Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

UKSA are delighted to once again be offering their Test the Water programme to all Isle of Wight Year 6 students. Children from across the Isle of Wight will be invited to spend half a day at UKSA with their…

Six months to go and fifty one teams from fourteen nations are already signed up to compete against Irish world champion Conor Clarke and his Embarr crew. The Royal Irish Yacht Club crew will race at the 2017 Melges 24…

#CoastalNotes - An unusual vessel that washed up in Co Sligo at the weekend has been traced thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic – to Cuba. According to BBC News, Gordon Fallis was walking his dogs on the beach near…

Boat owners, shipping companies and anyone who puts out to sea are being informed about a change in some of the VHF channel numbers used to contact UK Coastguard. As a result of changes to Appendix 18 (Marine VHF) of…

#LoughDerg - Two years after Lough Derg Marina sold for more than three times its guide price, another marina on the third-largest lake on the island of Ireland has come on the market. As The Irish Times reports, more than…

#Rowing - Just days after completing his 5,000km solo row across the Atlantic, Gavan Hennigan has taken control of Ireland’s national Twitter account for a week. On Monday 6 February, Hennigan — who normally tweets @soulogav — was given the…

#DryDockClosure - The largest dry dock in the State and the last remaining working dry-dock (No. 2) in Dublin Port is to close marking an end of an era of our maritime heritage, writes Jehan Ashmore. The 200m dry dock…

There are photographs on marine animal welfare websites which show the awful horror and terrible suffering which balloon and lantern releases into the air have caused to marine wildlife. If you saw or see them, you would never again let…

This month sees Conor Fogerty of Howth Yacht Club, preparing for one of the most prestigious and demanding solo ocean races in the international yachting calendar.  The latest instalment of the OSTAR (Original Solo Transatlantic Race), commences on 29th May…

#Rowing: The Afloat Rower of the month for January is Gavan Hennigan. The Galway man set a new Irish record for a solo row across the Atlantic ocean. He crossed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in…

#Rowing: Sarah Keane of Swim Ireland will get the rowing vote in the election for president of the Olympic Council of Ireland. The Rowing Ireland board chose Keane on the basis that she will address the governance problems which have…

#Lecture - "2016 Offshore Racing in France-A Steep Learning Curve" -An illustrated lecture by Solo Offshore Sailor Tom Dolan is to take place on Thursday 16 February at 20:00hrs. The venue for the Glenua & Friends organised lecture series as…

The boat community has a significant proportion of formerly hundred-per-cent sailing enthusiasts who have reached the stage in life where they accept that their needs might be better met by an able motoryacht writes W M Nixon But it mustn’t…

The works of the acclaimed Belgian artist Eugeen Van Mieghem will go on display to Irish audiences for the first time this week, when a major new exhibition opens at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane on Thursday, 9th February…

#MarineWildlife - The Seal Rescue Centre in Courtown is appealing for new sponsors to fund supplies for the marine wildlife in its care, as the Gorey Guardian reports. The sanctuary recently took on its first sponsor in Gorey’s Amber Springs…

#RailSail – The Port of Larne has the only integrated railway and ferry terminal on the island of Ireland, unlike Irish Rail's operated Rosslare Europort, writes Jehan Ashmore. In more recent times the Rosslare Harbour railway platform was relocated away…

Inland Navigations of Ireland Historical Society are holding a One Day Conference in March on the Limerick Navigation. Speakers on the day include Dr Joachim Fischer who will talk about the Construction of Ardnacrusha and Brian Goggin on 'Killaloe an Open…

#OmeyIsland - Omey Island’s last resident has died, as Galway Bay FM reports. Retired stuntman Pascal Whelan was found at his home on Saturday (5 February) after a long illness, bringing to an end centuries of continuous habitation on the…

When Kaitlyn Dow of Waterford High School in Connecticut put a shout–out through Afloat.ie last September for people to look out for her unmanned yacht off the Galway coast, little did she realise she would be travelling across the Atlantic to meet…

Larne RNLI launched their all-weather lifeboat Dr John McSparron last night (Sunday 5 February) to evacuate a casualty having medical difficulties onboard a 160m bulk carrier vessel. The volunteer lifeboat crew launched the lifeboat at 10pm following a request by…