Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

It is a point which I feel compelled to make, time and again, because it is people who make up a community of interest, by their determination, their commitment, their focus and that is what I believe the marine community…

This weekend’s two-day All-Ireland Sailing Championship at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, racing boats of the ISA J/80 SailFleet flotilla, is an easy target for facile criticism. Perhaps because it tries to do so much in the space…

I feel an empathy with Jimmy Buffett, the American singer and songwriter, whose words about his boat resonates with me: “Yes, I own a boat… It slides across the sea… Some folks say I’m a part of it…I know it’s…

We may be an island nation, but are we a maritime people in our outlook and way of life? It could be reasonably argued that we most definitely aren’t. On last night’s Seascapes, the maritime programme on RTE Radio 1,…

It seems to me that, without dedicated volunteers, there would be a lot of work not done in the marine sphere, so I like when possible, to highlight what dedicated people are doing. Publicity can help them to raise funding…

As we near the end of the traditional sailing season, inevitably there’ll be heart-searching among boat owners as to the success and value obtained from their summer afloat – can they really justify the expense of continuing to keep a…

Every sailor knows the importance of the weather forecast ….We watch forecasts on television, listen to them on radio, check the Met Eireann forecasts, look at the weather maps in the newspapers… At sea we check the Coast Guard’s coastal…

How would you like to undertake an intense course of guaranteed Irish offshore racing training? Start as an absolute beginner on a strange boat in April next year. Dedicate yourself to it. Then by the end of June, the boat…

“We were invited into schools in the North Wall and while all the children had grandparents who were dockers, not one of them knew what a docker was, because all of that tradition is gone….” Amidst the current controversy over…

Ireland is a country of seaways, and waterways which are dominated by the majestic River Shannon. On our island, you can never be more than sixty miles from the nearest navigable bit of sea. Add in the myriad of inland…

#rorcrfr – Not only did the Rolex Fastnet Race 2015 provide two completely different sailing experiences all in the one event package, but this 90th Anniversary of the Grand National of Offshore Racing was so suffused with historical references and…

#fastnetrace – The northern jetstream seems to have taken a holiday from Ireland for a few days. This mysterious climatic force - which interacts with the restless brew which develops when large areas of cold and warm air go head…

#loveboating – Poor old Tim O'Brien appears so down in the dumps about his River Shannon Motor Cruiser that he's outlined ten reasons why he 'hates his boat' in today's Irish Times here.  Tim imagined a life of ease, messing…

#olympicsailing – We have heard much of how the 2016 Olympiad Sailing Venue in Rio de Janeiro is setting its courses in polluted waters which will constitute a serious health risk to the participants and those who are afloat staging the…

#irishsailors – With the coldest, wettest and windiest July finally put astern, Irish sailors of all ages competing at every level at venues near and far – sometimes very far - keep their fingers crossed that summer will manage to…

#wildatlanticway – There's an elemental quality to Ireland's Atlantic seaboard which can be more than matched by the weather the ocean throws at it. In the recent Transatlantic Race, the participants commented – often forcefully - on the extreme sailing…