Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#Surfing - Big wave surfers on the west coast are at the ready today (9 December) as a strong northwest groundswell bears down on Ireland, bringing with it waves of up to 50 feet across the Atlantic. According to Surfer…

#StenaSuperfastX – Amid much speculation the deployment of Stena Superfast X to Dublin-Holyhead route in early 2015 as previously reported on Afloat.ie has been finally confirmed by Stena Line. The 29,800 tonnes ropax ferry will bring increased capacity as she…

#inss – A blustery forecast and strong winds passing through Dun Laoghaire on Saturday night was not a good omen for the DBSC Turkey Shoot on Sunday morning. Indeed the code flags N over A were flying from the committee…

#santa – Santa Claus arrived by boat yesterday into Dun Laoghaire harbour and headed straight to a packed National Yacht Club where sackfuls of presents were handed out to children of all ages.   Everyone – big and small –…

#matchracing – Ireland's hosting of International Match racing events is set to to continue in 2015 with Howth Yacht Club's annuoncement that it will host the 2015 Nations Cup European Final on 7-10th May 2015. It follows the acclaimed 2014…

#frostibtes –Strong and gusty westerly winds gusting to over 30–knots at times put paid to both cruiser racing and dinghy competitions from Dun Laoghaire today writes Cormac Bradley. First to be scrubbed was Rathfarnham Ford's DBSC's Turkey Shoot series for…

#MarineWildlife - Two months after striking up a friendship with fellow 'dolphina-non-grata' Dusty in his travels around Ireland, 'bad boy' bottlenose Clet has moved on again - this time to the west coast of Scotland. According to the Island News…

#PolarPlunge - Near freezing temperatures didn't stop a troupe of hardy gardaí from leaping into the drink at the famous Forty Foot in Sandycove for their annual Polar Plunge yesterday (6 December). As the Irish Independent reports, the 150-strong group…

#sligoharbour – Utilising Sligo Harbour to the best affect is the vexed question confronting Sligo County Council who face dredging costs 'in the region of €5m'. The problem is that if the council invested that figure, there is doubt if…

ROWING: The weather defied the forecast and rowers enjoyed calm and dry rowing conditions for the majority of the day at the Muckross Head of the River today. Skibbereen RC and Lee RC shared top spoils on the day with…

#RosslareDredging – Dredging operations to remove an unprecedented amount of sand at Rosslare Europort as previously reported, has highlighted the issue and some navigation restrictions in place at the ferryport that has routes linking to the UK and France, writes…

#Maritime - Ireland has been "sea-blind" for decades and needs a "strong maritime constituency" to make the most of our significant ocean and coastal resources, according to the nation's highest ranking naval officer. Rear Admiral Mark Mellett DSM was speaking…

#SoftwareContract - OSI Maritime Systems (OSI) has announced the signing of a contract with the Naval Service to deliver warship navigation systems, writes the Maritime Executive.com The contract includes OSI's ECPINS-W (Warship) software and under the terms of the deal…

#ChristmasSailings– A boost to sailing capacity over Christmas on Irish Ferries Dublin-Holyhead service as previously reported will see cruiseferry Isle of Inishmore transferred to the route on Saturday 20 December, departing the capital with the 08.00hrs sailing, writes Jehan Ashmore.…

#GreenorePort - Burke Shipping Group, the principal operating subsidiary of the Doyle Group, has The Irish Times writes acquired Greenore Port in Co Louth. Previously the port was jointly owned by One51 and the state-owned Dublin Port Company. The price…

#RNLI - In what was a first for the RNLI Reindeer Run, there was a marriage proposal at last Sunday’s (30 November) event in Marlay Park to raise funds for Ireland's lifeboat service. Conor Hayes, a native of Tipperary, chose…

#seascapes – The maritime community in Ireland is a mystery to the vast majority of the rest of the population. Admittedly anyone Irish will sing enthusiastically about how good it is to be entirely surrounded by water. But for most folk…

#rnli – The volunteer lifeboat crew at Newcastle RNLI got to put their new inshore lifeboat through its paces yesterday (Thursday 4 December) when it was requested to launch hours after arriving at station. The callout came at 6.04am in…

#RosslareDredging - Sospan Dau a Dutch dredger has recently started work in Rosslare Europort where as previously reported, sand of around 100,000m3 is to be removed from the breakwater, writes Jehan Ashmore. The harbour's port authority in Rosslare Europort, Iarnród…

#ainmara – A shanty sung by Jim Uprichard tells the tale of the Dickie Gomes skippered and self-maintained 102-year-old 36ft–yawl Ainmara that has featured regularly on Afloat.ie The brief youtube video (above) of Dickie Gomes' Ainmara shows clips from a…