Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#ferry - The hull of Brittany Ferries’ brand new LNG-powered cruiseferry Honfleur for English Channel service, was today given a traditional ship launching ceremony at the FSG shipyard in Flensburg, Germany. At midday, hundreds of well-wishers, invited guests, shipyard workers…

#Ports&Shipping- Three shipbuilding teams in the UK, according to a Ministry of Defence statement, have been awarded multi-million-pound contracts to push ahead with plans to build five new Type 31e warships for the Royal Navy.  The announcement from the British…

Waterways Ireland’s YouTube channel is this week featuring a series of ‘Stories from the Waterways’ highlighting various community groups and cottage industries that have made the most of their local environment close to Ireland’s canals, lakes and rivers. The first…

The Royal Irish Yacht Club will hold its Annual Charity Race on Sunday 30th December 2018 In aid of the RNLI Lifeboat Service, the warning signal for the keelboat race is 10.55.  Prizes will be awarded to first, second and…

2019 will be a year which will mark the 50th anniversary of the Figaro class, a class now recognised as the top level that there is in offshore sailing. And as Afloat.ie has been reporting from the Paris Boat Show, it's…

Peter Beamish's National Championship winning Beneteau 31.7 'Camira' from the Royal Irish Yacht Club is an early entry into next July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta that already has a strong uptake in overseas entries from the UK, Wales, Scotland, Isle of…

#ferry - The Scottish ferryroute Gourock to Dunoon on the Clyde will transfer to CalMac when the current contract ends next month, becoming part of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services network. As InverclydeNow writes, from 21 January, CalMac will…

#ferry -Cruiseferry WB Yeats, which was originally scheduled to begin Dublin-France operations almost five months ago, is expected to dock in the capital next week, Irish Ferries has said. As The Irish Times writes, the shipping company cancelled 6,000 bookings…

#Ports&Shipping - Irish exporters reports RTE, have called for an urgent intensification of no-deal contingency planning by the government and the EU in the face of heightened uncertainty around Brexit. The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) has warned that the risk…

This 64 page full colour A4 magazine includes a review of 20187 plus all the details for 2019 Afloat and all your latest sailing news in time for Christmas! BUY IT HERE! Order your copy at €8 plus €3.10 shipping…

Handicaps and Starts for next's final race of the DBSC Turkey Shoot have been published to set up what organiser Fintan Cairns predicts will be a 'very interesting finish'. As Afloat.ie readers will know, the National Yacht Club J109 Jalapeno…

#Shannon - A €35m revolutionary floating data centre in Limerick Docks is being planned in a move which could create 124 jobs. As The Limerick Leader writes the city has beaten a number of locations across Europe to the investment,…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The last race of the Winter League ended the sailing season in Cork Harbour ….. Around the country, December racing, for those still with the ability and determination…

#ferry -The Irish Sea port of Heysham on the UK west coast has won the Project of the Year Award. The Award which was announced at the Peel Ports Group annual conference, reflected the work managed by the port teams…

Warrenpoint Port will no longer pursue proposals to change how it deals with dredged material. Authorities at the Port had been considering the feasibility of a new placement site in the mouth of Carlingford Lough between Cranfield Point and Greencastle.…

The winter evenings are dark, Christmas is coming and the long hot summer of 2018 has passed. While personally, I am already looking forward to the 2019 season, there are many sailors still enjoying racing in various winter leagues around…

#Rowing: The Afloat Rower of the Year 2018 is Sanita Puspure. The Old Collegians competitor proved herself the best single sculler in the world. She took silver at the World Cup regattas in Belgrade and Lucerne, running the defending champion,…

The J109 'Jalapeno' of Barrington, Despard and O’Sullivan from the National Yacht Club has a five-point lead going into the final race of the Citroen South Dublin sponsored DBSC Turkey Shoot Series this Sunday.  The NYC crew who were second overall…

The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) and Sport Ireland Institute today announced a ground-breaking, athlete centred partnership agreement for performance support delivery for the period 2018-2022. The OFI and Sport Ireland also announced that Fukuroi City in Japan will host…

Marine Minister Creed has welcomed the announcement of over €5 million in funding for marine and agri-food projects under the Government’s Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund. The inaugural funding call, announced yesterday (Monday 10 December) by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Innovation…