Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

While Storm Clodgah produced the wind conditions she promised, meaning that sailing was impossible in the last weekend of November, the Irish Fireball family weren’t completely inactive as they had gathered at the National Yacht Club to celebrate the 2015…

#Rio2016 - Sailors in Rio who ingest just three teaspoons of water from the Olympic courses on Guanabara Bay have a 99% chance of being infected by a virus. That's according to the latest damning findings from the Associated Press,…

The search for a missing light aircraft which is believed to have ditched off the coast of Blackpool has been suspended today, due to failing light. Debris was found off the coast of Blackpool as a result of an extensive…

Ireland will have an entry in the 2018 Golden Globe Race, the solo, non-stop around the world race.  Irish sailor Gregor McGuckin has declared his interest in the race that will have 25 entrants.  The 24 men and 1 woman – Britain’s Susie…

An extensive search is being carried out off the coast of Blackpool for a small light aircraft that disappeared off radar on approach to the airport. The call came into the UK Coastguard at around 0925 this morning (3 December…

#BargeScrubbers – In order to meet new environmental requirements a number of ships are being fitted with catalytic exhaust ‘scrubber’ systems or plugging into shore-based electrical grids. Ships Monthly, however reports that in California, where exhaust emission regulations are exceedingly…

#Rowing: The Muckross Head of the River, fixed for the National Rowing Centre in Cork on Saturday, has been cancelled. The organisers say the bad weather forecast, including high winds, would have presented an unacceptable safety risk. The Head of…

#BelfastPort- In this year’s Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey, Belfast Harbour has achieved platinum status – the highest scoring level. The achievement for Belfast Harbour came just before the United National Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris began. Like the…

Recently appointed International Sailing Federation (ISAF) CEO Peter Sowrey is to depart the post this week. It is the latest in a series of high level departures from the world's governing body for sailing. An ISAF spokeswoman told Afloat.ie this evening…

#NewestShip - An 'Arctic Interior' makeover is how Hurtigruten have described the theme for the new look refurbishment on board four of their Norwegian coastal ships previously reported on Afloat.ie. In addition the newest vessel MS Spitsbergen will join the…

#HMScaroline - The Belfast Telegraph writes on the count-down for the opening of HMS Caroline in Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £11.5m and a further investment by Northern Ireland’s Department for Enterprise…

#Fishing - Two supertrawlers feared to have been "pillaging" fishing grounds off the West Coast have left Irish waters before the Naval Service could board them for inspection. According to The Irish Times, poor weather conditions over the past fortnight…

John Twomey will race in a record 11th Paralympic Games following his qualification for the Rio Games at today's World Para Sailing Championships in Melbourne. Twomey, Ian Costello and Austin O'Carroll have qualified for the Paralympic Games in Rio next…

I meet a lot of people as a maritime journalist, people who do and have done amazing things in the maritime sector, but meeting Ireland’s only ‘Flying Angel’ was particularly interesting. A nice chap whom I realised that I had…

Veteran Royal Irish YC sailor Tim Goodbody is the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for November for his enormous contribution to Irish and international sailing over many decades, both as an active participants, as a race organiser, and as an…

#Burke2Doyle - Burke Shipping, the marine agency and logistical services company will be changing name to the Doyle Shipping Group (DSG) with effect as of next week, writes Jehan Ashmore. The date for the name change is Monday, 7 December,…

Ireland are again in fouth place of the nine contenders for one of six remaining places on the start line at the Paralympics in Rio next year. In challenging conditions the Irish Paralympic Sonar Sailing team fell back two places…

#Rowing: The Head of the Shannon, fixed for Carrick-on-Shannon this Saturday, December 5th, has been cancelled. The organisers say that the rising water levels on the river, combined with the forecast for the weekend, has left them with no alternative.…

#IMDOreview -The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) returns with its Weekly Market Review and among the following stories are outlined below. Irish Maritime News: Irish Continental Group Purchase Four Containerships -The Dublin headquartered Irish Continental Group as reported by loadstar.ie,…

VO65 Team Brunel has broken the ARC Course Record sailing from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia in an elapse time of 8d 7h 39m 30s. This is the third consecutive year that the Course Record…