Historic Boats

The community group at the renowned South Coast landmark, the Old Head of Kinsale, plans to build a major, new Lusitania Museum to replace the present small museum at the site, where they have also constructed a memorial garden. The…

Dr Mick Brogan is very much at home in the west of Ireland, with his life as a country GP in Mayo neatly balancing his life as a traditional boat sailor, home-ported in Kinvara. In fact, he is so much…

Maritime Heritage in NI Where SS Nomadic & Titanic Belfast Receive Covid Recovery Grants
26th February 2021 Historic Boats
The tender that served RMS Titanic at Cherbourg, France, which forms part of the liner's visitor attraction centre in Belfast Harbour, have both received £1.63m from a total £5m plus funding from the UK's Heritage Recovery Fund, writes Jehan Ashmore.…

National Maritime Museum to Host Virtual Talk on Ernest Shackleton
15th February 2021 Historic Boats
In almost every crisis or period of exceptional and continuing difficulty - such as we're living through now - people will hope to relate to the ultimately successful example of survival to be found in the experiences of Polar explorer…

The Shackleton Endurance Antarctic Expedition Just Keeps On Giving
10th February 2021 Historic Boats
When Afloat.ie's Shipping Correspondent Jehan Ashmore scooped all other media last week with the revelation that the new Irish Research Vessel will be named Tom Crean, the wave of warmth and sheer goodwill which greeted the news was remarkable. For…

Norwegian divers have discovered a 300-year-old shipwreck of an Irish sailing ship on the sea bottom outside Mandal in Southern Norway. The Irish ship, named "The Providentz", sunk in November 1720. It is reported by the Norwegian NRK journalist, Siv Kristin…

Dublin Bay 21 Class Restoration in Kilrush Honoured in Annual Wood Awards Ireland
13th January 2021 Shannon Estuary
The continuing restoration of the Dublin Bay 21 class of 1902, in the longterm project guided by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra of Dun Laoghaire, has seen the work of Master Shipwright Stephen Morris of Kilrush and his team…

Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Will Show That Worse Things Can Happen at Sea
6th January 2021 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
If you think that life is tough under the current pandemic, then the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association has just the thing to put current national and personal problems into perspective, with a comprehensively illustrated Zoom talk by noted maritime…

John McVea, class captain of the now 100-year-old River Class which sails regularly at Strangford Lough Yacht Club, had been looking forward to a 2020 season of centenary celebrations. Covid 19 put paid to that, but one achievement which has…

In Greek mythology, at the Winter Solstice, there is a brief calm for the Halcyon Day, and this was the experience of the crew on the Limerick ketch Ilen as they headed away on Monday evening, after a busy two…

The great Captain Cook may have voyaged to the Pacific in 1769 for the astronomical purpose of observing the Transit of Venus from Tahiti. But tonight (Monday) the crew of the Limerick ketch Ilen have a more modest hope -…

A famed adventurer who crossed the Atlantic by currach in a journey inspired by the story of Brendan the Navigator has died at the age of 80, as RTÉ News reports. Tim Severin set out in 1976 on the epic…

The National Monuments Service says it has resolved the mystery of a shipwreck off Co Sligo's Streedagh strand where three Armada ships are known to have foundered in 1588. Research has confirmed that a wreck of a vessel off Streedagh…

Replica Currach Set Alight in Skellig Michael’s Shadow for New Art Film
16th December 2020 Historic Boats
A replica of an ancient currach has been set alight in the shadow of Skellig Michael — and all in the name of art. The arresting image is one of the highlights of Crann, a film directed by Laura Hilliard…

New Film Shows How Tree Went From Oak to Boat in Iron Age Replica Project
14th December 2020 Historic Boats
An oak tree’s transformation from trunk to replica iron age boat on Connemara's Lough Corrib has been filmed as part of a University College Cork (UCC) project. Entitled "A New Logboat for Lough Corrib: The Pallasboy Project", the film was…

The Limerick ambassadorial ketch Ilen arrived on the Liffey River at Dublin in the late hours of Sunday after a fast passage, and since then has been out daily from Poolbeg Y & BC's marina on Dublin Bay with a…