Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Seamus Leheny will join Seatruck Ferries as its new Commercial General Manager. Leheny leaves his current role as Policy and Membership Manager for the Freight Transport Association in Northern Ireland. Prior to working for the FTA he worked for both TR and Hamilton…

President Higgins will mark the beginning of the Bicentenary of Dun Laoghaire Harbour next Wednesday (May 31st) by installing a new time capsule in the harbourside George IV Memorial. The Memorial already has a time capsule from May 31st 1817,…

As soon as the sea fog lifted on Dublin Bay this evening, it revealed a magnificent 112–foot Swan type yacht, Song of the Sea, at anchor in Scotsman's Bay on the south side of the capital's waters. The sailing yacht…

Two hundred years after the foundation stone was laid to build Dun Laoghaire Harbour, the President Michael D Higgins, accompanied by his wife Sabina, will officiate at the Bicentenary opening ceremony at 14:30 on Wed 31st May 2017, at the…

The intriguing story of how a ship’s gig of 1796 came to be quietly preserved in Bantry House is well known among classic and traditional boat enthusiasts writes W M Nixon. The elegant craft was left behind after the unsuccessful…

CH Marine's annual LIFEJACKET AWARENESS WEEK kicks off this Saturday 27 May with lots of lifejacket info, special offers and support. Given the recent results from a Dun Laoghaire RNLI Lifejacket last month that found barely one fifth of lifejackets…

#DetentionLifted – The detention of a Dutch flagged general cargoship in Wicklow Port since the weekend has finally been lifted as the vessel is no longer currently listed by the Paris MoU, writes Jehan Ashmore. Crown Mary had arrived to…

While Tuesday was a warm blustery day by the time Fireballers descended on the waterfront clubs the breeze was fading. Early birds Frank Miller and Ed Butler sailed to the harbour mouth to be greeted by 180 degree shifts and…

#MinisterDefends - Paul Kehoe Minister of State for Defence has said he was immensely proud of the Naval Service as the LE Eithne and its crew prepared to depart for the Mediterranean to assist in the rescue of refugees fleeing…

A ”Truism” is defined as a self-evident truth. That underlines the accuracy of the descriptive saying “out-of-sight-out-of-mind” and the application nof it to the attitude of the Irish Government towards seafarers. Every day Ireland’s ports are depended upon by the…

#ClimateChange - Preliminary results from the recent ‘health check’ of the Atlantic Ocean suggest a greater penetration of manmade chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) further into the deeper ocean since 20 years ago. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, an Irish-led international team of…

#Offshore - Offshore yachts beware this summer after three British sailors had a lucky escape when their yacht collided with a whale and sank in the mid Atlantic. According to Independent.ie, the trio from the Destiny of Scarborough were picked…

Both Finn Lynch in the Laser and new Northern Ireland 49er combination Matt McGovern and Robbie Gilmore sit in the top ten of the Delta Lloyd Regatta Medemblik, Netherlands that started yesterday. Six Irish sailors into total are competing with great competition…

Once the ISORA fleet completes its fourth race to Arklow on Saturday, organisers have cooked up a novel and unique race five in the Averycrest sponsored series. Originally, it had been intended that ISORA would join with Howth Yacht Club…

When you’ve an inland sea well filled with islands, the tides running between them are bound to be quite strong from time to time writes W M Nixon. After the second day of the Morbihan Festival of Sail, the veteran…

Fifty years of enthusiastic service to Irish and international sailing were celebrated in the National Yacht Club at the weekend with a two day event to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Junior Sailing Section in the club writes W…

Over 100 swimmers took to the sea for the first night of Ballyholme Yacht Club's Open Water Swimming series last night. The series is now in its fourth year with participants from 8 years old to seasoned triathletes looking for…

#NewFlagship - Columbus, the latest addition to the fleet of Cruise & Maritime Voyages that will also become their new flagship, arrived in Rotterdam just before mid-May for a three week dry dock at the Damen Ship Yard. A delivery…

#EithneToMed - Patrol vessels of the Naval Service will be deployed for a third summer of humanitarian operations in the Mediterranean. As Independent.ie writes the Naval Service flagship, LE Eithne, has been assigned to begin the rotation of three ships in…

When the Vikings were busy at the day job raiding along the Irish coast, they relied on a considerable element of surprise to achieve success writes W M Nixon. So much so, in fact, that they occasionally worked overtime, and…