Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

There is a time and a season to all things, and in some years, that time comes earlier than others. Ireland has been getting away with it in remarkable style in recent weeks, putting through 2017’s Autumn sailing fixtures in…

Mark Mansfied of Cork has been a major presence in Irish and international sailing for decades. With his considerable height and presence, and air of being intensely focused on the task in hand, he is at the core of any…

Hello and you’re welcome to the weekly MacSweeney Podcast… The procedures and practices involved in the naming of ships once appeared to be the product of evolution and tradition, then became the choice of politicians – at least as far…

It has had at least two different event descriptions since it was first sailed all of seventy years ago. Back then, Irish sailing was finding its feet in the late 1940s, becoming re-energised in the exciting developmental world of modern…

Ireland is a nation which has been slow to recognise its maritime resources and its international maritime achievements made by Irish sailors. This I was reminded about again this week. But there are indications of changes for the better, driven…

In its forty years, the 4,000 mile Mini-Transat has become a very French event, despite always having a significant international presence which this time round will see Ireland’s Tom Dolan (30) in a leading role for 2017’s staging, starting tomorrow…

“Connecting Ships, Ports and People” is the theme of World Maritime Day which is today, September 28, as marked by the International Maritime Organisation, the United Nations maritime agency. Does anybody notice anything being done officially by the Government here,…

I don’t mean abandon in emergency at sea, I mean leave them to rot away in boatyards or on rivers or harbour moorings or in boatyards .. to ignore them …. deliberately forget about them …perhaps hoping never to be…

With 312 entries in the IRC divisions alone, and numbers pushing towards the 400 mark when all classes are included, the record-breaking Fastnet Race 2017 was surely on the edge of becoming an unwieldy beast as it got under way…

To mariners the sound of the sea is the sound of life and this week I heard some of the most amazing sounds ever recorded underwater. ‘The song of the Humpback Whale,’amazed me. It is the sound the males use,…

Hearing about the open morning on Sunday, the 24th of September at the Royal St.George YC in Dun Laoghaire where Sigma 33 Class Captain Paddy Maguire wants to raise more interest in Sigmas, brought back how I became interested in…

In the days when sailing was a seasonal sport, a few main pillar events dominated the international programme. The Sailing Olympics. The America’s Cup. The Fastnet Race. The Dragon Gold Cup. The Sydney-Hobart Race. The Whitbread Round the World Race.…

Kerry will have a dominant presence in this year’s Volvo Round the World Race. Three of the Kingdom’s notable maritime figures are involved and, with Olympian Annalise Murphy also sailing, there will be strong Irish interest, writes Tom MacSweeney. Biologist…

The functioning of the Commissioners of Irish Lights is within a matrix in partnership with the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland and the Isle of Man, and Trinity House in England and Wales. They co-operate actively through a grouping known…

69 yachts have entered for the Cobh-to-Blackrock Race tomorrow writes Tom MacSweeney. This is the annual sailing race from Cobh to Blackrock which once marked the end of the sailing season in Cork Harbour. It no longer is that end-of-season…

Seabirds and sailors have a long history together. They are reputed to have guided lost sailors to land, led fishermen to catch fish and the sight of them has encouraged many a despairing sailor to realise that land is nearby.…