Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Darryl Hughes’ renowned 43ft ketch Maybird, built by Tyrrell of Arklow in 1937 and superbly restored in substantial works project-managed by the owner himself in 2009-2011, has had – at 81 years old - probably her best year ever for…

#HistoricBoats - As the trumpeter sounded the Last Post reports the Evening Echo, it was an emotional time as those attendent and sang ‘Abide With Me’, while the names of five men who died in Cork Harbour just before Christmas…

#HistoricShips - One of Liverpool’s most significant historic vessels will have a more secure future thanks to a donation from the the operator of the UK north-west port, the Peel Ports Group. The safeguarding of the steam-powered former tug Daniel…

Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. There is a great lot to be said about the pride of a family in a boat and there is nothing wrong with being old when age is…

The keen November sailors of Crosshaven, Dun Laoghaire, Howth and Bangor weren’t the only ones to get a bonus afloat from the weekend’s almost freakish sunshine before the first real hints of winter arrived today writes W M Nixon. The…

#PaddleSteamer - In recent weeks, Waverley, the World's last sea-going paddle steamer, which has visited Irish ports among them Wicklow, returned to its Scottish homeport for winter layover following a UK season of coastal exursions, writes Jehan Ashmore. Waverley's wake…

Glen Hansard, Brendan Begley, Liam Holden and Brendan Moriarty were on The Late Late Show this past Friday evening (16 November) to talk their incredible adventure rowing and sailing a traditional curragh to Spain. The ‘modern day Celtic odyssey’ is…

When we’d flash floods pestering the country recently with wayward downpours, Gary MacMahon went to check out the beloved Ilen in Limerick docks, and found the old girl sitting serenely under her own private rainbow writes W M Nixon But…

The board of a famed Oslo Museum met for the first time outside Norway in Athy as part of this year's Ernest Shackleton Autumn School over the October Bank Holiday. Directors of The Fram Museum, which tells the story of…

Foynes Island in the Shannon Estuary exerts an almost supernatural attraction for the O’Brien family writes W M Nixon. The great circumnavigator Conor O’Brien always regarded it as his one and only true home. And though his voyagings and other…

Afloat.ie contributor and sailing historian Vincent Delany will describe the development of one design sailing in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) and the significance of the Water Wag on display in the National Maritime Museum in the Dublin Bay town, The talk,…

The death has occurred of Donal Lynch, one of Ireland’s leading figures in traditional boats, as Tom MacSweeney writes. Donal was one of the founding and leading figures in the development of Meitheal Mara, the community and traditional boatyard in…

The return of the restored trading ketch Ilen to Limerick after 92 years has been a matter of quiet celebration among all involved since the 56ft “small tall ship" sailed up the Shannon Estuary from Baltimore at the beginning of…

#rmsLeinster - In advance of last week's RMS Leinster centenary ceremony, Afloat visited Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (dlr) LexIcon Library, to discover in addition to the 'lego' model of RMS there was another model recently acquired, writes Jehan Ashmore. On arrival to…

#HistoricBoats - Afloat has noted work has recently begun in Dublin's Grand Canal Dockyard to transform a former CIÉ Aran Islands passenger /freight ferry as previously covered into a floating 5-star luxury hotel on the Liffey, writes Jehan Ashmore. Commenting to…

The restored 1926-built 56ft ketch Ilen proudly tells us on her transom that her home port is Limerick writes W M Nixon. And while Limerick may have come to prominence as a raiding base and trading centre for the Vikings…