Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

After a swift but cold 26-hour run up the Labrador Sea along the southwest coast of Greenland from Paamuit, Limerick’s restored 1926-built 56ft ketch Ilen reached her primary destination, the Greenland capital of Nuuk, late this morning (Friday) writes W…

The restored 56ft 1926-built traditional ketch Ilen lingered in the southwest Greenland port of Paamuit for the past couple of days while a vicious southerly gale blew itself out in the Labrador Sea writes W M Nixon. It was an…

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD, has announced the inclusion of Ireland’s Floating Heritage in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The National Inventory is intended to raise awareness of, and respect for, our…

There is satisfaction in being associated with a good news story about sailing, so the latest step in the Rankin dinghy development, which we have followed for four years on the Afloat website is the announcement that the revived, restored…

The restored 1926 Limerick trading ketch Ilen continues to make steady progress on her Salmons Wake voyage to the Arctic writes W M Nixon. She is now port-hopping along the southwest coast of Greenland towards Nuuk, with the rough conditions…

After an arduous voyage of constant fog and one serious storm en route to Greenland, Ireland’s oldest sailing trading ketch Ilen has encountered its first clear evidence of climate change. “When our skipper, Paddy Barry, was approaching Cape Farewell on…

There’s a finishing buoy in there somewhere (see above) as Hal Sisk in Colleen Ban (26) chases Dermot O’Flynn in Colleen Deas (28) for the final few yards in the first racing for Colleens in Dublin Bay in 114 years.…

How many coats of varnish would you put on a wooden dinghy? “Ten if I had the chance,” so Owen O’Connell answered when he told me the story of the Cork Harbour ‘T’ Boats. “And there’s ten years. in time,…

The Mullaghmore Sailing Club Old Gaffer 'Purple Haze' skippered by Kevin and Heather Collins leads a 12-boat Classic Keelboat fleet at Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. Born out of 2017's Dun Laoghaire Harbour bicentenary celebrations, the 2019 classic keelboat fleet includes three gaff-rigged Colleen replicas that…

Dermot O’Flynn’s 'Colleen Deas' finds some sparkling sailing with the Classics while the early breeze lasted in the first race of Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta today. With three Colleen replicas sailing this afternoon, it was reckoned to be the first…

After experiencing every sort of condition from Force 8 winds to near calms, the 56ft 1926-built restored ketch Ilen of Limerick has reached her first port in Greenland to conclude 11 days of Transatlantic ocean voyaging, having successfully negotiated the…

The Limerick ketch Ilen on her Salmons Wake voyage to southwest Greenland had got to within 200-miles of the huge island’s most southerly headland, Cape Farewell, towards midnight last night (Monday). With her speed held back to 6 knots in…

The famous cutter Peggy Bawn that last raced on Dublin Bay at the 200th-anniversary harbour regatta in 2017 is up for sale with an asking price of €300k. Northern Ireland builder John Hilditch built the 36ft G L Watson-designed cutter in…

The 56ft Limerick traditional ketch Ilen, on her Salmon’s Wake voyage from the Shannon Estuary to Greenland (2019 is the Year of the Salmon), has been making good progress since heading seaward past Loop Head on Monday afternoon writes W…

When a replica of an Iron Age log boat is launched for the first time in Lough Corrib today, there may not be too much disappointment if it doesn’t actually float writes Lorna Siggins. Archaeologists suspect that such “dug out”…

On what type of boat did the original settlers of Ireland arrive? They probably came over 10,000 years ago and began populating the coastal regions. Could they have come on some type of sailing currach? The Currach Association of Ireland…