Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

470 Olympic helmsman Ger Owens, sailing under the Swords Saliing Club burgee, continued his winning run in the GP14 Autumn Open at the weekend when he topped the 19–boat Autumn Open event sailed for the first time in Cork Harbour. The…

The International 12 foot and DBSC 12 foot dinghy Irish championships were scheduled, as reported earlier on Afloat.ie, for Dun Laoghaire for the weekend of 10th September 2017. However, the weather forecast was very poor, so, the Royal St. George…

#MarineWildlife - The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has expressed its dismay at another record year for cetacean standings around the Irish coast. The first eight months of 2017 alone have seen 201 recorded strandings - up 30% compared…

#Alert - Ballycastle was put on alert yesterday afternoon (Saturday 16 September) as a Second World War-era mine washed up on the Co Antrim beach, according to the Belfast Telegraph. British Army technical officers performed a controlled explosion of the…

BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Fiddly Bits (Timmins/Quigley/Murray/Breen), 2. Crazy Horse (F Heath & I Schuster), 3. Attitude (Milner Sugars Owens)  BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Prospect (Chris Johnston), 2. Crazy Horse (F Heath & I Schuster), 3. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power) CRUISERS 0…

Yesterday's disruption to normal service at the Fireball National Championships, when Neil Coiln & Margaret Casey won the last race of the day, was eradicated by an authoritarian performance by Noel Butler and Simon Revill when they took all four…

#VisitOnboard - Afloat took the opportunity to visit on board Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) Magellan during a recent call to Dublin Port, writes Jehan Ashmore. Upon embarking the gangway it was pleasing to see crew members giving a fresh…

#MarineWildlife - This weekend Dublin Port is deploying data buoys in Dublin Bay to monitor marine wildlife activity during the controversial dredging works at Alexandra Basin. According to The Irish Times, the four boys will provide live data on any…

#RNLI - Skerries RNLI launched on Thursday evening (14 September) after the Irish Coast Guard received a number of calls reporting a vessel on fire north of Balbriggan. The lifeboat was tasked with volunteer Conor Walsh at the helm and…

The death has occurred unexpectedly in Cork of one of the most respected figures in boat building in Pat Lake, who led Castlepoint Boatyard in Crosshaven for many years before his retirement a decade ago. Pat had been a major…

Three races at the Fireball National Championships have been completed at Lough Derg Yacht Club yesterday in a breeze that peaked at 15 knots and bottomed out at 6 knots from 330° for most of the day writes Cormac Bradley.…

Winds ranging from 5 knots to 27 knots provided a thorough test of competitors at this year's Coutts Quarter Ton Cup. Few teams were able to maintain consistent performance across such a wide range of conditions and for most it…

In the days when sailing was a seasonal sport, a few main pillar events dominated the international programme. The Sailing Olympics. The America’s Cup. The Fastnet Race. The Dragon Gold Cup. The Sydney-Hobart Race. The Whitbread Round the World Race.…

#Tourism - The Port of Cork, Bantry Bay Port Company and the Royal Cork Yacht Club are joining forces to promote marine leisure in Cork at the Southampton Boat Show. The three organisations are in attendance at Stand J047 from…

#Rowing: Ireland will send a very big team to the World Coastal Rowing Championships in Thonon in France from October 13th to 15th.  Twenty-three crews from nine clubs will represent the country. The top contender for honours is Monika Dukarska…

#MarineWildlife - An “extremely rare” pod of minke whales has been sighted in the Irish Sea off the Isle of Man this week. According to BBC News, the pod comprising as many as 20 minke whales was engaged in a…

#MarineNotice - The latest Marine Notice from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS) advises of the decommissioning of the wave energy test site in Galway Bay. The decommissioning of the Marine Institute's wave energy site will involve the removal…

#TradeNews - Offshore yachting great Alex Thomson was on hand to unveil Beneteau’s new Oceanis 51.1 at the Southampton Boat Show this morning (Friday 15 September). The most eagerly awaited Oceanis launch in a decade, the 51.1 sets up a…

#ports&shipping - Record operating profits at the Port of Waterford amounted to €964,000 for the first six months of this year, up substantially from the same period in 2016. Turnover at the company increased by 21% to €3.8m for the…

#ports&shipping - Mr. Adrian O'Neill the recently appointed Ambassador of Ireland to the UK hosted a joint reception with the Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) on Wednesday during London International Shipping Week, writes Jehan Ashmore. The IMDO which is the…