Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#rorc – The RORC Season's Points Championship continues this weekend with the highly popular Cowes Dinard-St Malo Race. With 173 entries, the 151 nautical mile race will feature the largest RORC fleet since the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race. For spectators,…

#MedTrafficker - The LE Eithne has picked up a suspected people smuggler amongst 646 desperate migrants has been arrested by Italian Police. Bairam Ltayef (24), a Tunisian national, was detained in the Sicilian capital Palermo after he was identified by…

#fastnet – One reason the Rolex Fastnet Race is the world's biggest offshore yacht race - at present 390 boats are entered - was the decision of the Royal Ocean Racing Club to include non-IRC offshore classes: Volvo Ocean 65,…

#CastawayWanted- A castaway is wanted to take over the running of a remote island off the coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, Wales according to the Daily News. Bardsey Island Trust wants a new manager who will spend 11 months a…

#orca – Crews from commercial and Royal Navy vessels have started training for the Orca Ocean Watch Week, an initiative by the whale and dolphin conservation charity ORCA, that is being launched at Portsmouth International Port this month. Between 25th…

#fireball – 'I see no flags' – To paraphrase Nelson, I saw no flags last night flying from the DMYC to signify that racing in the DBSC Tuesday Series was cancelled writes Cormac Bradley. This is intended only as an…

#matchrace – Howth Yacht Club's Diane Kissane and her crew are competing at this week's ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship in Denmark, as Afloat previously reported back in May. Warm and sunny conditions with a strong southerly breeze today…

#49er – Belfast lough's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern are lying 30th at the 49er European Championships in Porto, the second city of Portugal. After four races sailed the Rio qualified pair's top result was a fourth in today's second race.…

#49erfx – Conditions were even lighter for day 2 of racing at the 49erFX Europeans. Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey improved slightly on yesterday's poor opening results but the Royal Irish pair admit they are 'still not quite getting to grips…

#CORKKingston – Belfast's James Espey lies 41st from 53 in the Gold fleet of the Laser Worlds in Canada and Cork's Fionn Lyden is 12th from 53 in the silver fleet. Both fleets have sailed three races of their final series.…

#sb20worlds – Shane Murphy, Daragh Sheridan and John Phelan of Howth Yacht Club lead Irish hopes at the SB20 Worlds in Italy. The Dublin trio are 20th in a fleet of 98 after six races sailed and might well have…

#Rowing: Boating equipment worth €150,000 has been recovered by gardaí investigating the theft of boat engines. The haul included 74 outboard engines, ten boats and eight boat trailers. The public is asked to access the Garda social websites or ring…

#CruiseConsultation - Gillian Mills of Inshore Ireland writes that Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown Independent Councillor, Victor Boyhan has called for an oral hearing of a planning application for a major cruise berth terminal that was lodged today (last Friday) by Dún Laoghaire…

#makaybella – A 62–ft custom cruising sailboat, the SY Makaybella, is to be auctioned in Cork at the end of this month. The sailing yacht was seized last September by the Irish Navy after it was intercepted in the Atlantic about…

#galwayhooker – Although the classic cutter-rigged Galway hookers are synonymous these days with Connemara and Kinvara, time was when there was a thriving boatbuilding community in the Claddagh in the heart of Galway city. But there hadn't been a substantial…

#EithneMalta - Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, T.D. earlier today met Naval Service personnel crew of the L.É. Eithne (P31) in Valetta, Malta. The flagship under the command of her captain, Commander Pearse O'Donnell and his crew are continuing to…

#kilrushmarina – Kilrush Marina recently celebrated 12 months under new ownership having carried out an extensive upgrade and modernisation to the facilities costing in excess of €1m. As Afloat.ie reported back in March, Kilrush Marina was taken over in July 2014 from…

#420 – The 420 Munster Championships in Dunmore East was sailed with a fleet of nine boats. The sailors enjoyed a fantastic weekend sailing alongside Fireballs and Flying 15s under the watchful eye of Race Officers Con Murphy and Cathy…

#topper – Inspite of a strong UK sailing team presence to swell the national championship fleet, Waterford Harbour's Geoff Power outwitted a fleet of 64 to win the Irish Topper dinghy title at County Antrim Yacht Club. The Dunmore East…

#49erfx – After four opening races at the 2015 49er & 49erFX European Championships in Portugal Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey who are campaigning for next year's Rio Olympic regatta will be disappointed to be 33rd in a fleet of…