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Northern Ireland Sailing & Boating News
British windsurfer Sam Sills scooped a silver medal in a thrilling finale to the first Olympic class regatta of 2023
British windsurfer Sam Sills scooped a silver medal in a thrilling finale to the first Olympic class regatta of 2023. Sills, 29, from Launceston in Cornwall, dominated the opening round of the iQFOiL Games in Lanzarote but had to settle…
The new water-ballasted JPK 1030
Alan Hannon's beautiful North Sails-powered "Coquine" has just taken to the seas in Bangor. She is a brand new JPK 1030 design from the JPK yard in France - a not-so-little sister to Paul O'Higgins' Dun Laoghaire-based all-conquering JPK 1080…
Larne RNLI coxswain Frank Healy accepting a cheque for more than £3,000 from NFU Mutual agent Richard Lee
NFU Mutual agents and staff in East Antrim recently nominated Larne RNLI to receive a donation of more than £3,000 from its national £1.92m Agency Giving Fund. The leading rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its third year,…
RYA Northern Ireland logo
RYA Northern Ireland have launched an OnBoard Development Day which will be hosted by the South Lakes Leisure Centre in Craigavon on Saturday 11 March 2023. OnBoard, RYA’s grassroots programme, is relatively new in Northern Ireland. Its aim is to…
Jacqui McCrum, Secretary General of the Department of Defence with Daragh Sheridan, Chief Executive of Sail Training Ireland at the signing of the Performance Delivery Agreements in Dublin
The Department of Defence will continue to provide funding to Sail Training Ireland for three more years from this year, 2023. This funding will provide sail training to young persons from disadvantaged backgrounds. This funding is subject to compliance with…
The Foyle Punt evolved from the generic Donegal Punt and was the workhorse of fishing Communities along Lough Foyle. The craft was raced by their owners at local regattas along the shores of the Lough. A new punt will be built by student Orlagh Thompson at the Basque Maritime Heritage Association in Pasaia, Spain as part of her boat-building studies
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…
File image of Atlantic salmon migrating upstream in the River Finn
The Loughs Agency will retain salmon carcass tag numbers for licence holders for the 2023 season in line with the policy followed in the previous two years. Based on the information collected in 2022, a continual fall in salmon numbers…
There are plans to develop an international watersports facility at a new-look Ballyholme Yacht Club and Watersports Centre
Bangor Waterfront Development will receive £40 million in funding as part of the Belfast Region City Deal. Ards and North Down Borough Council welcomed the news a year after the UK and NI Executive Ministers signed the first-ever City Deal…
Northern Ireland ice swimmer Grace McLaughlin
A County Down swimmer has broken a world record and claimed two gold medals at the ice swimming world championships, reports The Belfast Telegraph. Grace McLaughlin from Bangor defied freezing temperatures to triumph at the International Ice Swimming Association’s (IISA)…
Waszp sailors at Ballyholme (l to r )Luke McIlwaine, Daniel Corbett, Jeremy Tomalin, Matt McGovern, Mike Kimber and Rob Espey
It’s amazing what can be achieved if you put your mind to it. In September 2021 Rob Espey of Ballyholme Yacht Club bought a Waszp and at that time, his was the only one at the Club. Having a vision…
The One and Only….the original 35ft Ruffian slicing her way through the haze, on her way to overall victory in the 1971 Ailsa Craig Race
Time was in sailing when the Golden Jubilee of any One Design Class was a matter of extra-special celebration. But it’s now more than fifty years since glassfibre construction became mainstream. Thus instead of fleets dominated by timber boats which…
Stuart Cranston’s Ker 32 from Strangford Lough Yacht Club will compete again on Dublin Bay at July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2023
The first Northern Ireland boats to enter the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July are Stuart Cranston’s Ker 32 from Strangford Lough Yacht Club and John Minnis’s Final Call II, an Archambault A35 from Royal Ulster on Belfast Lough. By…
Stuart Cranston's Ker 35 Hijacker from Strangford Lough Yacht Club competing at the 2022 Portaferry Town Regatta
The last time the RC35s raced in Belfast Lough was in the 2022 Bangor Town Regatta. And so successful was the class that it can look forward to a stand-alone event in June this season. Hosted by the Royal Ulster…
The crew of Optimistic  relaxing in Cape Verde (from left to right)  Matt Ruiz, Anna Richmond, Elwyn Agnew, Michael Browne and Emily Agnew
Ballyronan Boat Club is a small club on the Northwestern shore of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, the largest body of inland water in the British Isles, and it was from this small outfit that the Commodore, Elwyn Agnew and…
First look - Curly Morris and Rachel Stewart racing in a GP14 dinghy at the East Antrim Boat Club Christmas Regatta on Larne Lough
Luckily for East Antrim Boat Club the weather for its Christmas Regatta in Larne Lough didn’t live up to the forecast and there was a lot less wind than expected. Despite the constantly shifting breeze the race officer Richard Doig…
The RNLI's Denis Brophy (second from right) meets Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) volunteers have been recognised in His Majesty The King’s New Year Honours for their roles in helping the charity save lives at sea. Five RNLI volunteers with nearly 240 years of service between them – including…