Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A new book provides an illustrated account of one Dublin kayaker’s intrepid solo voyage around the island of Ireland. Big Dream, Little Boat follows Skerries Sailing Club member Kevin O’Sullivan on his mission to circumnavigate the whole of Ireland by kayak —…

“Seal meat tastes strong and is best eaten, we found, with plenty of onions and curry”. You better believe it. For it comes from an even more reliable source than the proverbial horse’s mouth. It’s one of the many conclusions…

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has published a first-ever book on aquatic plants, featuring 401 different Irish river, lake and pond plant species. The 576-page Aquatic Plants in Ireland-A Photographic Guide identifies flora in freshwater habitats across the country — using…

Polar circumnavigator, sailor and boat builder Jarlath Cunnane is marking the publication of a revised edition of his book, Northabout, in Dublin’s Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club next week. Cunnane and crew became the first small yacht to complete the…

The Boyne Yacht Club at Mornington towards the entrance to Drogheda Port on the history-laden River Boyne came into being in 1954, when sailing was beginning its expansion thanks in part to the increasing availability of “Build-Her-Yourself” designs such as…

Anyone who doesn't respond at several emotional levels to the atmosphere in an ancient boat-building shed when a traditional wooden boat is being re-created in the time-honoured style can only be soul-dead. And when the boat in question is Conor…

The disappearance of 129 people led by Sir John Franklin after they set out in 1845 to find a sea route to the Orient by way of the North-west Passage is one of the great mysteries of high-latitude exploration. That’s…

Four Short Stories is Tom Jobling’s latest book. In it, he has moved a little way from his usual nautical fiction but still delivers a character-driven book of cringe-worthy humour balanced by tales perhaps too close to be comfortable. From…

County Fermanagh in the west of Northern Ireland is home to a myriad of loughs and lakes, the largest of which is the well-known Upper and Lower Lough Erne, but one you don’t hear much about is Lough Head near…

Red Stripe Press has published Ireland’s Guiding Lights: Celebrating Our Lighthouses by Dennis Horgan, Gerald Butler and Tim McCarthy, a book full of aerial photography and rich stories from one of Ireland’s most celebrated lighthouse historians. Ireland has a rich…

The rich history of the river Corrib is explored in a new guide by Galway author and historian William Henry. The Corrib is among Europe’s shortest rivers, at only six kilometres from the lake to the Atlantic, but has Ireland’s…

Cormac Lowth of Dublin is a one-man Irish maritime history institute, the first and last port of call for anyone seeking the facts about some aspect of our seagoing history, whether it's obscure or supposedly well-known. Quite how he carries…

English firefighter Paul Hopkins (55) had recovered from a brain haemorrhage and entrepreneur Phil Pugh (65) was renowned for undertaking extreme physical challenges in honour of his son when they rowed into Antigua in a fourth-hand wooden rowing boat in…

When Michael Chapman Pincher arrived into Howth Yacht Club yesterday for the launch of his sometimes raunchy book The Lost Log, there was a slight shadow clouding his normally sunny visage. The book is about how in 1974 he lost…

In the third instalment of our three-part series of extracts from Lorna Siggins’ new book, Search and Rescue, the journalist and regular Afloat.ie contributor hears from Commandant Jurgen Whyte about his and his crew’s extraordinary efforts to aid the stricken…

In the second of three extracts from Lorna Siggins’ new book, Search and Rescue, the journalist and regular Afloat.ie contributor revisits the fateful day in November 2018 when a sudden wind drop left windsurfer Lorenzo Cubeddu cast adrift off Ballybunion in…