Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#FastnetRace - Organisers of the Rolex Fastnet Race have moved to shoot down rumours that the offshore classic was planning a move from its “ancestral home” in Plymouth to France, as the Plymouth Herald reports. Earlier this month the Royal…

The 2019 edition of the Fastnet Race will start on Saturday 3rd August 2019, which is two weeks earlier than the original published date. Unusually, the race will now run the week before Cowes Week, whose dates remain unchanged, starting on…

The Irish National Sailing School (INSS) on Dublin Bay have published a video showing their highlights from August's 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race on board the Dun Laoghaire School's J109 Jedi. Skippered by Kenneth Rumball, Jedi (now for sale on Afloat.ie…

While sailing is now a year-round interest, and for many a year-round activity too, the notion of a traditional season is natural for anyone who lives in Ireland. Admittedly, there are times when we seem to be experiencing the four…

Another successful annual IRC Congress meeting was held in early October in the popular sailing venue and race destination of St Malo on the northern French coast. Forty delegates from as far afield as Japan and the USA came together…

With 312 entries in the IRC divisions alone, and numbers pushing towards the 400 mark when all classes are included, the record-breaking Fastnet Race 2017 was surely on the edge of becoming an unwieldy beast as it got under way…

Michael Boyd of the Royal Irish Yacht Club is so successful in his multi-tasking as an impressive Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and a very competent and frequently-competing skipper in in its annual 12-race Mainseries Points Championship, that…

#ior2020 - Ireland’s opportunity to compete in global offshore sailing competitions received a boost yesterday (Tuesday 15 August) at the launch of Ireland Ocean Racing, a new initiative with aspirations to compete in the 2020 Vendée Globe. Team skipper Nin…

For a third time running the Rolex Fastnet Race has been a story of French domination, Le Tricolor flying on this occasion from the top spot in IRC 1, 2, 3 and 4, the Class40 and IMOCA 60, the Two…

The final results of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 show that Kenneth Rumball with the Irish National Sailing School’s J/109 Jedi has won in IRC 3B, where third place has been taken by ISORA’s J/109 Mojito. And RORC Commodore Michael…

#RNLI - Ballycotton RNLI launched their all-weather lifeboat on Wednesday afternoon (9 August) to aid a yacht in difficulty some 84 miles south of the East Cork village. Vencom, a Ker 39 with 10 people onboard, was returning from the…

The harsh northwest to north wind that dominated the past three days of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 has softened its cough through Thursday. It’s settling in to be an Atlantic sou’west to west airflow, which eventually will bring rain…

Overnight and into a magnificent West Country morning, boats have been streaming across the Rolex Fastnet Race finish line and into Plymouth Yacht Haven writes James Boyd. With this the leaders in the bigger classes have begun firming up along…

#RNLI - Thirteen people were brought safely ashore by Baltimore RNLI after their Fastnet Race yacht got into difficulty in the early hours of yesterday morning (Wednesday 9 August). The volunteer lifeboat crew were alerted by the Irish Coast Guard…

An event as complex as the Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 throws up so many facts and figures in a very short space of time that we have to make sense of it all on the hop as best we can…

With the brisk north wind holding its strength and more off Cornwall to speed the leading Fastnet Race finishers comfortably on the direct course to the line at Plymouth through the night, automatic predictions of final results based on performance…