Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Farra Marine Ltd is a new company set up in Dublin. It is a CTV (Crew Transfer Vessel) owner and operator and has had the first in a new line of catamaran wind farm vessels built by Penguin Shipyard in…

With the end of the first half of Ballyholme’s Icebreaker Sunday series in Belfast Lough finishing on 19th December it would be nearly impossible to forecast winners when the discards come into play. The Icebreaker winter series has always been…

Take a walk from Donaghadee Harbour east towards the Commons on the North Down coast and you’ll see the 70-year-old Sir Samuel Kelly lifeboat in its purpose-built shed near the Harbour. Protected now from the elements, it is being restored…

The RS 400 Winter Series continued last Sunday at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club on Belfast Lough. The series is now twelve races in and has thrown up some surprises, twenty boats currently entered. Race 10 started in a…

Did you know that our Native oysters have been an important food source for centuries - the Romans even exported them back to Italy! The first report of a recognised commercial oyster fishery in Belfast Lough was in 1780 and…

It’s been seven years since herring were landed in Bangor on Belfast Lough, but the Fairwind whose home port is Kilkeel on the Mourne coast in south Down, landed its catch in the harbour last week. The crew transferred the…

Harland & Wolff, the iconic shipyard with over 160 years of maritime and offshore engineering pedigree, is delighted to announce it has signed a framework agreement with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for the haul-out, repairs, maintenance, refurbishment and…

Belfast’s iconic Titanic Studios — which hosted filming for Games of Thrones — is now on the market for an undisclosed sum, as the Belfast Telegraph reports. US TV giant HBO, which licensed use of the three-acre studio site on…

Davaar is the conspicuous island at the entrance to Campbeltown Loch on Scotland's Mull of Kintyre, so it was entirely logical that when the local shipping company began to augment their fleet with steamships, the best-known became the Royal Mail…

The iconic Belfast barge which spent years as a restaurant has been relaunched as Northern Ireland’s only floating arts centre and events space. The vessel (Confiance) is moored at Lanyon Quay (River Lagan), has been converted into an arts hub…

Artemis Technologies, founded in 2017, is the lead partner in the Belfast Maritime Consortium, a 13-member syndicate working on designing and building zero-emission high-speed ferries in the city through the creation of its unique electric hydrofoiling propulsion system, which is…

A young harbour seal spotted in Belfast Lough earlier this month with an aluminium can stuck on its lower jaw has been rescued by police in Scotland. The Irish News reports that the juvenile marine mammal had swum across the…

Last year Mike Meharg, George King and Allan Black set up Safer Waters, now a registered charity and not-for-profit provider of voluntary safety cover and training for recreational water users in Northern Ireland. It is a recognised RYA Training Centre…

Ballymacormick Beach on the eastern side of Ballyholme Bay on Belfast Lough will see next Saturday (23rd), the first-ever windsurfing event hosted by Ballyholme Yacht Club when the Ulster Championships competitors will take to the water. There will be eleven…

The search continues in Belfast Lough for a young harbour seal spotted with an aluminium can stuck on its lower jaw in recent days. According to BBC News, the seal was spotted on Wednesday (6 October) in a state of…

Coming as it does from David Tasker - an Afloat.ie reader from the Isle of Wight - a typically Autumnal query received a day or two ago from this new owner of an interesting and much-loved vintage boat is one…