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Crosshaven Trad Sail Returns This Weekend With Packed Programme
Crosshaven Trad Sail returns for another year this weekend from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 June with a packed programme of festival events around the historic boat regatta. Registration (€25) is open for participating skippers, with early arrivals potentially having…
March, 2018. Who would believe this boat could ever sail again?
When photos circulated of the mangled remains of the 1907-built Howth 17 Rosemary in the wreckage of her storage shed on Howth’s East Pier after Storm Emma in March 2018, many unacquainted with the spirit of this 1897-founded class thought…
A traditional Currach goes on display at Seafest
Currachs are important to preserving the maritime history and culture of an island nation a seminar about these iconic boats was told in Cork Harbour today reports Tom MacSweeney. The seminar on the antiquity and sustainability of currachs was part…
It’s early summer in West Cork, and time for the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival’s eclectic collection of timber craft to show their style. Typical of the mix are (left to right) Kevin O’Farrell’s Scottish Islands Class Mylne-designed McGruer-built sloop Canna, the Falmouth-based Dandy type Lively (James Baker), and the Mackerel Boat An Run (Nigel Towse, sailed by Ian Wright)
West Cork is as much a state of mind as it is a place writes W M Nixon. And when you’re in its bright and cheerfully breezy sailor’s capital of Baltimore, the annual Maytime Festival of Wooden Boats is something…
The restored Ilen of Limerick sails into Dublin Bay for the first time in 21 years for visits to Poolbeg, Dun Laoghaire and Howth. This weekend, she’s back in her birthplace of Baltimore
Three million euro - every bit of €3 million writes W M Nixon. That’s what the late Theo Rye, internationally-recognised expert on the restoring and re-building of classic and traditional craft, reckoned that breathing new life into Ireland’s historic 56ft…
Rowing past Devenish Island
On Saturday 18 May 2019, rowers and supporters gathered at Knockninny Quay in preparation for the start of the voyage writes Ken Wilson of Lough Erne Heritage The V Rev. Fr Gerard Alwill P.P. Derrylin gave us a blessing and…
Ninety-three years after she was briefly a member of the fleet of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, the restored ketch Ilen visited the historic clubhouse for a special reception this weekend
In 1926, the newly-built 56ft trading ketch Ilen was for six months part of the fleet of the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Built in Baltimore in West Cork under the inspiration of pioneering global circumnavigator Conor O’Brien of Limerick to…
Vintage Barges Bring ‘Floating Fringe Festival’ To Mountshannon For June Bank Holiday Weekend
Vintage barges and fantastic events are promised in the line-up as the Mountshannon Arts Festival returns this June Bank Holiday, Thursday 30 May to Monday 3 June. Inspired by this year’s theme, ‘Roots and Wings’, the festival features all facets…
The 1884 built traditional wooden sailing ship Silvery Light is undergoing restoration in Newry, County Down. AFLOAT adds the ketch is the only remaining traditional sailing vessel of its size in Northern Ireland in addition is registered on the UK National Historic Ships Register as a ship of historic maritime importance.
#historicboats - Chairman of Silvery Lights Sailing, Gerry Brennan, has called on the Newry, Mourne & Down District Council to support the need for city's maritime heritage to be recognised. According to the Newry Reporter, the charity’s mission is to…
A fair wind from Dunmore East for the historic Limerick ketch Ilen returning (after 21 years) to Dublin Bay.
The Limerick Ketch Ilen arrived back at Dublin yesterday after a 21-year absence. She departed Dunmore East on Friday, where she had been joined by a group from Aiséirí, a dynamic residential treatment centre for adults affected by addiction. This…
Ilen in Kinsale this week
The Ilen will be setting course for Dublin this weekend for a high profile launch at Dun Laoghaire on Friday of next week. She arrived at Kinsale this Wednesday night after what was described as a “bouncy bouncy run from…
Check out the video below to see Ilen depart Limerick City down the Lower Shannon and on towards Baltimore, West Cork.
The historic ketch Ilen of Limerick put to sea again from her home port on April 20th at the beginning of a complex 2019 sailing programme which will see the restored ship voyage in July towards southwest Greenland. Check out the video below to see…
The 6 inch bow-mounted gun of HMS Caroline, the Royal Navy light cruiser which after decommissioning as a static training ship in 2011 opened to the public in Belfast Harbour as a museum on the centenary of the Battle of Jutland in 2016. Afloat adds the light cruiser was built on Merseyside at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, England.
#historicboats - A World War One warship HMS Caroline has been shortlisted for the 2019 Art Fund Museum of the Year award. The Belfast-based vessel reports BBC News will compete against four other UK museums for the prestigious prize, worth…
The restored 137 year-old Gleoiteog, the Lovely Anne, sails to Claddagh Quay during it's re-launch in Galway city. The boat, built in 1882, was restored as part of a community training project between Bádóirí an Cladaig and Galway Hooker 2020.
King of the Claddagh Michael Lynskey (88) and his community took to the Galway waterside at the weekend to welcome home a historic workboat which plied the Atlantic during two world wars writes Lorna Siggins The 8m-long gleoiteog named Lovely Anne has…
Symbol for a voyage – the Salmons Wake logo inscribed on Ilen’s squaresail in the Ted Russell Dock in Limerick
The historic ketch Ilen of Limerick puts to sea again from her home port this weekend at the beginning of a complex 2019 sailing programme which will see the restored ship voyage in July towards southwest Greenland writes W M…
New Date for Golden Oldie Round Ireland Show in Dublin
The unavoidably-postponed show in March by owner-skipper (and restorer) Darryl Hughes, of the classic 1937 43ft Tyrrell of Arklow ketch Maybird’s remarkable achievement in becoming (in 2018) the first gaff-rigged (and oldest) boat to complete the Round Ireland Race, has…

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