Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#PortTransfer - Minister for Transport Shane Ross has said the transfer of the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company to local authority control is taking too long, writes The Irish Times. “Dún Laoghaire is certainly the slowest of these ports that will…

#RNLI - At 8.10am this morning (Wednesday 28 December), Bangor RNLI’s volunteer crew responded to a request from HM Coastguard to rescue a young man reported to be in difficulty while swimming 200 metres off the shore in Ballyholme Bay.…

#RNLI - Volunteers from Portaferry RNLI went to the aid of a man who had fallen down a cliff at Ardglass Golf Club on the Co Down coast yesterday (Tuesday 27 December). The Portaferry lifeboat, an inshore Atlantic 85, launched…

While Ireland basks in unusual January sunshine, in the alleged Southern Hemisphere summer the normally picturesque approaches to Hobart in Tasmania have seen dull, damp and drifting conditions for the groups of legendary Australian and international racing machines struggling to…

When I changed tack in my journalistic career and moved, after nearly 30 years from mainstream reporting to specialising in marine matters, I was told by a number of people that I would be “wasting my time” because it was…

Arriving in Hobart at 02:31.20 on Wednesday 28 December, Anthony Bell’s 100-ft Maxi Perpetual LOYAL has set a new race record of 1 day, 13 hours, 31 minutes, 20 seconds at the Rolex Sydney Hobart and in the process secured…

As records tumble in this fastest-ever Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race with Anthony Bell’s line honours-winning hundred footer Perpetual LOYAL taking four hours and fifty-one minutes off the previous best time set by the late Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI, Matt Allen’s…

#SpikeIsland - The burial of a graveyard on Spike Island in the mid-19th century covered up the “death trap” conditions at its Victorian-era prison. That’s according to new research on the site in Cork Harbour, as The Irish Times reports,…

#Missing - RTÉ News reports on the ongoing search for a man in his 50s reported missing in Wicklow Harbour this morning (Tuesday 27 December). Wicklow RNLI, the Irish Coast Guard and gardaí are all involved in the operation that…

Former Howth sailor Gordon Maguire, who began a long and successful relationship with Australian sailing in 1991 when the Irish team won the Southern Cross series, is currently leading overall on IRC in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race 2016, playing the…

#Rowing: On the 15th day of his solo row across the Atlantic, Gavan Hennigan has firmly established himself in third in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. The winds have picked up and he reports some difficulty – “oars trying to…

Records are set to be broken at the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The frontrunners, having negotiated the infamous Bass Strait, are making rapid progress down the east coast of Tasmania on route to the finish in Hobart. At 15:30…

#Rescue - Gardaí and Dublin firefighters rescued a man in his 20s from the River Liffey in Dublin’s Docklands on Christmas morning. According to the Dublin Fire Brigade Twitter account, the man was kept afloat by gardaí with a life…

The 2016 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, featuring an international fleet of 88 yachts – with several key Irish crew involved – commenced at 13:00 local time on a perfect Sydney summer’s day. The combination of excellent weather conditions, the…

British Skipper Alex Thomson has rounded Cape Horn, an infamous milestone in the Vendee Globe, the solo, non-stop, around the world race. Thomson reached Cape Horn today at 11:42 UTC, arriving at the southern tip of Chile in 48d 23hrs…

#Coastguard - Stay Back, Stay High, Stay Dry is the message from the Irish Coast Guard to the public over the Christmas holiday period. Many people will be engaging in outdoor activities along the coastline, be it on exposed coasts,…

#Maritime - ‘Safe and sustainable’ marine transport and ‘delivery of emergency management services’ have been made a high level goal in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s Statement of Strategy 2016-2019, published this week. Identifying Ireland’s maritime sector as…

#TankerDublinBay - Lorna Siggins of the Irish Times writes that seafarers are used to spending Christmas at sea, but one ship’s complement in Irish waters will have a more unusual experience than most. Some 13 crew on board the 129-metre…

With the festivities in full swing and when Storm Barbara moves on many people will take to the nation’s beaches and cliffs to take in the fresh air and clear the cobwebs. This can be a busy time of the…

The 72nd Rolex-Sydney-Hobart gets under way on Monday. The Australian ocean classic is rightly regarded as a tough event. Yet in terms of the sailing challenges its poses, it seems to pale into insignificance when set against the Everest of…