Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

The buildup to any Olympiad is a long process, with all sorts of promises being made and policies declared by the host city and the nation around it. France's very special connection to the revival of the modern Olympics at…

In fishing ports over the past few weeks I've heard a general opinion expressed that there is a downward trajectory in the industry. The State agency, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, issued statistics for last year which showed that 244,989…

Our headline photo breaks nearly all the blogspot’s pictorial rules, preferences and protocols. Are there any sails set in it? Not a one. Is there any presence of sea, lake or river? Yes, but it’s vanishingly small. Is there any…

“Sacked lifeguard saves life at sea…” This and other stories relating to Kilkee’s Manuel di Lucia are recorded in his new biography, which is appropriately named You Only Live Once. Not only has the former Co Clare town mayor taught…

While most of the population looked forward to this weekend's forecast good weather, Ireland's cruiser-racer sailors had mixed feelings. For the projections for Day One (Friday) highlighted the possibility of calm in Dublin Bay. This was the situation as the…

Meteorological commentators tell us that Autumn has definitely arrived, thereby closing off the decidedly mixed summer of 2024. So there's a certain awed fascination in contemplating the reality that in Ireland the 2024 sailing season is only really getting into…

The Dogs Bark, But The Caravan Moves On. The top-end global sailing focus is heading southwest from the Olympics off Marseilles, and moving along France's Mediterranean coast towards Spain and the accelerating 37th America's Cup circus at Barcelona in Catalonia.…

What do the Cliffs of Dover, the pyramids of Giza and oil have in common? The answer is plankton, which is the “basis of life on the planet – it all started there”, in the words of Vincent Doumeizel, senior…

We invest so much in our Olympic sailors: Money. Hope, Understanding. Emotional Support. Trying to comprehend and meet the Olympians' needs. Trying to know when to come forward. Trying to know when to hold back. Being aware when publicity is…

With direct links to two of the three boats in Ireland's 2024 Olympic Sailing Team, Howth YC's 1800-plus members - led by Commodore Neil Murphy – have been fortifying themselves against the vicarious stress of unfolding events in Marseille. Out…

The racing in the 2024 Sailing Olympiad gets under way in Marseille on Sunday with a determined Irish team in three classes, and across-the-board support at all levels at home for our young sailors. The Olympic effect is notably inter-twined…

Mayo Sailing Club's Joan Mulloy has signed up for the 2024 Double Handed World Offshore Championships in September. That adds to a busy sailing schedule as she is also looking forward to the next stage of 'The Famous Project' in…

Some positive news for watersport safety – recreational and commercial vessel activity accounted for just over one per cent of all drownings in Ireland in a five year period from 2017. That means the lifejacket legislation is working, as Water…

It would be stretching it a bit, and then some, to say that the J/109 has taken more than twenty years to become an overnight national success in Ireland. Nevertheless the versatile Rod Johnstone design – which first appeared in…

Over the next decade, the Irish Sea coast will have wind farms extending from Dundalk Bay as far as Wexford with a “bit of a gap around the Kish bank lighthouse”, according to cartographer John Coleman of La Tene Maps.…

The idea of an offshore race from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour around the middle of July seems a no-brainer when you look at how sailing types spend their summers. Many cruiser-racers appear to move along that Leinster-to-Munster axis around…