Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

This week, as always, you’ll get the best and the unusual maritime stories on This Island Nation with Afloat.ie. So click on this link below now, because podcasts are meant to be listened to and when you listen, you are…

Hello and welcome aboard this week’s edition of your maritime programme Seascapes this week writer and broadcaster Hugh Oram on the Free French in Greenock in Scotland and hear from an eye witness to events seventy seven years ago author…

Marcus Connaughton is set to retire from RTE and present his final edition of the maritime programme Seascapes on RTE Radio 1 on Bloomsday - Friday 16th June on the eve of his 65th birthday.Marcus is a veteran of the…

Three weeks hence from this morning, on Saturday May 19th, an unlikely convoy of vehicles with a very special collection of unique vintage boats and people will emerge in Cherbourg from Irish Ferries’ ship just in from Rosslare writes W…

It’s launching time at Castlepoint Boatyard at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour where I keep SCRIBBLER II. That’s my Sigma 33, named rather appropriately for a journalist/scribe, as I’ve been told. The first SCRIBBLER was a Ruffian 23, much sailed and…

Its full title is the Irish Sailing Association Youth Pathway Nationals and Optimist Trials. It is a designation with a great air of seriousness about it, contrasting markedly with current public debate about providing more fun sailing, while making regattas…

The Chief Executive of the State agency responsible for promoting water safety has been telling me about an interesting piece of research which his organisation carried out over the past two months. The purpose of this research on water safety…

A very special Golden Jubilee coming up in May provides links to an Irish Olympic Sailing Silver Medal, the Fireball World Championship, and the America’s Cup. W M Nixon finds the widest connections go even further than that to include…

The Bangor and Donaghadee RNLI lifeboats launched last week following a ‘Mayday’ call. It was a hoax. Someone decided to make a false call and those two lifeboat crews in Northern Ireland started a search for what was reported to…

Time was when the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race was promoted as a handy way to position your little old cruiser in West Kerry to be nicely placed to make her way in gentle hops back to her home port…

On May 4, 1917 the American Navy arrived in force in Cork Harbour. Five thousand sailors with the task of protecting the southern waters off Ireland from German submarines. The United States had entered the First World War in support…

Hello and welcome aboard this week’s edition of your maritime programme Seascapes, later this evening we’ll hear from Fergal Keane who attended the recent Angling Show at the National Show Centre in North County Dublin;  we’ll hear from writer and…

The Irish Cruising Club draws its varied membership from every part of Ireland, and since its foundation in 1929, this eclectic group has seen its cruising range extend from European waters until they have now covered virtually every corner of…

The members of the Drascombe Association celebrated 50 years of their boat in Belfast at the weekend. Five thousand Drascombes have been built and their owners enjoy sailing them. That was the message of the Secretary of the Irish branch…

There is always something interesting to be reported upon and discussed about the maritime sphere, I believe and so I always want to broadcast interesting stories on This Island Nation. This week one underlines the importance of maintaining knowledge of…

David Lovegrove, President of the Irish Sailing Association, steps down in a week’s time. The conclusion of his three year period in office at the up-coming ISA Annual General Meeting relieves him of what is surely the most demanding voluntary…