Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

More young sailors are interested in racing offshore, an encouraging trend that should be fostered. It can help to bridge the problems that have been encountered in sailing where younger sailors have been lost to the sport in bridging the…

Two and a half years after Dublin solo sailor Gregor McGuckin returned from the Golden Globe Race, the strong public interest in Gregor's story led me to Malahide Marina Boatyard in County Dublin for this week's podcast. As regular Afloat…

The Chief Executive of the State agency, Water Safety Ireland, has made an appeal to all fishermen to take a "risk-based approach" to safety throughout the year to reduce tragedies which coastal communities have endured. John Leech says that the…

It is time to look at renewing club memberships. With lockdown continuing and no certainty about when the country will "re-open", renewals are easy to forget. But clubs need them and many saw a reduction and slowness in paying those…

"Someone needs to bang the table and bang heads together. Do State agencies talk to each other?" That blunt statement caused me to think a lot this week when I am still disappointed at official attitudes towards the marine sector.…

It seems logical, boats move, but that is their business. The Department of Finance takes a different view. It has told boat operators that this mobility excludes them from being given the supports offered to businesses which are landbound –…

What would our island nation be like if we did not have thriving coastal communities? How much awareness is there amongst government politicians and the mandarins of the civil service that there is a considerable level of fear and concern…

Sailing should be marketed in the widest way possible to the public to increase participation. Clubs and the national association can do this together to emphasise its accessibility, the President of Irish Sailing, the national association, has told Afloat. In…

The "sleeping giant" of the marine sector is how the marine tourism and leisure sector has been described. It may well be, despite how hard the Covid pandemic has hit it this year. The last socio-economic study of "Ireland's Ocean…

Coincidence is amazing, even if it's hard to believe. This week I'm inclined to credibility after Foreign Affairs, and Defence Minister Simon Coveney espoused the importance of the Naval Reserve when announcing the Government decision to establish a Commission "to…

Despite the impact of the pandemic Monkstown Bay Sailing Club in Cork Harbour has had a resurgence of numbers in dinghy league racing. So outgoing Commodore Ciaran McSweeney told club members as he completed his two-year term in office. New…

The Beacon at Baltimore can be a miserable place. It's nice to see on a good Summer's day sailing by and bound for the harbour entrance, but it's different in nasty weather. That's what I had remembered this past week…

The pandemic could provide an opportunity for sailing. That is an interesting view and comes from Irish Sailing's Regional Development Officer, Gail MacAllister.  "There is such a massive interest in being outdoors because of the imposition of the Covid restrictions,…

The photomontage published in Afloat a week ago of 60 'supersize' wind turbines planned for Dublin Bay should raise substantial debate about the impact of offshore wind farms on Irish waters and the activities in them – sailing, leisure marine,…

"The Lady Min is pretty special, and she performs really well…." The world was a great place to be when the Lady Min was an idea, and there was a 'can do' attitude in West Cork. Simon O'Keeffe is carrying…

One of the most difficult, controversial and upsetting marine environment stories I have reported in my time as a marine correspondent concerns seals. I've seen them rehabilitated by a sanctuary and marvelled at the work put into healing injured, sick…