Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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…

Nobody knows how maritime researcher and historian Cormac Lowth does it all. But while most of us are still absorbing his recently-launched encyclopaedic book about the once hugely active Ringsend sailing trawler fleet, he has been re-focusing on another of…

The Bantry Longboat Fionnbarra, community-built by Meitheal Mara, and with rig perfectly set up, made an impressive sight in the Autumn sunshine of Cork Harbour at the weekend. The 2007 built boat had been the focus of a refurbishment project…

Most people will know that Malin Head is Ireland's most northerly point of Ireland and the sea has affected this community forever; Malin Head used to have a large salmon fleet, it also had the biggest brown crab fishery in…

One of Ireland's most eagerly awaited films releases in cinemas this Friday, the 21st of October 2022. On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, Pádraic is devastated when his buddy Colm suddenly puts an end to their lifelong…

We've a plea for help from Darren Fowler in the Channel Islands: "I am currently restoring the Lymington Slipway 5 tonner "Sardrette", 182817, first registered 27/7/51 in Guernsey. There is very little information available on these boats; I have read…

The 25ft gaff cutter Sally O'Keeffe, built by a community group at Querrin on the Loop Head Peninsula under the guidance of master shipwright Steve Morris of Kilrush, to a design by Myles Stapleton of Malahide as a miniature synthesis…

A collaboration between Galway Bay Boat Tours, Galway Hooker Sailing Club and Galway Bay Seafoods, this will celebrate Galway’s maritime culture on October 21/22/23, a 3-day event in Galway’s Docklands, the harbour, the commercial Docks, Claddagh and along the seashore.…