Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Kévin Bloch took a hard earned fifth place on Tuesday (4 July) at the end of the first offshore leg of the Tour de Bretagne a la Voile, racing from Saint Quay-Portrieux to…

Irish skipper Tom Dolan eagerly looks forward to Saturday's Tour de Bretagne à la Voile, where he believes a podium place is within reach. The four-stage, double-handed race starts on Saturday, July 1st and goes around the Brittany peninsula starting…

A vessel has been found in the search for a solo sailor who went missing last week while en route to West Cork. However, there is still no sign of its skipper, whose family have issued an appeal for any…

Jakub Ziemkiewicz tells me he was “born to sail but forced to work.” He is working as I talk to him - on the yacht he is building in a shed at Aghada in the northeast corner of Cork Harbour…

An international Irish sailing event called the “Saoirse Rally” organised by the Irish Cruising Club, launched from Dun Laoghaire harbour, Co. Dublin, Ireland last Saturday, 17th June 2023, to commemorate the heroic achievements one hundred years ago of legendary Irish…

The Commemoration of the Centenary of the pioneering global circumnavigation south of the Great Capes by Conor O’Brien of Foynes, sailing the 42ft ketch Saoirse between June 20th 1923 and June 20th 1925, was put underway yesterday (Saturday) from Dun…

The Royal Irish Yacht Club was the focus on Saturday afternoon for the beginning of celebrations of the centenary of Conor O'Brien's departure in Saoirse from Dun Laoghaire Harbour on his pioneering global circumnavigation. An Irish Cruising Club/Royal Cruising Club gathering was hosted…

A hundred years ago next Tuesday, June 20th, Conor O'Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes took his departure with some fanfare aboard his 42ft Saoirse from the harbour her skipper preferred to call Dunleary, though most of its citizens saw it as…

With just three weeks to go to the Centenary of the departure from Ireland on June 20th 1923 of Conor O’Brien’s world-girdling 42ft Baltimore-built ketch Saoirse, the public debut of the re-born Saoirse (Fred Kinmonth) at last weekend’s Baltimore Wooden…

“There’s a Japanese man coming, it’s probably revenge..would you just go away, I’m old; I don’t mind dying “ “I came back three hours later and they were on their third bottle of white wine..” That’s one of many memories…

Wooden boats will dominate Baltimore Harbour this weekend when the West Cork village welcomes back the annual gathering of traditional vessels. Like many other events the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival, which had been held annually for seventeen years from 2002,…

An exhibition this autumn marking the golden jubilee Commander Bill King’s solo sail around the world is one of a number of events planned by Galway Bay Sailing Club (GBSC) commodore Johnny Shorten to pay tribute to an “unsung hero”. It…

“Light, backing -fluctuating” was how the late Commander Bill King described winds in the final frustrating days of his successful solo sail around the world half a century ago. The log entry for his schooner Galway Blazer II, recorded in…

Ìmagine being just 50 nautical miles away from completing a third attempt in the best part of five years to sail around the world solo, and hoping for some wind. That was the situation that the late Commander Bill King…

On this day half a century ago, solo sailor Commander Bill King was still becalmed on board Galway Blazer II in the final stages of his global circumnavigation. This was his third – and first successful - attempt to sail…

“Fog cleared….BECALMED” wrote the late Commander Bill King in his log this day 50 years ago, during his epic global circumnavigation in his yacht Galway Blazer II. His logs have been made public for the first time in advance of…