Afloat.ie blogger W M Nixon has been awarded the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Maritime Journalism Award. The presentation was made at the RIYC's Dun Laoghaire clubhouse on Saturday evening. In making the award, RIYC Rear commodore Patsy Burke told the ceremony, 'Winkie Nixon makes even the most advanced sailing comprehensible and interesting to ordinary salors and even non sailors'.
Afloat.ie's comprehensive online coverage of Irish sailing includes Nixon's weekly Sailing on Saturday blog that is dedicated to Irish sailing and boating affairs.
Afloat.ie hit over one million unique visitors to the site in 2016. Afloat.ie's combination of opinion, hard news and features puts it at the very heart of the national conversation on sailing, boating and maritime affairs.
Over 50% of readers come directly to Afloat.ie that indicates regular readers recognise Afloat.ie as an 'authoritative' source and return to our pages for a mix of hard news and information on the Irish marine scene.
From this base, readers are encouraged to subscribe to our daily e–news and social media channels to build on our tightly bound community of readers.
It's a satisfying result to date because it has been achieved at a time when watersports, in Ireland at least, are largely stagnant due to recession.
Afloat.ie is seeking to build on this success by investing further in our maritime journalism team, and Sailor of the Year Awards and other magazine initiatives to further promote the good work of Irish sailors on the national and international stage.
Afloat.ie – like the rest of the media – is operating in an incredibly challenging commercial environment. Producing in-depth, thoughtful, well-reported journalism is difficult and expensive.
Afloat is fortunate to have already gained the support of some of the biggest sailing organisations in the country including the ISA, ICRA, DBSC, ISORA, the INSS and the National Yacht Club among others. This year, Afloat.ie is asking other such clubs and organisations to consider becoming a ‘foundation’ supporter for this work.
Afloat's unique interface is an engine for change to push for greater participation in sailing and boating, with an emphasis on keeping youth in the sport.
