Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A large fleet of traditional craft is anticipated for Féile an Spidéil which takes to the water off An Spidéil, Co Galway, on June 12th. The regatta programme will include races for báid mhóra and leath bháid in the Galway…

Slipping out into Galway Bay before sunrise, several traditional craft from Galway Hooker Sailing Club participated in the Darkness into Light national fundraiser on  Saturday. “When a community comes together, it’s amazing what can be done,” the club said after…

The saga of the building and sailing of the traditional Galway Hooker Naomh Cronan by Clondalkin Community in west Dublin goes back nearly thirty years. And though the story has regularly featured in Afloat.ie,the various lockdowns had made it difficult…

Tributes have been paid to maritime author, historian, librarian, sailor and musician Tim Collins who passed away unexpectedly in Galway. “A polymath,” was how Galway hooker sailor and adventurer Dr Michael Brogan described him, while colleagues at NUI Galway (NUIG)…

Tributes have been paid to Badóirí an Cladaigh for illuminating their fleet of Galway hookers for the St Patrick's Day festival. Galway-based photographer Pat Cantwell captured images of the fleet of vessels on the Claddagh basin in Galway city. The…

One of Galway’s fleet of traditional craft has been lit in Ukrainian national colours in support of the people of Ukraine The Naomh Cronán is decked out in yellow and blue on Galway’s Claddagh basin each evening after sunset. The…

The Galway gleoiteog named Loveen tacked across the Claddagh basin this weekend, some 96 years after it was built by the Reaney family of Spanish Arch. The gleoiteog has been restored, plank by plank, by the Galway Hooker Sailing Association…

Where else in the world would you hear yourself being addressed as Loveen but in Galway - and that's the name of a 96-year-old gleoiteog which is being blessed today (Oct 16) in the Claddagh Basin. The historic vessel which…

Ciarán Oliver's family history goes back over a hundred years to what was then known as the fishing village of the Claddagh in Galway. His great-great-uncle, Máirtín, was the last 'King of the Claddagh'. The 'Loveen' doesn't go back quite…

Award-winning harpist Laoise Kelly has embarked on a concert tour to five west coast islands on a Galway hooker. As The Times Ireland reports, Kelly aims to reconnect island communities with music, storytelling and song. Kelly, a TG4 musician of…

A Galway hooker restored with the support of a city publican has joined the local traditional fleet on Galway bay. Réalt na Gaillimhe or Star of Galway was built in Indreabhán, south Connemara, by the Cloherty boat builders in 1910.…

Several Galway hookers will join a fleet of finely tuned sailing dinghies on Lough Corrib for Europe’s longest and oldest inland yacht race this weekend. The Anam Cara and Lon Dubh gleoiteogs which have been restored by the Galway Hooker…

Galway's 96-year old gleoiteog Loveen has marked a key stage in its restoration with the nailing of its "whiskey plank". At a "low key" ceremony, the final plank was secured and the occasion was marked with a "modest" round of…

Irish Sailing has welcomed its newest affiliate in the shape of the Galway Hooker Sailing Club. The club was formed in 2017 when a group of friends came together to revive and retain the Galway Hooker tradition in Galway. The…

The Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association invites traditional boat enthusiasts and all sailing fans to join their next Zoom session on The First Rescue of the Morning Star, which will be given by former DBOGA President Dennis Aylmer of Dun…

On the western edge of Europe lies a unique culture that depended and fought with the Atlantic Ocean for thousands of years. It is the native sailboat, the Galway Hooker, that sustained this poorest of communities, and the new generation…