Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

In a year in which one of our 'Sailor of the Month' awards went to America’s irrepressible George David for his fabulous overall victory in the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 in Rambler 88, we see no reason at all…

When one of the most hectic and important weekends of major championships in the Irish sailing calendar occurs precisely in the first two days of October, it’s easy to forget that September 2016 didn’t actually end until midnight on Friday.…

A world-beating performance in the Rio Olympics, with a Silver Medal convincingly taken in the final excruciatingly tense double-scoring Medals Race, has elevated the National YC’s Annalise Murphy to global sailing superstardom. The final two countdown months to this great…

These days when nearly every event of sailing significance seems to require a wave of publicity beforehand and a veritable tidal wave of that same publicity when it’s under way, it’s like a breath of fresh air when people just…

The conditions for the KBC Laser Radial Worlds in Dublin Bay could be tough. Not because the weather was severe, but because the wind kept taking off just when everyone hoped they’d settled into some good racing. Frustration takes it…

It was a real light-bulb moment when the initial notion of the brilliant idea which became the Beaufort Cup first surfaced. The concept of a series-within-a-series, a special programme for offshore racers crewed at least 50% by members of the…

While the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 was the most international ever seen, some of the keenest racing was among the Irish boats in a fleet of such quality that just to secure a class win was to have made…

There was something otherworldly and very special about the mighty silver bullet from the moment she arrived in Ireland, berthing quietly in Dun Laoghaire in the countdown to the Volvo Round Ireland Race at Wicklow on June 18th. George David’s…

When three MOD 70s swept through the starting line at Wicklow on Saturday June 18th for the Volvo Round Ireland Race, so much work behind the scenes had gone into bringing this very special trio to Ireland’s premier offshore racing…

For the second month running, we have been able to draw on the categorisaton of Ireland’s sailors as either Olympic or non-Olympic in order to provide two “Sailors of the Month” in a way which accurately reflects the diversity of…

With his splendid achievement on Sunday of chopping six hours off the established Round Ireland powerboat record time, John Ryan is acclaimed as May’s Powerboat “Sailor of the Month” with a breakthrough which could stand for quite some time. Ryan…

Finn Lynch (20) of County Carlow is the Afloat.ie Olympic “Sailor of the Month” for May, following his arduous and often lonely journey to succeed in taking over Ireland’s already-secured place in the International Laser Class in the 2016 Olympics…

Shane McCarthy of Greystones is the Afloat.ie Sailor of the Month (non-Olympic) for April following his stunning overall win in the GP 14 Worlds in Barbados. McCarthy was already on a roll after winning the British Opens in August last…

As the 2016 Olympic Sailing campaign builds up to its climax in Rio in August, Afloat.ie has agreed that until the Olympiad is over, our Sailor of the Month contenders will automatically be considered under two basic categories: Olympics and…

April has come upon us with so many podium positions suddenly taken by Irish sailors in major events that you could have been forgiven for thinking that our usual April 1st specials had been allowed to run on for a…

At February 19th’s AGM of the Irish Cruising Club, Alan Rountree of Wicklow was awarded two trophies of great distinction independently of each other. The ICC’s East Coast group nominated him for the Donegan Memorial Cup, which is for an…