Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A country park doesn’t readily come to mind as a venue for a weekend of St.Ayles Skiff racing, but Delamont lies on the shores of Strangford Lough near Killyleagh and has proved an ideal base for this activity in the…

Cork Harbour's Ocean to City race is taking entries from February 15th for its 19th annual event on June 3rd. Over 500 people participated in last year’s event, which returned after a two-year break due to Covid-19. The all-inclusive rowing…

There have been calls to "urgently remove" a capsized former Galway-Aran Islands passenger and freight ferry that was left to rot in a Dublin dry-dock reports Dublin Live.  As Afloat reported earlier the veteran vessel had taken in water ingress during the…

The Portaferry and Strangford Trust (PAST) is a charity, based in Portaferry at the mouth of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, which aims to promote an awareness of the rich maritime heritage and natural environment of the Lough and the…

Irish boat restoration projects are no strangers to the annual International Classic Boat Awards, the most recent being April 2022's accolade for Stephen Morris of Kilrush and his work on the Dublin Bay 21s for Fionan de Barra and Hal…

The Journal has highlighted the upcoming centenary of Irish yachtsman Conor O’Brien’s pioneering circumnavigation. In June 1923, Limerick man O’Brien set off on his yacht the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the…

The 160ft schooner Eleanora, a modern classic based on a 1910 design, is in the long process of rising from what seemed to be a permanent watery grave after she was T-boned in Tarragona Harbour in June by a hefty…

Galway Hooker Sailing Club will be running its final pop-up shop in Galway city this weekend, 16 and 17 December — just in time for the run-up to Christmas. Once again the shop is being hosted on the premises of…

Time was when the launch of commemorative stamps by An Post was done with considerable fanfare. But these days it seems that they believe good work is best done by stealth, as the launching last week of stamps to mark…

John Kearon described in one of several interviews I had with him during the conservation of Asgard at the National Museum how he had “crawled in desperation to the aftermost beams, hoping to find some evidence to prove the beams…

The gaunt but serene Erskine Childers (52) died an hour after dawn on November 24th 1922 in Beggars Bush Barracks in Dublin. He had been captured as an armed opponent of the new Irish Free State Government’s policy of implementing…

Cork’s community boatyard, Meitheal Mara, has appointed writer, sailor and adventurer, Jasper Winn, as its “writer-in-motion”. His task is to write a book about its history since foundation in 1993, analysing what it has achieved and looking to its future.…

A Swan 36 from the famous Nautor yard in Pietarsaari, Finland was the type of boat that Del Fairley had set his heart on, but the one he found in 2018 on the hard at East Down Yacht Club on…

Dutch Inspectorate and Cultural Heritage Agency award contract to the Maritime Observatory to continue monitoring important underwater heritage sites The Information and Heritage Inspectorate and Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), both part of the Ministry of Education, Culture…

Afloat.ie reader Lee Maginnis has provided an update on the current condition of the old minesweeper HMS Enterprise in Kilkeel Harbour, and the news is not good. The former Royal Navy minesweeper with a storied history was previously anchored in…

Marine archaeologist Mensun Bound has witnessed great works of art lying on the seabed and chests overflowing with treasure but says, “nothing compares with finding the Endurance....” In an interview with The Irish Examiner, Bound says he can still recall…