Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#VOR - Team AkzoNobel’s brand new Volvo Ocean 65 has made the 2,000km journey from Persico Marine in Italy to The Boatyard in Lisbon. Staff at the state-of-the-art facility, which began work on the rest of the fleet last October,…

The keener Irish owners of classic wooden yachts with performance potential are already finalising plans for an interesting season writes W M Nixon. In it, their judiciously-chosen programme will include enough races against other classics to give a sense of…

#MonacoCeremony - Prince Albert II of Monaco attended Silversea Cruises christening ceremony of their new flagship Silver Muse in the principality, before a pre-inaugural cruise to Greece begins next week, writes Jehan Ashmore. As previously reported, Afloat had identified Silver…

There was such a cascade of results from the 190-boat, 208 -ailor Irish Youth Sailing Pathway Nationals at Ballyholme Yacht Club at the weekend that fully analysing the results every which way can go on for as long as you…

This summer, a new format for the Nord Stream Race brings together some of the most high-achieving yacht clubs from the National Sailing Leagues: Starting on 25th August, the Baltic Sea’s best clubs to emerge from the 2016 season of…

#Lancer - The Marine Institute has posted video of the successful launch of the unmanned yacht Lancer in the Atlantic this past weekend. The miniature marine research vessel was released from the RV Celtic Explorer on Saturday 22 April in…

#BiosphereTours – Dublin Bay Biosphere Guided Tours begin today from Dun Laoghaire Harbour, Dublin and Howth and on every Wednesday until 14 June, writes Jehan Ashmore. Dublin Bay which is internationally recognised for its wealth of marine wildlife and cultural…

August's Rolex Fastnet Race remains on track for a record-sized fleet. Currently 390 boats are entered: 338 competing for the main IRC handicap prize; the remainder racing for their own trophies in the Class40, IMOCA 60, Volvo Ocean 65 and…

Over 500 yachts are taking part in the 2017 RORC Season's Points Championship. Over 5000 sailors from all over the world will race in the biggest offshore sailing competition in the world. While this year the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race…

The Lower Aghada pontoon has been reinstalled for the coming boating season in Cork Harbour. Local community efforts in Aghada in 2011 led to an upgrade in the underused and deteriorating pier. It is now a popular Cork Harbour destination…

The biggest round-the-world ocean race is to return to Liverpool with the start and finish of this unique global challenge moving from the capital back to the River Mersey on the tenth anniversary of its last partnership with the region.…

Last night's opening race in the DBSC summer season was abandoned due to strong northerly winds on Dublin Bay. Unfortunately, it was a predictable outcome given earlier forecasts had suggested the prospect of wind in excess of 25 knots by…

It’s launching time at Castlepoint Boatyard at Crosshaven in Cork Harbour where I keep SCRIBBLER II. That’s my Sigma 33, named rather appropriately for a journalist/scribe, as I’ve been told. The first SCRIBBLER was a Ruffian 23, much sailed and…

Three Irish Laser sailors are in the middle of the fleet as round two of the 2017 World Cup Series in Hyères, France began today for 541 sailors in ten Olympic classes writes Nathaniel Ogden. After “one good race and one…

Online boat insurer, Craftinsure.ie, is to provide €5,000,000 Third Party liability insurance as standard across it’s full range of policies, covering craft from racing dinghies to motor cruisers, and yachts to RIBS. The current limit is €3,000,000 any one event.The…

#RecordGrowth - Limerick and Foynes both key ports of Shannon Foynes Port Company have reaffirmed the company’s strong performance and contribution to the regional economy in 2016 with growth of 11.4% in year on year tonnages. For the second successive…

Ballyholme Yacht Club has released a video of all the weekend action from Bangor Bay, the largest entry ever for the ISA youth national championships. Read our full report here and see the latest video moments below: 

Six relatively light wind races completed at Howth Yacht Club gave Charles Dwyer and his crew Nin O'Leary and Richie the overall win of the inaugural six–boat National 18s Eastern Championships in Dwyer's new boat. A tie break behind them saw…

#Cementships - A cement cargoship due to dock in Dublin Port today from Runcorn on the Manchester Ship Canal is where until the early 1990’s Guinness imported to the UK using their own stout tankers, writes Jehan Ashmore. That trade…

#RNLI - Bangor RNLI’s volunteers launched the inshore lifeboat Jessie Hillyard yesterday evening (Monday 24 April) to reports of a missing three-year-old in the vicinity of the Jamaica Inn. Setting off in big breaking seas and a Force 8 gusting…