Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

After 49 days on the water, Irishman Gavan Hennigan completed the 5,000km Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in style as he broke Irish and International Ocean Rowing Records. As Afloat.iereported earlier, the solo rower bravely held off the challenge of a…

#MarineScience - The Explorers Education Programme has recently launched a free continuous professional development (CPD) course for primary school teachers in the West of Ireland, which can be carried out during Croke Park hours. The new CPD course provides an…

#Brexit - Marine Minister Michael Creed yesterday (Wednesday 1 February) hosted a sectoral dialogue focused on the seafood sector and the potential impacts it could face from Brexit. Opening the dialogue, Minister Creed highlighted the importance of ensuring that the…

#Weather - Batten down the hatches: the West of Ireland is in for a windy one this coming Monday night (5 February). The latest maps from Dark Sky show a large weather mass of high winds barrelling across the Atlantic…

Cowes Week, organisers of one of the world's best-known sailing regattas, have announced the introduction of a new big boat race series, the Cowes Week Triple Crown. The new Cowes Week Triple Crown will be a regatta within a regatta:…

#Rowing: Gavan Hennigan traversed the finish line in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge tonight and marked himself out as a record breaker. The 35-year-old Galway man took 49 days to complete the row from La Gomera in the Canaries to…

The latest photos of the restoration work on Ireland's only remaining Sail–Trader Ilen reveal wonderful new Larch planked bulwarks are begining to embrace the 56–ft sailing ketch. They will be expected to shoulder many an Atlantic sea, according to Gary MacMahon, of…

#Rowing: After 5,000 kilometres of rowing, Gavan Hennigan is in a race to the line in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The three men of American Oarsmen are finishing fast, hoping to take third from the Irishman in the row…

I visited my Sigma 33, appropriately named SCRIBBLER – II to be particular, as there was a previous incarnation, a Ruffian 23, which proudly bore SCRIBBLER 1. My visit was to check her out, see how she was surviving the…

#Offshore - A giant private yacht has broken the record for the most southerly navigation, reaching 78°43.997’ S and 163°41.421’ W at the Bay of Whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. The World, a 43,188-ton yacht with 272 crew and carrying…

#ArklowThames - This week Afloat reported on stories from the Strait of Dover and it is on the other side of the Kent coast that a new ship, part of the Arklow Shipping fleet was until yesterday at anchorage, writes…

World Sailing's headquarters will relocate from Southampton to central London, UK in late summer 2017. The selection of London as the new home for the International Federation comes after an extensive evaluation process of possible locations undertaken since the election…

Otto Glaser of Howth Yacht Club, who has died at the age of 90, had been closely and personally affected by much of the trauma engulfing 20th Century Europe. Yet he emerged as the embodiment of a civilised, cultured and…

Guinness World Records has today confirmed that organisers of the Southampton Boat Show 2016, together with hundreds of visitors and exhibitors, have successfully beaten the world record for the ‘largest human image of a boat’. The previous record of 323…

Glandore Classic Boat Regatta celebrates its 25th anniversary this July with a Parade of Sail that will feature the fully restored AK Ilen, Ireland's sole surviving Sail Trader. There will be four days of first class racing, with eight different…

#Scotline – Scotline the short-sea timber products operator recently took a time-charter of Lady Ariane which berthed in Wicklow Port today, writes Jehan Ashmore. The box shaped singledecker had sailed from the Swedish port of Varberg. The Scandinavian port that…

#Jobs - The Marine Institute requires a laboratory analyst to provide support to a two-year research project investigating norovirus, hepatitis A virus, hepatitis E virus and sapovirus concentrations in oysters. The work will primarily involve laboratory based detection of the…

#Galway - Irish Water Safety in engaged in talks with Galway City Council over the possibility of reinstating the liferaft at BlackrockDiving Tower. Councillors last year rejected proposals to replace the amenity after a poor health and safety assessment in…

#Piracy - Offshore cruisers are urged to be vigilant as the latest figures show a rise in sea kidnappings despite a global decrease in piracy. Practical Boat Owner has more on a recent report from the ICC’s International Maritime Bureau…

#ShipSnapshot – Lady Adriane berthed at Wicklow Port this morning in the wake of another short-sea trader, the 89m Bounder which at the weekend was loaded with scrap metal, writes Jehan Ashmore. It was a busy scene as trucks shuttled…