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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Photo shows Excelerate Teeside facility near Middlesborough in the UK when operating
The location proposed for the floating storage and regasification operation which the Texas-based LNG (liquefied natural gas) company, Next Decade, wants to put into Cork Harbour, is to the west of Whitegate Jetty and inside Dognose writes Tom MacSweeney in…
HAL's smallest cruiseship, MS Prinsendem arriving Killybegs,Co. Donegal last Autumn
#cruiseliners - The cruiseship MS Prinsendam which featured on RTE's The Local Eye, will call at Milford Haven, south Wales this weekend as part of a 14-night Irish and Scottish Explorer Cruise from Amsterdam. The 37,000 gross tonnage ship is…
With the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 fleet finally in open water between Land’s End and southwest Ireland, Paul Kavanagh’s classic Swan 44 Pomeroy Swan is doing best of the Irish at fourth overall.
The northwest to north breeze which filled in over the Celtic Sea overnight has refreshed the record Rolex Fastnet race 2017 fleet in every way, and the long beat from Land’s End out to the rock now has many nostalgic…
Lough Derg's Aisling Keller (left) and Aoife Hopkins at the U21 World Championship prizegiving in Belgium
Lough Derg Yacht Club's Aisling Keller took seventh place overall at the under–21 Laser Radial World Championships closely followed by Irish team mate Aoife Hopkins of Howth YC in ninth place overall. The encouraging results achieved at the Nieuwpoort, Belgium venue…
Baltimore’s all-weather lifeboat returning to station after Sunday night’s medevac from Cape Clear Island
#RNLI - Baltimore RNLI carried out a medevac on Sunday night (6 August) for a student on Cape Clear Island off the coast of West Cork. The volunteer lifeboat crew were tasked to launch their all-weather lifeboat at 10.11pm to…
Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey sailing for Team GB (second from left) took a podium finish at the 49erFX Euro Championships
Sailing for Ireland in Rio but switching to Team GB for Tokyo, Dun Laoghaire sailor Saskia Tidey has notched up a string of top results in her firstseason with scottish helmswoman Charlotte Dobson. Last week the Royal Irish Yacht Club…
A fresh new nor’wester brought Tom Dolan to the finish last night at les Sables d’Olonne of Stage 2 of the Transgascogne 2107. But the northeast to east breezes during yesterday had been more to his advantage, and at one stage he was leading by better than six miles.
The arrival earlier than expected of a fresh nor’wester in the Bay of Biscay in the final approaches to Les Sables d’Olonne at the finish of Stage 2 of Transgascogne 2017 last night put paid to Ireland’s Tom Dolan’s chances…
Tom Dolan in Aviles, coming to terms with missing the podium by one second
With just 19 miles to the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne tonight, Ireland’s solo sailor Tom Dolan is currently leading the Mini 650 Class in Stage 2 of the Transgascogne 2017 from Aviles in northwest Spain writes W M Nixon.…
In most classic offshore races, at some stage a Cookson 50 will seem to come out of nowhere and give bigger boats a fright. This is the American Cookson 50 Privateer, which was going like an express train as she closed towards Land’s End and a group of 60-footers at noon today. As evening draws on, she is still giving them a hard time.
The Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 fleet leader, the MOD 70 trimaran Concise 10 owned by Tony Lawson and skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, rounded the Fastnet Rock at 15.18hrs this afternoon in a nor’west breeze writes W M Nixon. But…
Stephen Tudor's Sgrech who carried the same spinnaker for the entire race, and only gybed three times was the IRC winner
With many ISORA boat competing in the Fastnet race, a smaller than normal fleet of ten came to the start line in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday 5th August, with useful points in all three classes up for grabs writes Mark Thompson.…
David Kenefick managed to get the mast back on board the Class 40 boat before heading into Weymouth
Royal Cork David Kenefick's Fastnet Race ambitions lie in ruins this evening after a dismasting on his class 40 entry.  It's a disappointing outcome because Kenefick was in the mix in the top five of the ultra competitive Class 40…
Etchells racing on the Solent
Another top result for Royal Cork's Mark Mansfield in the Etchells Class this week as he took a podium in Cowes Week, racing as tactician,with Robert Drake. Counting three race wins in the 7 race series they finished with a…
Offshore Academy 21 sailed by Joan Mulloy and Cathal Clarke from Ireland
Overnight the fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race has been made solid progress upwind, tacking on shifts and dipping in and out of the land according to whether or not the tide is favourable. At 0900 Tony Lawson's MOD 70…
Ireland was to the fore at the UK Laser Nationals in Abersoch, North Wales
Current Youth Sailing Champion Ewan McMahon may be in the superstar role in Irish junior sailing, but the Sutton, County Dublin family who sail out of Howth Yacht Club have a new wave of talent coming along. This was shown…
Donegal's John & Donal McGuinness from Moville Sailing Club lie sixth at the GP14 British Nationals in Cornwall
The GP14 British Nationals got underway yesterday at Looe in Cornwall and two Sutton Dinghy Club crews on the start line. Traditionally the first day sees a practice race followed by the first of nine Championship races. Hugh Gill &…
When the going wasn’t so good. Tom Dolan making the best of light airs approaching Aviles at the end of Stage 1, when he lost third place by one second
Ireland’s Mini Transat entrant Tom Dolan has had to make some tough tactical decision in the 245-mile Stage 2 from Aviles in Spain back to les Sables d’Olonne in the Mini Transgascone 2017 writes W M Nixon. Although an anticipated…
Rambler 88 – after a slow rounding of Land’s End, she has found better speeds close-reaching along the eastern edge of the Traffic Separation Zone off west Cornwall, and is leading the monohulls on the water and resumed climbing the ranks in IRC handicap.
After beating every inch of the way down the English Channel from yesterday’s spectacular start in the Solent, Rolex Fastnet Race mono-hull leader on the water Rambler 88 (George David) has this morning been facing lighter airs and much slowed…
The bearded seal has allegedly taken up residence at the Timoleague estuary for the last two months
#MarineWildlife - Wildlife watchers have been baffled by the sighting of an Arctic seal in West Cork, as the Irish Examiner reports. Bearded seals, marked by their pale pelt and distinctive long whiskers, are usually found between the far north…
Lough Derg RNLI approaching a grounded cruiser at the Goat Road on Friday evening
#RNLI - At 11.36am yesrerday (Sunday August 6), Lough Derg RNLI were diverted from exercise after a motorboat fouled its propellers on a line and suffered engine failure. The 25ft boat with six people on board was reported to be…
A record-sized fleet of 368 boats started the race, 12 more than two years ago, confirming the Rolex Fastnet Race's position as the world's largest offshore yacht race.
Following months of meticulous preparation for crews and organisers alike, a record-breaking edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race is underway and in some style. The largest fleet in the race’s 92-year history, comprising 368 yachts from 29 countries, were treated…

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