Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

The disappearance of 129 people led by Sir John Franklin after they set out in 1845 to find a sea route to the Orient by way of the North-west Passage is one of the great mysteries of high-latitude exploration. That’s…

There’ll be celebrating in West Cork this Easter, and rightly so, as the 1902-vintage cutter Lady Min – designed, built and sailed in Schull by the O’Keeffe family during 120 years – has been garlanded with honours at this week’s…

Yet again, Ireland's classic boat restorers have found themselves on the peak of the podium, this time at last night's International Classic Boat Awards 2023 in London. The O'Keeffe family's gaff cutter Lady Min, designed and built in Schull by…

Let us imagine that you are both an enthusiast for Conor O’Brien (1880-1952), the Shannon Estuary’s great pioneering voyager, and that you are also one of those number-crunchers who enjoy calculating on what particular day significant anniversaries will fall in…

The old minesweeper HMS Enterprise has all but submerged in Kilkeel Harbour in Northern Ireland, as Afloat.ie reader Lee Maginnis has shared with his. His recent images of the vessel show a significant degradation from the last update in autumn…

Appropriately, given the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race will be the 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, a significant number of classic yachts are entered, competing for the Dorade Cup. In 2021, Paul Moxon’s Amokura was the oldest boat in the race and…

Classic clinker-built wooden dinghies can mean a lot of maintenance work as they mature. Betty Armstrong's recent stories on Afloat.ie of restoration projects on some of the almost-forgotten 14ft Ballyholme Insects in the North, will have been an evocative reminder…

A year ago, the world of classic boats in Ireland was on a high with the news that maritime polymath Hal Sisk of Dun Laoghaire had been acclaimed as International Classic Boater of the Year, while Steve Morris of Kilush Boatyard…

Naomh Éanna, the iconic CIE passenger/cargoship that for decades served the main Aran Islands-Galway route until 1988, is through artefacts to feature in a permanent maritime exhibition. The exhibition according to the Galway Advertiser is to be part of the…

The 14-foot clinker-built dinghy has XIV on the stern, and it was sold to Paddy Prunty, ex Manager of Kinnego Marina on Lough Neagh, as a Ballyholme Insect class dinghy. In 1953, Mantis was listed as number 14 in the…

The St Ayles skiff Ealu, new-built by Seol Sionna in Kilrush, has been entered for this year's edition of the vast and deservedly legendary Semaine du Golfe for traditional and classic boats at the Morbihan in Southern Brittany from May…

We’re accustomed to thinking of successful and long-lived local One-Design keelboat classes as being a distinctive feature of Irish sailing. Thus we tend to overlook the fact that one particular Scottish designer created more of these Irish boats than anyone…

A full turnout of Maritime Heritage enthusiasts from around Co. Down gathered last weekend in the Bangor City Hall Chamber for a Conference to hear eleven illustrated presentations on subjects ranging from 1000 years of the Strangford Ferry to new…

Insect dinghies are like buses. You wait for ages (in this case, years), and then two (or more) turn up at once. The exciting aspect of this is that Insect dinghies are over seventy years old and a testament to…

Aran island resident Micheál Ó Goill was all of six years of age when he saw the Naomh Éanna making its first sailing in from Galway to Inis Mór. That was April 1958, and in August of that year, it…

Among Belfast’s leading visitor attractions is HMS Caroline which is set to reopen in the city’s harbour after almost three years of closure. The WWI C-class light-cruiser HMS Caroline, which is the only surviving ship from that war’s Battle of…