Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
2018 will be a stand out year for the Irish SB20 class with the and European Championships taking place in Dublin Bay at the end of August. Club racing will continue next summer in both Dublin Bay and on Lough…
Dun Laoghaire Waterfront To Host ‘Ireland’s Largest Innovation Campus’
27th October 2017 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
#DLHarbour - Reservations are now being taken for co-working spaces on Dun Laoghaire’s waterfront at what’s being touted as ‘Ireland’s largest innovation campus’. As many as 1,000 workers will benefit from the facilities at the Harbour Innovation Campus at St…
#Offshore - Two women have been rescued in the Pacific Ocean after a dream voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti turned into a months-long nightmare, as RTÉ News reports. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba set out five months ago on their…
World's Largest Ro-Ro Freight Ferry Completes Maiden Voyage from Continental Europe to Dublin Port
27th October 2017 Dublin Port
#WorldLargest - An historic milestone in Dublin Port took place late last night as Celine, the world’s largest short-sea ro-ro freight ferry completed a commercial maiden voyage from mainland continental Europe, writes Jehan Ashmore. On arrival from Zeebrugge, Belgium, a…
Last weekend, six Irish Optimist Sailors participated in the The Hague Optimist Cup 2017 in Scheveningen in the Netherlands. The event was the test event for the 2018 European Optimist Championships, Team Ireland, composed of Leah Rickard, Nathan van Steeberge,…
An 'independent external' investigation into Saturday's Irish Sailing Optimist performance squad incident during Storm Brian at Dun Laoghaire is underway. According to a statement on the association website last night, Irish Sailing President Jack Roy and CEO Harry Hermon have appointed Philip…
#Canoeing: Ireland's Jenny Egan finished third in the canoe marathon World Cup race over 26.2 kilometres in Shanghai today. This was the final race of the International Canoe Federation series in Shaoxing and Shanghai. Egan took a silver and a…
Marine Notice: Offshore Survey Operations For ‘Celtic Interconnector’ Project
26th October 2017 Coastal Notes
#MarineNotice - The survey vessel Kommandor Iona is conducting offshore survey operations associated with the proposed Celtic Interconnector, on behalf of EirGrid. As with last month’s nearshore survey, the current works are in two main corridors to three landfall points…
Giant Freight-Ferry Fuels Fears Holyhead Port Could be Bypassed After Brexit
26th October 2017 Ferry
#GiantFerries - The world’s largest ferry which is to arrive on a Dublin to continental Europe route writes The Daily Post has sparked post Brexit fears over trade at Holyhead port. The 234m ro-ro freight ferry Celine as reported on…
#Canoeing: Jenny Egan took bronze at the canoe marathon World Cup in Shanghai in China. Kristina Bedek of Serbia won the 3.6 kilometre K1 race, with Lizzie Broughton of Britain and Egan filling the next two slots in a close…
Coastguard Helicopter Operators Warned Over Lifejacket Beacon Issues Years Before Rescue 116 Tragedy
26th October 2017 Coastguard
#Rescue116 - Lifejackets worn by the crew of the downed Rescue 116 were not fit for purpose — and the operators of Ireland’s coastguard rescue helicopter service knew five years beforehand. That’s according to a report set to be broadcast…
#VOR - Vestas 11th Hour Racing were the first team of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to round Porto Santo in the early hours of this morning (Thursday 26 October), beginning the home stretch of Leg 1 to Lisbon. But…
United Nations Marine Safety Agency To Examine Disposal Of Fibreglass Yachts & Boats
25th October 2017 Tom MacSweeney
The International Maritime Organisation, that’s the United Nations agency for safety at sea, has acknowledged, the first time this has been publicised, that a large number of abandoned or no-longer usable fibreglass vessels - including fishing vessels and leisure craft…
Dun Laoghaire Optimist Training Incident – The Young People Must Be Our First Priority
25th October 2017 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
W M Nixon on the aftermath of Saturday's Optimist dinghy training incident during Storm Brian. “A boat, by God, it’s just a gleamin’ beautiful creation. And when you pull the sail up on a boat, you’ve got a little bit…
If you had to be in a 35-footer as the remaining fleet in the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2017 negotiated those foul gale-and-backwash conditions off the huge cliffs of northwest Sicily earlier this week, then the JPK10.80 would have been…
Middle Sea Race: Cobh's Barry Hurley Steers Xp-ACT Home as First Maltese Boat to Finish
25th October 2017 Middle Sea Race
The first Maltese boat home in the Middle Sea Race was Josef Schultheis and Timmy Camilleri’s Xp-ACT with Ireland's Cork Harbour Sailor Barry Hurley on board, completing the offshore race after just over three and a half days a sea…
World's Largest Ro-Ro Freight Ferry Completes Delivery Voyage to Europe Prior to Dublin Debut
25th October 2017 Dublin Port
#WorldLargest - As Afloat.ie reported on Monday, the World's largest ro-ro freight ferry is to make a maiden call to Dublin Port however the giant newbuild made a debut call to Rotterdam yesterday following a delivery voyage, writes Jehan Ashmore.…
Ireland’s Damian Foxall & Crewmates Find Tricky Conditions in Leading Volvo Ocean Race
25th October 2017 Ocean Race
The favourable east to southeast winds which carried the seven Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018 contenders so positively through the Straits of Gibralter and into the Atlantic are already a fading memory writes W M Nixon. The leaders – with Vestas…
#Angling - Three new angling bye-laws have been introduced in the Eastern River Basin District by Minister of State with responsibility for Inland Fisheries, Sean Kyne. Conservation of Coarse Fish and Pike Dundalk District (Lough Muckno) Bye-law No 950, 2017…
#MarineScience - Transition Year pupils from Coláiste Croí Mhuire in Spiddal learned recently that a tracking drifter device they were using to measure the surface currents of Galway Bay before it was lost ended up off the coast of Scotland,…