Saturday, 8 November 2026 — The first week of November brought a stark reminder that the sea does not distinguish between the fastest racing machines and the smallest coastal craft. In the Atlantic, the Route du Rhum turned from a contest of speed into a succession of survival stories; at home, the winter racing season began in comparatively gentle conditions, while environmental and fisheries reports raised questions extending far beyond the weekend.
For Irish readers, the most immediate transatlantic concern has been Pamela Lee’s interrupted passage. Yet this was also a week of achievement in Dublin Bay clubs, practical conservation work around the coast and a sobering examination of what Irish waters receive from the land. Here is The Week Afloat for the seven days to Saturday, 7 November.
Atlantic Drama: Speed, Damage and Rescue
The Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe started from Saint-Malo on Sunday, 1 November, with a formidable fleet bound for the Caribbean. Within days, Atlantic depressions and gear failures had transformed the early rankings. Ireland’s Pamela Lee, sailing the Class40 EmpowHer, was diverting towards the Azores after the loss of a headsail deck fitting and persistent electrical charging problems. Her planned repair stop underlined the difficulty of sustaining a solo campaign when even a relatively modest defect can compromise a long ocean passage.
The week’s most dramatic incident came on Wednesday, when Armel Le Cléac’h’s giant Maxi Banque Populaire XI capsized roughly 550 nautical miles north-west of the Azores. The French skipper had been lying second. After activating his distress beacon and sheltering in the overturned trimaran, he was rescued by a Panamanian cargo ship and reported in good health. The operation was a powerful reminder of the indispensable role merchant shipping continues to play in offshore rescue.
The wider Ultim fleet has suffered further setbacks, including damage to Anthony Marchand’s Actual Ultim 4, which diverted towards Galway. Irish offshore sailor Joan Mulloy assisted as the damaged trimaran arrived in the west. At the front, Tom Laperche’s SVR-Lazartigue was heading towards Guadeloupe with a commanding advantage, the subject of W. M. Nixon’s Saturday reflection on the boat and its Fastnet connection. That feature deserves its own space rather than having its finish narrative pre-empted here.
Among the IMOCA monohulls, Corentin Horeau on MACSF established a substantial advantage, but the injury to Ambrogio Beccaria and damage to Francesca Clapcich’s bowsprit showed how quickly the order could change. Beccaria’s retirement after a fall was a human cost behind the spectacular imagery. These positions are snapshots, not a Sunday morning race bulletin.
Another Atlantic departure has been postponed for safety. Organisers delayed the ARC+ start from Las Palmas from Sunday, 8 November, to Wednesday, 11 November, subject to further weather assessment. The Irish-registered Tradewind 35 Cara of the South, the smallest yacht in the rally, is among those waiting for a suitable weather window. Prudence, rather than punctuality, is the proper measure of that decision.
Winter Racing Finds Its Feet
Back in Ireland, Dublin Bay Sailing Club opened its winter chapter in more manageable conditions. The AIB Turkey Shoot sent a large mixed fleet around the Muglins on 1 November, and Brendan Foley’s Impala 28 Running Wild won the opening race on modified ECHO handicap. With 58 finishers and north-westerly winds of 10–13 knots, the series provided an encouraging contrast to the previous weekend’s gales. Its progressive handicap format gives boats of very different designs an opportunity to compete through December.
The winter dinghy season also got under way in Dún Laoghaire, with the Viking Marine-sponsored DMYC Frostbites drawing 55 boats for three races in sunshine and modest northerly winds. The National Yacht Club’s Flying Fifteen frostbite fleet has experienced both balmy racing and storm disruption; 17 boats are entered, including visitors from Dunmore East and Carlingford. At Howth, the long-established dinghy Frostbites continue to demonstrate that the end of summer need not mean the end of club racing.
In Cork Harbour, Ronan Kenneally secured the Monkstown Bay October League in his ILCA 7, with club officers Ewen Barry and Sandy Rimmington second in their Fireball. Oliver Kenneally and Max O’Sullivan won all four races in Class 2 aboard their RS Feva XL. It was an attractive example of a compact local series producing meaningful competition across generations and classes.
There was recognition off the water too. DBSC’s annual gala prizegiving filled the National Maritime Museum on Friday evening, bringing the 2026 season to a ceremonial close amid the club’s extensive silverware. Meanwhile the 2026 ILCA World Championships in Dún Laoghaire have been shortlisted for an Olympic Sport Award, a timely acknowledgment of the organisation required to stage an international championship.
