters
Portaferry Coastguard Rescue Team on Strangfrod Lough in Northern Ireland has warned of hundreds of Lion's Mane jellyfish washed up on the shore at Cloughey on the eastern coast of the Ards Peninsula. It's a small village with a beautiful…
The minehunter HMS Ramsey under the command of Lieutenant Commander Joel Roberts, arrived into Bangor Harbour on Belfast Lough over last weekend on an exercise visit. The 53m vessel is moored alongside the Eisenhower Pier, so-called as before departing for the…
Down Cruising Club is celebrating a return to the water with a Members' Day next Saturday (22nd August). Located at Ballydorn, near Whiterock on Strangford Lough, DCC occupies an unusual clubhouse, the old Lightship, Petrel. It was built in 1915…
Belfast Lough's Mikey Ferguson Joins Pip Hare's IMOCA Medallia Campaign
15th August 2020 Vendee Globe
Northern Ireland sailor Mikey Ferguson from Bangor in County Down has joined Pip Hare's IMOCA campaign and they will start the Lonely Rock Race tomorrow (Sunday 16th August), from near Ryde in the Eastern Solent in Medallia. As well as being…
Royal Ulster Yacht Excession Heads for Fastnet 450 Race & Cork 300 Celebrations
14th August 2020 Northern Ireland Waters
John Harrington will carry the flag again for Royal Ulster Yacht Club, as he is off again south in the IMX38 eXcession! In a racing schedule arranged with military precision, John and a football team sized crew will tackle the…
In a few days, a large fleet of 17 boats from the Cruising Association of Ireland will arrive in Belfast Lough. It's three years since they last cruised here in Northern Ireland. The contingent will include two boats from the…
An unusual visitor to Glenarm Marina in County Antrim recently was the rowing boat of the GB Row Challenge. After what must have been an uncomfortable time lying in the open in Glenarm Harbour in a north-westerly, the GB Row…
In the run-up to the return of Topper and Laser dinghy events, RYA Northern Ireland has arranged a series of Open Pathway training events during this month. The RYANI Open Pathway Training (OPT) is aimed primarily at those sailors who…
Ballyholme Yacht Club‘s ‘Regatta’ last weekend went a long way in these ‘new normal’ times, to fulfil the usual criteria for a standard regatta, but minus the visitors and the usual socialising and tea and buns afterwards. It was a…
Recently the Brompton inflatable goose featured in a story about open sea swimmers near Bangor on Belfast Lough. Now round the corner from Brompton, the Helen’s Baywatch swimmers have a real ‘Goose’ to swim with! The reddish-brown female eider duck…