Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

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…

“Atlantic alert for yachtsman”, read the headline in the Daily Express 50 years ago. The missing yachtsman was the late Commander Bill King of Galway, then 62 years old and on his latest attempt to sail around the world solo…

Following this week's Mariners Memorial gathering on Monday at Galway Bay Sailing Club, which featured - among other significant west coast maritime memorabilia - some key items relating to the area's own global-circumnavigating Bill King of Galway Blazer II fame,…

(Day Four 1600hrs) - Tom Dolan sailed back to Dun Laoghaire this evening, having completed the Round Ireland speed record course but without breaking any records, as Afloat reported earlier here He arrived back at the Dun Laoghaire finish line of…

(Day four, 0800) Light winds - mostly from ahead - and adverse Spring tides in the most tide-riven part of the unforgiving North Channel, have seen Tom Dolan's clockwise Round Ireland solo/duo challenge evaporate through the night. By midnight, he…

Day 3 (1030hrs) – Ireland's northwest corner, the unspectacular but memorably-named Bloody Foreland in Donegal, lived up to its name all too well for Round Ireland record challenger Tom Dolan in his Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan at midnight. For although…

Day Two 0900 - Tom Dolan and his "non-sailing cameraman" aboard the Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, in their current multi-interpretation Round Ireland Challenge (is it double or solo?), had a frustrating time out beyond Achill Island early this morning. The…

Day Two: Meath maestro Tom Dolan's Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan came past the Blasket Islands northward bound at noon today (Thursday) on his clockwise Round Ireland Solo Record Challenge, making excellent progressin a brisk easterly wind that should carry him…

Noted marine climate expert and weather router, Chris Tibbs has commented that the Round Ireland Ireland Record poses one of the most intriguing yet manageable sailing challenges on earth. And it's particularly so when you're doing it in a mono-hull…

Day One (start):  Just before dawn on Wednesday, May 3rd 2023, Ireland's leading solo sailor, the French-based Tom Dolan, embarked on his latest adventure to round Ireland in under four days and break the 2020 doublehanded record according to the bid lodged…

Tom Dolan has advised of a 'Code Green' for his Round Ireland Speed Sailing Record attempt from tomorrow morning, meaning a start off Dun Laoghaire within 24 hours. Based on the latest weather forecast grids, the plan is to start…

Twenty years ago, the thought that the two Conor O’Brien-designed and Baltimore-built ketches – the 1922 42ft world-girdling Saoirse and the 1926 56ft trader-ferry Ilen - would be sailing together at their birthplace in 2023, the Centenary Year of the…

Kirsten Neuschäfer has made history as the first woman — and first South African — to win a solo round-the-world sailing race with her victory in the 2022-23 Golden Globe Race on Thursday (27 April). She also took line honours…

While his boat Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan has now been berthed at Greystones Harbour, south of Dublin, since Wednesday, Irish solo skipper Tom Dolan will start his 'stand by' period when he is reunited with the Figaro Beneteau 3 this weekend. Dolan…