Looking further ahead, the RS Aero European Championship is scheduled for Dún Laoghaire in August 2027, while the Royal Cork Yacht Club is preparing to celebrate James and Aileen Payne’s historic 1924 world championship success. The past and future of Irish dinghy sailing are seldom far apart.
DBSC Turkey Shoot opening race off the Forty Foot, with Aurelia and Valentina. Photo: Afloat.ie.
The Environmental Ledger
Not all the week’s most significant maritime stories involved boats. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that more than half of Ireland’s wastewater treatment plants failed national discharge standards in 2025. Inadequate operation and maintenance contributed to many failures, while the pace of essential infrastructure upgrades remained a concern. For coastal communities, the implications run from river and estuary quality to the wider health of marine habitats. The fact that four more towns and villages have ceased discharging raw sewage is progress, but hardly grounds for complacency.
On the more constructive side, Green Ocean’s new Oyster Trail opened along Dún Laoghaire’s East Marina Breakwater. Four QR-linked interpretive signs explain the native oyster’s decline and the charity’s restoration work. It is a modest physical intervention with a larger educational ambition: making marine biodiversity visible to people who may know the harbour principally as a place for walking, sailing or watching the ferries of an earlier era.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara reported that more than 60,000 breeding lobsters were returned to Irish waters under its V-notching scheme in 2025, a record since protective legislation was introduced three decades ago. Almost 240 fishers at 92 locations took part, returning close to 39 tonnes of lobster. BIM estimates that the programme could add hundreds of millions of eggs over subsequent breeding cycles. The figures make a persuasive case for practical stewardship in which working fishers are partners rather than spectators.
Yet the wider seafood sector faces difficult economics, with BIM’s recent forecast of a €65.8 million net loss for the Irish fishing fleet in 2026 highlighting the strain from quota reductions, catches and fuel costs. Conservation success and commercial viability need to be considered together; neither can simply substitute for the other.
Native oyster restoration baskets beside Dún Laoghaire East Marina Breakwater. Photo: Michael Chester
Harbours, Rescue and the People Behind the Stories
In County Donegal, a local committee is promoting plans for additional shelter and berthing at Burtonport, including floating breakwaters and visitor moorings. The proposal illustrates how smaller working harbours must serve fishing, island connections and visiting leisure craft at the same time. It remains a proposal, not an approved construction project.
The importance of dependable marine services was demonstrated off Ballycastle, where Portrush RNLI took over the tow of a disabled fishing vessel on the evening of 1 November. The 14-metre boat had suffered engine failure, and volunteer crews brought it safely into harbour. It was an unspectacular operation in benign weather, which is precisely why it is worth remembering: most maritime safety depends on disciplined routine rather than dramatic rescues.
There was also a different sort of contribution at the Royal Irish Yacht Club, where marine photographer Rick Tomlinson’s sold-out High Latitudes evening raised nearly €4,000 for Sailability. The proceeds are intended to support a new Hansa 303 accessible dinghy for 2027. More than 90 people attended, a reminder that maritime photography can do more than record the sport: it can help open it to new participants.
Portrush RNLI all-weather lifeboat towing a fishing vessel near Ballycastle. Photo: RNLI/John Morton
Still Making Waves
Afloat’s week also included a renewed focus on marine science education, with the Explorers programme preparing for Science Week; a European tourism award for Athy’s Shackleton Experience; and discussions about Ireland’s leisure marine priorities in Brussels. Each points to a maritime sector whose influence reaches beyond harbours and regatta courses into education, tourism, public policy and regional economies.
There is a continuing question over marine infrastructure too: how to reconcile public access, environmental protections and the needs of existing harbour users. From proposed watersports facilities at Killiney to coastal improvements in the northwest, the decisions made on shore will shape the possibilities afloat for years to come.
On the Horizon
Sunday’s immediate focus will be the Route du Rhum approach to Guadeloupe, particularly Laperche’s progress and any further news of Pamela Lee’s repairs, alongside the second DBSC Turkey Shoot race and local frostbite fixtures. The ARC+ fleet will continue to watch the Canary Islands forecasts ahead of its provisional Wednesday departure. Further ahead, Irish race officials gather at Kinsale Yacht Club on 14 November, while Royal Cork’s historical celebration follows on 19 November.
This has been a week in which the biggest racing machines proved vulnerable, small boats made the most of winter sunshine and the environmental health of Irish waters demanded attention. That range — from a capsized Ultim to an oyster basket on a harbour breakwater — is what makes the Irish maritime story worth returning to every Sunday.
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