Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

In the Great Halls of Dusseldorf, where the colossal annual Boat Show opens today with its Golden Jubilee providing multiple opportunities for appropriate Wagnerian accompaniment for hyper-glossy boats on the grand scale, a specialised level of interest will focus on…

Joseph Conrad wrote many stories and novels with a nautical setting, based on his time in the British and French merchant marine and in the old sailing ships. They depict trials of the human spirit and one of his memorable…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. Ireland’s State commitment to maritime safety has been strongly questioned. Safety must not be taken casually and, at the start of a New Year, when most leisure craft…

Howth Yacht Club has become the latest winner of the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” Award primarily on the strength of its sailing successes through 2018 - major successes which began in February and continued until well into…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The Royal Cork Yacht Club at Crosshaven is launching a new initiative to bridge the gap between dinghy and keelboat racing following the success of its Under 25 Academy…

Hobart in Tasmania is a characterful port with a certain style to it, picturesquely located in handsome scenery on the estuary of the River Derwent writes W M Nixon. It’s home to a goodly fleet of sailcraft and motorboats of…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The Christmas and New Year festive period is a time for memories – or so it is traditionally said – and there are a few which were brought…

What would Christmas be like without sailing? Such a state of deprivation just doesn’t bear thinking about writes W M Nixon. But thanks to the wonders of modern communication - which at other times can be too much of a…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The reality of Ireland as an island nation is becoming more publicly apparent with each passing day as the possibility of a ‘no deal’ Brexit looms closer. Our…

The sailing community’s notable diversity is dependent on how you’re trying to analyse it writes W M Nixon. For many, it’s the community aspect, the shared love of boats and sailing and interacting with sea or lake, which is the…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The last race of the Winter League ended the sailing season in Cork Harbour ….. Around the country, December racing, for those still with the ability and determination…

Maybe it’s the fact that the days start to get longer again in only a fortnight, but there’s mood of rising optimism in Irish sailing these days writes W M Nixon. There’s an almost measurable buzz in the air which…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. “I intend to promote sailing in general and also to promote coastal offshore racing.” That was the declaration of Johanna Murphy from the Great Island Sailing Club in…

On most coastlines in the world, you’ll invariably hear of some challenging nearby headland being referred to as “the local Cape Horn” writes W M Nixon No other promontory worldwide has the same global image. It tells us much about…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. There is a great lot to be said about the pride of a family in a boat and there is nothing wrong with being old when age is…

Down Limerick way, somebody is probably already putting together an appropriate song about how the historic sail trading ketch Ilen was saved from the scrapyard through a heroic decade-long restoration programme by Limerick’s Ilen Project, only to spend her first…