Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
A Dublin couple chosen from thousands of applicants for two caretaker positions on Great Blasket Island have started their new jobs on the remote offshore idyll. As previously covered on Afloat.ie, well over 20,000 applications were submitted for the two…
Michael Leahy and John Power's Levante from the National Yacht Club was the winner of Saturday's DBSC Beneteau 31.7 One Design race on Dublin Bay. Second were NYC clubmates Bluefin Two (Michael & Bernie Bryson) while third place went to…
Negotiations with the UK over future fisheries arrangements were the focus of the first meeting between Ireland’s new Marine Minister, Barry Cowen, and the EU Fisheries Commissioner this past week. Meeting virtually with Virginius Sinkevičius on Thursday (9 July) from…
Royal Cork's weekly league racing is underway with some fine sailing breezes to get the first races of the season underway last Thursday and Friday. Among the fleet of mixed keelboats is a 'Cork300' branded RCYC 1720 sportsboat marking 300…
A motorboat with four on board which was overcome by poor weather was towed to safety by Kinsale RNLI volunteers this past week. The inshore lifeboat Miss Sally Anne Baggy II was requested to launch shortly after 11.30am on Wednesday…
Royal Irish's Rockabill VI Makes Right Move to Win ISORA's Second Viking Marine Coastal Race
12th July 2020 ISORA Reigning ISORA Champion Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins) took a one-minute 35-second margin on corrected time to win the second ISORA Viking Marine Coastal Race on Dublin Bay this afternoon. The JPK10.80 was the IRC overall and Class Zero winner according…
Cork Harbour's First Motorboat Race: Those Men in Their Floating Machines
12th July 2020 Tom MacSweeney July 12, 1903 was also a Sunday, but it was not the sound of Orange bands marching that dominated the River Lee from Cobh to Cork City, but that of powerboat engines competing for what had been envisaged as the…
Neighbouring clubs Royal Ulster and Ballyholme at Bangor in County Down on Belfast Lough are both due back on the water soon. The RUYC sailing committee has decided that in line with further guidance from the RYA that competitive sport…
The 2021 Flying Fifteen International World Championship that was scheduled to be sailed at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Western Australia next February has been cancelled, according to Afloat sources. There is no official news of the cancellation…
A documentary on how Tory island’s late king Patsy Dan Rodgers led his community’s efforts to secure their rights and a study of a “maverick islander” are scheduled for Galway Film Fleadh’s online programme this weekend. French filmmaker Loic Jourdain…
Royal Cork Yacht Club’s Home Membership Keep Tricentenary Celebrations Going
11th July 2020 W M Nixon There are three Royal Cork Yacht Clubs. One is the globally-recognised historic institution which is directly descended from the Water Club of the Harbour of Cork founded three hundred years ago, the oldest yacht club in the world. The second…
After the excitement of the Subaru Flying Fifteen World Championships on Dublin Bay last year there is a renewed interest in the keelboat class with some famous names teams to spice things up in 2020. Both 1992 Olympian Peter Kennedy…
Race 2 of the Viking Marine Coastal Race this morning will be a shorter 24-mile course from Dun Laoghaire Harbour at 0955. From a start, at Dun Laoghaire Outfall Buoy, the expected 20-boat fleet will pass the Muglins on the…
Owners of Kilroot power station near Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough are planning a £600m investment to increase lower carbon generation at the site. As BBC News reports, it includes an existing plan to convert Kilroot from coal-fired to gas-fired. (See…
Volumes Down in Dublin Port For First Half of the Year, but Not as Much as Expected
10th July 2020 Dublin Port Volume of goods passing through Dublin Port were almost 11% down for the first six months of this year, according to figures from the Dublin Port Company. Overall port tonnage, reports RTE News, was 10.9% lower than in the same…
Discarded plastic is the predominant form of litter on Northern Ireland’s beaches, according to a new survey by a local environmental group. As the Belfast Telegraph reports, the survey by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful estimates that plastic — most of…
IMDO Represents Irish Ports In New ’Network Of Excellence’ Towards The Port Of Tomorrow
10th July 2020 Ports & Shipping DocksTheFuture, the European Commission-funded project aimed at defining the vision for the ports of the future in 2030, has announced the launch of a ‘Network of Excellence’. The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) represents Irish ports in this network with…
French Class 40s Eyeing Round Ireland To Complete Reduced European Trophy
10th July 2020 Round Ireland Hopes are high within the Class 40 fleet that a reduced European Trophy will be confirmed — if there is enough participation for at least two out of the three races on the calendar. Alongside the classic Normandy Channel Race…
Darren Wright of Howth Puts Famous Pata Negra On to Boil in the Round Ireland Yacht Race
9th July 2020 Round Ireland When the then-new Lombard 45 Pata Negra was racing with a Dutch charter crew in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race and carving her way through the fleet with style and winning speed, Howth YC’s offshore team manager Kieran Jameson was…
Baltimore Lifeboat Crew Rescue Teenage Girl Who Fell Down Blow Hole On East Skeam Island
9th July 2020 Rescue Baltimore RNLI was called out to a medical evacuation earlier this evening (Thursday 9 July) after a teenage girl fell nearly 10 metres down a blow hole on East Skeam Island, off the coast of Baltimore in West Cork. The…
