Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

11 International teams will make Antrim their home for the International Contest of Seamanship tomorrow. As Afloat.ie reported previously in March, 200 young people from USA, Russia, St Petersburg, Belgium, Ghent, GB, Ireland, Quebec, France, Denmark, Canada and Northern Ireland…

If you were putting together a pub quiz about classic yachts, “Who was Sandy Balfour?” would be a very handy question to get the elementary section going writes W M Nixon. Dyed-in-the-wool classics aficionados would roll their eyes in amusement…

Everyone thought that while the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2018 from Wicklow was one of the most interesting and unusual ever staged in the race’s 38-year history, it was assumed that no record had been broken writes W M Nixon.…

#HistoricBoats - Former ferry cargoship that CIÉ serviced the Aran Islands will writes The Irish Times become home to luxury five-star accommodation berthed at Dublin’s Custom House Quay as its owners plan a significant investment. The Naomh Eanna, acquired by…

There's only four weeks to go until the 2018 Glandore Classic Summer School (21/22 July) which promises to be another excellent event writes organiser Cormac O'Carroll. We hosted the first Summer school in 1992 and this event has been running biennially…

There’s an informal international network of wooden boat adherents - both classic and traditional - which has found in Ireland an increasingly useful source of recognised designs of intriguing boat types to provide many building challenges for skilled craftsmen and…

Last weekend, the 16th and 17th of June, saw the Dublin Bay Mermaid fleet making a very welcome return to Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club for their 2018 Leinster Championship event. In what were undoubtedly testing conditions for the fleet…

Today's Crosshaven Traditional Sail pursuit race attracted all types of plus keelboats for a harbour pursuit race, just part of this weekend's line up of attractions in Cork Harbour this weekend.  Today's start, at 2pm off ‘the Grassy,’ is a traditional sail race starting point…

#HistoricBoats - Volunteers on the UK heritage steamship, SS Shieldhall, are celebrating having received one of the highest accolades from a national organisation. The Southampton-based vessel has been chosen as the 2018 regional flagship for the National Historic Fleet. (Click…

A video, by Paul Fuller, features the restored historic ketch Ilen motoring down the Ilen River towards Baltimore for her celebratory launch last week at the Wooden Boat Festival in the West Cork town. Conor O'Brien's famous traditional vessel, that has been faithfully…

#Heritage - The Shannon Harbour Canal Boat Rally will go ahead this month, despite reports of its recent cancellation. Afloat.ie has learned that a new voluntary group has taken over the hosting of the rally, after Inland Waterways Association of…

In 1926, Tom Moynihan and his shipwrights on the waterfront in Baltimore built the 56ft ketch trading Ilen to Conor O’Brien's designs at their boatyard in the heart of the West Cork fishing village writes WM Nixon. However, Baltimore nowadays…

Cork Harbour Festival grows each year, and its flagship event Ocean to City - An Rás Mor, now in its 14th year, has received a record-breaking entry! Over 200 boats and 600 participants from Ireland, U.S, Holland, Germany, Spain and…

The hard-working boat building team behind the restoration of the historic ketch Ilen in West Cork have successfully launched the 1926–built vessel in time for this weekend's Wooden Boat Festival at Baltimore. As Afloat.ie reported earlier this week, the final touches were being…

Cormac Lowth of Dublin is a one-man Maritime Institute writes W M Nixon. He has an incredible memory, encyclopaedic knowledge, and an exceptional collection of nautical memorabilia. There’s always something of special interest when one of his missives pings into…

Poetry with a seafaring flavour by Theo Dorgan, Paddy Bushe, Mick Delap and the late Richard Murphy will bring a distinctive nautical mood to an evening of absorbing interest at the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire next month in…