Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Work began this week at Oldcourt near Baltimore in West Cork on reconstructing Conor O’Brien’s Saoirse. One of the most remarkable sailing vessels in Irish and world maritime history, the 42ft Saoirse is unique in many ways. W M Nixon…

#Jobs - Waterways Ireland is currently recruiting for an Inspector of Navigation based in Athlone, and an engineer based in Dublin. The Inspector of Navigation will be responsible for a number of strategic work areas, including the monitoring and management…

#Shellfish - Predicting risk and impact of harmful algal bloom events that cause impact to the shellfish aquaculture sector (PRIMROSE) is a new €2.7-million marine science project led by the Marine Institute. The project is funded by the Interreg Atlantic…

#VOR - The Volvo Ocean Race fleet was gearing up to jump on the highway to Hong Kong on Friday (12 January) after returning to the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since mid-November. All seven teams have now crossed…

North Sails, the worldwide leader in sailmaking technology is pioneering a revolution in Dacron sailmaking. For thousands of years, sailcloth has been made by the ancient process of weaving fibers into a finished material. For over 60 years, Woven Polyester…

Time please Ladies and gentlemen. It’s a wrap. Get out. Never quite the latter, no matter how hard we tried, but the 2018 SB20 World Championship of Hobart in Tasmania are now confined to the annals of history writes Ted…

DMYC organiers are studying a dip in entries for its annual Frostbite series. Numbers have dropped significantly from the typical 80 – 90 boats over recent years to 52 this year, 24 of which are Lasers. Despite best efforts to…

#ClipperRace - On Day 7 of Race 6: The Wondrous Whitsundays Race, the Elliot Brown Ocean Sprint has turned into a marathon. Wind holes have halted the progress of the Clipper Race fleet as it battles against the strong East…

#ClipperRace - The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has issued a Safety Bulletin on the “use of safety harness tethers on sailing yachts” following the tragic fatality of GREAT Britain crew member Simon Speirs on Leg 3 of the…

After last year's successful Belfast Lough inaugural staging of the Irish Sailing Youth Pathway National Championships, the regatta stays on the east coast in 2018 with the Irish Sailing announcement today that the event will take place from 5th–8th of…

With 365 days to go until the start of the fourth edition of the Barcelona World Race (12th January 2019), Barcelona’s round the world event has issued the official document containing details of the key rules of the regatta. This…

#MarineScience- The Marine Institute's CEO says the key risk with microbeads is the potential to get into the food chain, eventually getting into products eaten by humans. According to RTÉ where Dr Peter Heffernan was speaking on 'Morning Ireland', the CEO…

#RNLI - In the East Cork lifeboat station’s first callout of 2018, Youghal  RNLI was requested to launch at 1.02pm on Wednesday 10 January to reports of a fishing vessel that was taking on water. The lifeboat proceeded to the…

#HistoricBoats - The bell of S.S. Laurentic, one of the most significant artefacts in local maritime history, will make its return to the Derry this week, following purchase at auction by Derry City and Strabane District Council. The Bell, which…

With a readers poll already showing trends in the Sailor of the Year Award stakes, the ceremony itself is less than a month away.  The past year, in the view of Winkie Nixon, has produced some 'extra-special sailors', and over the…

#Ferry - Across Northern Ireland businesses continue to be disadvantaged by poor road access to their key markets in the UK. Ferry operator Stena Line has raised concerns with local political and business stakeholders to increase the focus and necessity…

Royal Cork Yacht Club Marina has won International Marina of the Year 2018 at the London Boat Show. The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) announced the winners of their prestigious NMU Marina of the Year Awards on Thursday evening (11 January) at the…

Tony McLoughlin, owner and operator of the ketch Brian Ború, recounts an epic series of sail training voyages that took the “fantastic little ship” on a circumnavigation of Ireland last summer The sailing ship Brian Ború is a beautiful wooden-hulled,…

Young French skipper Achille Nebout, sailing Le Reservoir/Mazet & Associase, brilliantly won the 2018 World championship for the SB20 one-design sports boat class on Hobart’s River Derwent. The top Irish performance was 13th from Michael O'Connor of the Royal St.…

Maurice O'Connell of North Sails Ireland will give a talk in the Royal Irish Yacht Club tomorrow night (Fri 12th Jan) on "The 'Embarr' Journey to winning the Melges 24 World Championship"  that recounts his 2016 victory with RIYC skipper…