Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#vor – A thrilling finish looks to be in store for Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race after the chasing pack made big inroads into Dongfeng Race Team's once huge lead early on Sunday with just over 24 hours…

#PoleStar – Northern Lighthouse Board's aids to navigation tender NLB Pole Star which normally serves in Scottish waters and also has responsibility for the Isle of Man, made a brief call to Dun Laoghaire Harbour over the weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.…

#CommandShip – A French Navy command and supply ship BCR Somme (A 631), one of a series of oil tankers serving the fleet, is currently on a visit to Dublin Port, writes Jehan Ashmore. Somme belongs to the Naval Action…

#Coastal - Ireland's coastal islands offer some astounding vistas, as this breathtaking video from the Smithsonian Channel shows perfectly. The clip from the American TV channel's Sky View series sweeps high above the Aran Islands to highlight the rugged beauty…

#Angling - The Irish Times's angling correspondent Derek Evans reports from the recent Match the Hatch course at Courtlough, near Balbriggan in North Co Dublin. The day-long programme is an introduction for angling enthusiasts to learn how to read the…

#MarineWildlife - An "unusually large number" of Cuvier’s beaked whale strandings in western Scotland in recent weeks has baffled marine scientists, as The Scotsman reports. Five of the rarely seen species were found washed up on Scotland's west coast in…

#Rescue - Mail Online has more on the dramatic rescue of Aran Islands fishermen from an Irish trawler that sank off Scotland's Outer Hebrides last week. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, three of the five crew were airlifted to hospital…

#mirrorworlds – In 2013 Father of Mirror World Champions Michael Robinson wrote about Ryan and Michaela winning the Mirror World championships on Lough Derg. Two years later a second title has been won. Here Michael updates the story after victory at…

#dlregatta –The race is on to muster a viable handicap dinghy class after Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta dropped its Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) dinghy class start from July's biennial event on Dublin Bay. The organisers say they are limited by resources and…

#SWCMiami15 – At the turn of the year, Olympic sailors took to Instagram, posting a picture that states '2013 was practice, 2014 was the warm up, 2015 is game time.' That's a scenario that just about sums up the situation for…

#lifeboat – Volunteer lifeboat crew at Newcastle RNLI were called out last Wednesday after a distress call from a fishing vessel in the Irish Sea. The All Weather Lifeboat crew were tasked by Belfast Coastguard to assist Donaghadee RNLI lifeboat…

#Philip Doyle was the fastest competitor at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships at The University of Limerick. His time of six minutes 1.7 seconds was a personal best but left him disappointed that he had not broken the six-minute mark.…

#VoyageVideo - Arklow Bay, the second of six 'B' class cargoships with 'green' design credentials built for Arklow Shipping's Dutch subsidiary, is captured on video as she makes a spectacular passage through the stunning Norwegian fjords, writes Jehan Ashmore. The…

#rorc – London's unique position at the crossroads of world sailing communications makes it a focus of attention in the winter months. Organisations of international standing will be having key administrative and decision-making meetings in the short non-sailing winter days,…

#MarineWildlife - As protections on endangered whale species help buoy their numbers in the world's oceans, the chances of a blue-water encounter – while still slim – are getting better every year. But at the same time grows the fear…

#Port&Shipping - Over the last fortnight, Jehan Ashmore has reported on the shipping scene, where China had approved foreign-flagged to ply coastal waters under Beijing's pilot project to liberalise the country's cabotage restrictions. European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) meets the new…

#historical18 – Ireland features in this week's Historical 18's Australian Championship in Sydney Harbour thanks to Royal Cork Yacht Club yachting legend Harold Cudmore at the helm of Yendys, one of 11 of the fantastic craft photographed here by Christophe Favreau. Carrying a crew…

#InlandWaters - Waterways Ireland is hosting a series of free site visits on Ireland's navigable waterways during Engineers Week 2015 on 7-11 February.  The site visits are on offer to primary and secondary students at the following locations: The Shannon…

#keywestraceweek – Irish skipper Conor Clarke competed in Key West for the first time and came away with an impressive victory in Melges 24 class yesterday, winning eight of 11 races and beating the second place boat by 23 points.…

#VOR - Some 160 nautical miles separate the first and last place boats in the Volvo Ocean Race as the fleet plies the South China Sea towards their destination of Sanya. But it's not over till it's over, as race…