Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Ireland’s Tom Dolan, sailing with a crew comprising England’s Alan Roberts and French ace Gildas Mahe, took overall victory today in the hotly contested Figaro Beneteau 3 class in France’s huge annual Easter showcase regatta Spi Ouest France. Racing over four…

Irish sailor Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Achille Nebout should have been content with finishing in ninth place when they crossed the line off La Trinite sur Mer, Brittany yesterday, concluding the 315 nautical miles Laura Vergne Trophy, but…

Two weeks after his encouraging sixth in the 2023’s season’s first race, the Solo Maître CoQ, Irish sailor Tom Dolan transitions to double-handed mode as he pairs up with French ace Achille Nebout for the new 316 miles Trophee Laura…

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…

True to its tradition of hosting world-famous sailors, Les Sables d'Olonne, the global capital of single-handed ocean racing, is now home to the International Association of Cape Horners Cape Horn Hall of Fame. The International Association of Cape Horners (IACH)…

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan plans to return to his native Ireland from France in May when he will seek to break the singlehanded record for sailing 698 nautical miles around Ireland. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa –Kingspan is aiming…

Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan laid to rest the ghosts of three past Solo Maître CoQ events when he finished seventh overall from a 30-boat fleet Saturday. After his 11th in Wednesday’s short inshore race the skipper of Smurfit…

As expected the weather conditions and more significantly the sea state with a swell greater than 5 meters off Les Sables d'Olonne, required Race Management of the 20th Solo Maître CoQ to give up the idea of a short coastal…

After Monday's severe gales which buffeted the French Vendee coast to keep Ireland's Tom Dolan and the 29 other solo skippers tied to the dock in Les Sables d'Olonne unable to race, a proposed new programme for the Solo Maître…

The course for 2023's 54th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro will be contested over three stages over the period August 27 to September 13 and will call to Kinsale in late August. As Afloat reported earlier, the route was…

A comprehensive sail testing programme completed in January and longer periods of intensive pre-season training races should mean Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is well equipped to stake his claim to regular podium places over the course of the Figaro…

Kerry solo sailor Pat Lawless has decided not to enter this year’s Global Solo Challenge Race, which he had intended to do. After withdrawing from the Golden Globe Race at Cape Town due to self-steering failure, he announced that he…

The magnificent pioneering voyage round the world south of the Great Capes in 1923-1925 by Conor O’Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes, sailing his new-built engine-less 42ft Baltimore ketch Saoirse, was of such heroic proportions that any attempts at a re-enactment to…

Following Vincent Murphy's presentation on the life of circumnavigator Conor O’Brien at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary last Friday evening, Professor Patrick Frawley, a member of the Club, and a native of Foynes donated an unedited version of one of…

Kinsale Yacht Club member Vincent Murphy has put together a presentation on circumnavigator Conor O’Brien, which he will give on Thursday, February 9. Murphy has compiled a booklet on the subject, which he is in the process of having printed…

Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary welcomes Vincent Murphy on Friday evening, 13th January, at 7.30 pm, to give a 100th-anniversary presentation on the life of the late circumnavigator Conor O’Brien. In 1923-25, O'Brien became the first amateur skipper…