Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#Offshore - Alan Hannon’s Reichel-Pugh 45 Katsu has emerged best of the three Irish entrants at fifth overall in the 400-mile RORC Cowes-Wolf Rock-Ile d’Ouessant (Ushant)-St Malo Race, which started on Sunday 14 August in the Solent to round out…

#MarineWildlife - Holidaymakers on the Loop Head Peninsula sprang into action to rescue two common dolphins stranded on a nearby beach, as the Irish Examiner reports. Visitors staying at Doonaha's Green Acres caravan park used buckets of water to keep…

#CruiseFirsts - Irish Sea port of Barrow-in-Furness, operated by Associated British Ports / ABP Ports welcomed the largest cruise vessel ever to call to the Cumbrian port in north-west England.  MS Braemar became the second cruiseship to visit Barrow in…

#Squib - Poor weather forecast for this weekend has prompted Kinsale Yacht Club to postpone the scheduled Squib Nationals till 1-2 October. Seven races had been planned for the Old Head of Kinsale and the Sovereign Islands in what would…

Northern Ireland's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern gave themselves a great medal race boost by winning the final race of their qualification series in the 49er class on Tuesday.  It was their second race win of the 12–race series. The…

The National Yacht Club sailor, Annalise Murphy from Dun Laoghaire, who overcame heartbreak in London 2012 to take a silver medal in Rio on Tuesday has been thanking suporters via her Facebook page. In a typical warm but modest fashion…

Since 1913 the 12 Footers have been an important dinghy class in Ireland and abroad. They were such a successful class that they quickly were awarded international status. The 12–footers were the equipment selected for the Olympic Games in 1920…

Billy Roche, Cat Hogan and Paul O’Brien are among an impressive list of Wexford literary names already confirmed for the inaugural Write By The Sea, a festival of writing and reading set to take place in Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford…

Day three of the Henri Lloyd Half Ton Classics Cup was sponsored by Sta-Lok and brought a change of weather and a change of overall leader. After two days of glorious sunshine the sailors found themselves sailing in the infamous…

#Newbuild - Scottish operator, Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) latest newbuild 'hybrid' ferry, MV Catriona, has begun advanced sea trials around the Isles of Arran and Cumbrae on the Firth of Clyde. The hybrid ferry launched in December 2015, is one of…

#Optimist - Results from Day 2 of the 2016 Optimist National and Open Championships on Lough Derg on Tuesday 16 August: Senior Division, Gold Fleet1st: Harry Twomey (RCYC and Crookhaven YC) – 21 pts; 2nd: Tom Higgins (RStGYC) – 23…

#HalfTonCup - Day 2 of the Henri Lloyd Half Ton Classics Cup, sponsored by day sponsor Mylor Yacht Harbour, saw the fleet taking part in a 40-mile Coastal Race, which carried a points weighting of 1.5. For the second day…

#HeavyLiftVessel - Dutch marine speciliat, Van Oord's heavy lift-vessel, HLV Svanen arrived recently to Belfast Harbour, following installing the final wind turbine foundation at the Burbo Bank Extension wind farm in Liverpool Bay. The 1990 built heavy lift installation vessel is moored…

#Offshore - Take a classic GRP production-built offshore racer, well matured in years but still in basically good shape, and give her lots of TLC. Add a good wardrobe of new sails and other discretionary go-fast equipment. Then race her…

#Unmanned - A miniature unmanned sailing boat has been reported off the Kerry coast after nearly three years in the North Atlantic. The boat, named West, is part of the Educational Passages project by the Middle School of Westbrook in…

#Rio2016 - Government ministers have joined in the applause for Annalise Murphy's stunning silver medal win in the Laser Radial at Rio 2016 yesterday (Tuesday 16 August). Soaking after the race, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross said:…

#WestCork - The body of a fisherman whose body was recovered off West Cork yesterday morning (Tuesday 16 August) has been named as Michael O'Brien of Ballydehob, according to The Irish Times. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the alarm was…

After the excitement of seeing Dun Laoghaire’s Annalise Murphy win her Silver Medal at the Rio Olympics in the Laser Radial Class, the five boat Fireball fleet on the DBSC Tuesday night course had lots of their own excitement writes…

#NewBerth - A new €15m deep-water quay in Cobh is in the planning by the Port of Cork, to handle the increasing number of large cruise liners expected to arrive in the near future. The Irish Examiner writes the port…

The Laser Youth Sailing World Championships (U-21) in Kiel ended with a day of calm air in the Laser Standard (men) as well as the Laser Radial (women). An Irish team competing at the event are now on their way…