Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

afloat blog header

Blogs
America's Cup contenders at Auckland – it's an abiding and evocative image, but at what cost?
According to one usually reliable line of information, yesterday was to be the day in Auckland when Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, as Trustees and Holders of the America's Cup, were due to confirm the…
With their Centenary next year, the Shannon One Designs celebrate a unique boat and successful class which came into being at a time when Ireland was in a state of turmoil
In Ireland, we're living through the Decade of Centenaries in terms of marking conflict-laden historical events and major national happenings ashore. So it says everything about the blissful sense of having a world of our own in sailing that in…
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club Commodore, Sandy Rimmington
Monkstown Bay Sailing Club is based in the inner part of Cork Harbour and is buzzing with the start of its October League and, says Club Commodore, Sandy Rimmington, a revival of the 5O5 fleet and a plan to expand…
The first Coastal Atlas of Ireland is ambitious and multidisciplinary
What weighs almost five kilos and ranges in subjects from archaeology to zoology, with Atlantic tsunamis, Viking raids and the Irish coast’s role in cinema in between? The first Coastal Atlas of Ireland is ambitious and multidisciplinary. Between its 893…
The The 1938-founded Ballyholme Bay Class when still going strong in 1970, with Bobby Swanston's Eileen leading from Frank Humphreys' Penelope. While the class in Bangor is now largely defunct, an active sister-ship has emerged in Isle of Wight ownership
Coming as it does from David Tasker - an Afloat.ie reader from the Isle of Wight - a typically Autumnal query received a day or two ago from this new owner of an interesting and much-loved vintage boat is one…
Dingle, the most westerly harbour in Europe was proposed as an America's Cup venue in 2003
It was discussed in the Seanad on Wednesday the fifth of March in 2003….. Senator Joe O'Toole, a teacher by profession was an Independent Senator, served as General Secretary of the National Teachers Organisation and President of the Congress of…
The Helmsman's Championship of October 1970 at Crosshaven rounded out the Quarter Millennial Celebrations of the Royal Cork Yacht Club, and the six finalists were (left to right) Michael O'Rahilly (Dun Laoghaire), the late Somers Payne (Crosshaven), Harold Cudmore Jnr (Crosshaven), Owen Delany (Dun Laoghaire), Maurice Butler (Ballyholme) and the winner, Robert Dix of Malahide – at 17 in 1970, still the youngest-ever winner
We've been waiting a year to use this header photo which – owing to a certain confusion in the filing of thousands of photographic negs and images – has had to be scanned from the November 1970 issue of Irish…
Marcus Hutchinson of Howth and Kinsale has worked on five Americas Cup events
Ireland is in a far strong negotiating position over the America's Cup than it may realise, and should set clear conditions if it is going to host the event, according to international sail racing project manager Marcus Hutchinson. It is…
What was it with last weekend's weather? As the pandemic restrictions against activity afloat are ever-so-gradually eased, not only was there some sort of sailing going on almost everywhere, but the mood was that of late August. Yet it was…
The Waterman brothers' Saxon Senator will compete in RCYC's AIB Autumn League
"We have a lot of quick boats entered, and it's going to be a very competitive and hotly-contested league," predicts the Royal Cork's Rear Admiral for Keelboats, Daragh Connolly, as he assembles fleet arrangements for the Autumn League, which begins…
The cause of much joy – and grief. The schooner America wins the race around the Isle of Wight 170 years ago
Let's face it, Ireland bidding to host the 37th America's Cup in 2024 – or more accurately, Cork's campaigning to stage it – has all the makings of a handy TV drama. As it has to be a national investment,…
Belfast author and illustrator Flora Delargy
Harold Cottam was a 21-year old radio operator who was on duty on the night of April 14th, 1912 on board passenger ship RMS Carpathia when he received a Morse code message he would never forget. Nor would the world,…
Chief Executive of Water Safety Ireland, John Leech
The Chief Executive of Water Safety Ireland has suggested that it may be time to introduce mandatory enforcement of wearing lifejackets. "Perhaps it is time now to prioritise water safety in Ireland even more than ever and do as was…

Chief Executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, Sean O'Donoghue
The Minister for the Marine will definitely "seek to address the imbalance in the quota transfers under the Trade & Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and United Kingdom." So says Fianna Fail's MEP, Billy Kelleher, in a statement from…
Frank Whelan's J/122 from Greystones SC had had a fine season, winning Calves Week in August, and then following it in September with a clean sweep and the overall win in the ICRA Nats. The J/122 – first produced in 2008 – is no longer built, yet Kaya is frontline competitive with the owner-skipper supported by crew-leader Patrick Barnwell, and with Mark Mansfield as tactician for the ICRA Nats
You might say it's unnatural. Normally at this time of year, we'll be talking of the evenings and the season closing in together to facilitate a gently easing pace. But last weekend in Cork, they seemed to have so many…
Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal
One of the theories examined when Ever Given's huge container ship lost control of its steerage and blocked the Suez Canal was whether a cyberattack had disrupted its navigational systems. That had not happened, but the disruption to global trade…

Comment from Ireland's team of marine journalists

Blogarama - The Blog Directory Blogio.net blog directory Blog Directory

http://www.bloguniverse.com

You can add site to improve your website reputation We added our site under News and Media Directory