Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#ContainerVolumes - The Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) today released Q3 figures for 2014 of the following main shipping sectors as detailed below. Container shipping volumes, Lo/Lo rose by 9% in Q3. In the Ro/Ro sector this experienced a 6%…

#Shipping - A cargo ship en route from Belfast to Norway has run aground near Ardnamurchan Point in Scotland's West Highlands. And as BBC News reports, the UK coastguard believes it will be stuck there for some time. The Lysblink…

#rorc – RORC Caribbean 600 that has a number of key Irish sailors participating is providing a mixed bag of IRC delights says RORC Rating Office Technical Manager, Jenny Howells. With many if not the majority of the most prestigious yacht…

#LoughErne - Police have recovered a body in Lough Erne believed to be that of a Monaghan man missing since December. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Kieran McAree was thought to have entered the lough after abandoning his car in…

#AoifeDonation - On the margins of an EU Defence Ministers informal meeting in Riga, Latvia, Minister for Defence, Mr. Simon Coveney, T.D. met Mr. Carmelo Abela, Minister for Home Affairs and National Security of Malta on Wednesday.  According to the Gozo…

#Rescue - Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 was dispatched yesterday morning (18 February) for a medevac of an injured fisherman. As the Irish Independent reports, the casualty was on a Russian fishing vessel some 200 miles off the southwest…

#sailingolympics – The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decision to drop sailing from the 2020 Paralympics is a wake-up call for the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). While the commentary talks about failures on the part of IFDS, the real issue seems…

#irishsailing – The Irish Sailing Association SRG (Strategic Review Committee) penultimate meeting of the series took place last evening at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork and drew an excellent attendance with a large number of representatives from southern clubs and…

#vor – China's Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) were in no mood to celebrate Chinese New Year on Wednesday after being relegated to the back of the fleet for the first time since the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 started. Caudrelier's…

#Ports&Shipping –The latest IMDO Weekly Market Review includes the following stories as detailed below. Irish Shipping News: The 2015 Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth annual conference will be held in Ringaskiddy and Haulbowline in Cork Harbour on the 10th and 11th…

#ilen – As previously reported by Afloat.ie, the good ship Ilen's whiskey plank was jointly nailed home by Minister For The Marine, Simon Coveney, Mrs Kate Jarvey of Ruth Lily Philanthropic Trust, Mr Gerry Boland of JP McManus Charitable Foundation,…

#Titanic - The drawing offices where the Titanic was designed could soon become a four-star hotel for Belfast's historic quarter. According to The Irish Times, the British Heritage Lottery Fund has provided a grant of almost £5 million (€6.6m) to…

#isora – Dickie Richardson of Holyhead, who died last month aged 89, played a key role in the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association during the Golden Age of distance racing in the area during the 1970s. Yet although he was…

#dbscspringchicken – After three races sailed and three to go, the Hanse 341 Coumeenole leads the Rathfarnham Ford sponsored DBSC Spring Chicken series on Dublin Bay. The modified ECHO series handicap regatta series has attracted over 40 sailing cruisers and…

#BalticSPARbuoys – The first of two Finnish 'Spar' tube type buoys was deployed in the Irish Sea yesterday by the Commissioners of Irish Lights as part of a trial comparison programme of these buoys normally used in Baltic Sea ice-flow…

#BelfastLough - Belfast's Window on Wildlife is the new name for the RSPB's nature reserve on Belfast Lough, which reopens tomorrow (Wednesday 18 February). As Birdwatch reports, the opening comes after an extensive refurbishment project that will allow visitors to…

#MarineWildlife - The mysteries of Ireland's humpback whales have got the 'TouchCast' treatment as part of RTÉ's new interactive storytelling format. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, scientists have recently tracked first the firm time ever whales travelling between popular spots…

#WaterfrontProperty - The Irish Examiner reports on a new arrival to the waterfront property market in Woodville House, a unique country home on the banks of the River Blackwater in Co Cork. With an asking price of €625,000, this five-bay…

#FoynesPort - Work on a major restructuring of Foynes Port, Co. Limerick according to RTE News involving the first element is to begin this month. The project is part of a €50 million investment in transforming the port into one…

#MarineScience - The Atlantic Ocean: Our Unknown Treasure was on the agenda at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Jose, California on Saturday 14 February. Marine Institute chief executive Dr Peter…