Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
#LoughNeagh - Friends of the Earth (FoE) is appealing a ruling against its claims that Stormont is “turning a blind eye” to sand dredging in Lough Neagh, as the News Letter reports. The environmental group brought the issue before the…
#DryDockings – A former Irish Sea ferry Stena Nordica that served the busy Dublin-Holyhead service has returned albeit deputising as routine ships undergo annual winter dry-docking, writes Jehan Ashmore. Stena Nordica (2000/24,206grt) as relief ferry for the operator’s Irish Sea…
#MarineWildlife - Whale watchers off the Sunny South East believed they’ve photographed Ireland’s first humpback whale sighting of 2017, as TheJournal.ie reports. South Coast Charter Angling skipper Martin Colfer was out with photographer Myles Carroll yesterday (Wednesday 4 January) when…
#FuelTerminal - Applegreen, a forecourt retailer has agreed to pay €15.7m to buy a 50pc stake in a fuel terminal at Dublin Port. The Joint Fuel Terminal writes The Irish Independent is currently equally owned by Valero Energy (Ireland) and…
Dún Laoghaire Harbour Facilities for Cruiseships to Be Subject of Court Appeal
5th January 2017 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
#CruiseBerth - The Irish Times writes that a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s decision to approve facilities for cruiseships in Dún Laoghaire Harbour will be sought in the High Court on Thursday. The campaign group Save our Seafront, which…
London and Rio Olympic 49er crew Matt McGovern is moving to the position of helmsman in a new campaign for Tokyo 2020. Ballyholme Yacht Club (BYC) say the Belfast Lough star, who split from sailing partner Ryan Seaton at the…
ISA Youth Champs Head North to Ballyholme Yacht Club For The First Time
4th January 2017 Youth Sailing
Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough in Northern Ireland will host its first ISA Youth Sailing Pathway National Championships incorporating the first leg of the IODAI 2017 Optimist Trials in April. The event will be hosted from Thursday 20th to…
The IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran will this evening complete the first half of the round the world voyage. It will be around 1800hrs UTC that they will have sailed the 11,160 theoretical miles representing half of the total distance between Ushant…
Nicole Hemeryck is Afloat.ie 'Youth Sailor of the Month' for December
4th January 2017 Sailor of the Month
With a 7th overall in the mega-large fleet at the KBC Laser Worlds in Dun Laoghaire in July followed by December’s 9th overall in World Sailing’s Aon Youth Sailing Worlds in Auckland, Nicole Hemeryck – who turned 18 in December…
For months now, Enda O Coineen’s campaign in the Vendee Globe with the veteran IMOCA 60 Kilcullen Voyage has captured public imagination as the resilient 60-year-old lone sailor has battled the challenge of a lifetime in the most demanding sailing…
#Rowing: He has new rivals for his placing, but Gavan Hennigan remains in the top three of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Facing It, a South African trio have taken over from American Oarsmen, also a trio, in fourth place.…
Campaigners Public Meeting To Discuss Proposed Development at Dalkey’s Bulloch Harbour
4th January 2017 Dublin Bay
#BullochHarbour - Concerned residents and marine users of Bulloch Harbour, Dalkey, Co. Dublin are to hold a public meeting tomorrow (Thurs. Jan.5th) over a proposed mixed development at a sensitive coastal site of the former premises of Western Marine, writes…
#CorkFloatel -The first floating hotel and restaurant in Ireland writes the Evening Echo is being planned for Cork's city centre quays. The backers of the project have secured a 100-metre luxury cruise vessel that they plan to permanently moor at Penrose…
Afloat.ie, the Irish sailing, boating and maritime website, has reached another high water mark in 2016 informing and entertaining a larger boating audience than ever before. Based on site analytics, Afloat.ie readership was up 30 per cent on 2015 with…
Dublin Port's 'Starboard Home' Concert Draws Inspiration From River Liffey
4th January 2017 Seascapes
Hello and welcome aboard this week’s edition of your maritime programme Seascapes, we feature part one of Starboard Home a commission by Dublin Port Company drawing inspiration from the River Liffey and the port which was held in The National…
It was ice on the rigging which put me off sailing in November and December. That was quite a few years ago, but as climate change has had its effects, those months have had different weather patterns and this year…
One of the most noted sailing figures in Northern Ireland, Sir Dennis Faulkner died peacefully at his home close along the shore beside the hidden waters of Ringhaddy Sound in Strangford Lough at the age of 90 on New Year’s…
Who gets your vote as Afloat Sailor of the Year 2016? The past year, in the view of Winkie Nixon, was quite possibly the greatest ever season for Irish watersports, and over the past 12 months we have picked out 22 individual sailors…
To say that Michel Dufour was a pioneer in European cruiser-racer development during the 1960s is under-stating the case. The La Rochelle-based builder and designer fairly exploded on the scene, first with the 21ft 9ins Sylph in 1964, and then…
Enda O'Coineen: 'The Self-Steering Went Out of Control at a Critical Time'
3rd January 2017 Vendee Globe
Ireland's Vendee Globe entrant Enda O'Coineen is shaken after being dismasted and struggling to get back to New Zealand with no engine (a rope around the prop), it means he could be many days to get in range for a…
