Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

In the 21 years since the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” awards were first introduced, we have always dutifully waited until the end of the month before allocating the plaudits, even when it has been clear for days or even…

When that definitive image of young Aoife Hopkins leppin’ her Laser with rocket power out of a breaking wave at the European Women’s Laser Radials Under 21 Championship 2017 (July 17th to 24th) at Douarnenez in Brittany went viral, we…

When the JPK 10.80 Yes! crossed the finish line at Cowes in the huge-fleet Round the Island Race 2017 on Saturday July 1st, it provided Irish sailing with something very special to savour. Skippered by Crosshaven’s Nicholas ‘Nin’ O’Leary, Yes!…

The very special powerboats of SafeHaven Marine in East Cork have multiple uses, but high speed potential in a wide variety of sea conditions is invariably top of a list of very demanding priorities among the highly-regarded company’s prestigious customers.…

Although the Irish Cruiser Racing Association caters for boats with offshore potential, the annual ICRA Nationals are fought with all the intensity of a major inshore series, and the pressure of several races a day keeps up the heat. The…

The OSTAR – the premier Single-Handed Transatlantic Race, following the time-honoured course from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island – inevitably goes on for so long that even the most dedicated followers can sometimes allow a day or two…

Anyone who has ever raced against the J/109 Storm, campaigned by Pat Kelly and his close-knit family from Rush Sailing Club, quickly realises that they are up against something special in sailing. This is evident both with the Storm team…

It was the biggest ISA Youth Sailing Pathway Nationals yet seen, and the 2017 Championship at Ballyholme Yacht Club – 190 boats, 208 sailors – lived up to and beyond expectations in a variety of sailing conditions between 20th and…

Saskia Tidey’s enthusiasm for racing the 49erFX to Olympic level is such that after she’d exhausted every possibility of finding a sailing partner towards Tokyo 2020 within Ireland, she had to cast the net towards the UK, and linked up…

Tom Dolan from County Meath may still seem to some to be the new boy on the block for Irish participation in the small boat solo sailing scene centred around France. But he has clocked up quite a few miles…

The Irish Universities Sailing Association (IUSA) Intervarsities is a major team racing event attended by over 160 sailors across 26 teams. This year’s, staged at the hospitable Clifden Boat Club in the far west of Connemara and hosted by University…

It is already being celebrated as “The Race of the Year”, even though 2017 is barely two months old. But it is difficult to visualise any forthcoming contest that will quite match the 600-miles-plus ding-dong that was the battle for…

Daragh Nagle, an ex-Pat Dub who live and sails from Victoria on the west coast of Canada, is the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for February in honour of his award of the Irish Cruising Club’s premier trophy, the Faulkner…

Back in the Autumn of 2015, the CEO of Alex Thomson Racing, Stewart Hosford of Cork Harbour, had just received news that the very new IMOCA 60 Hugo Boss, with Thomson on board testing his latest craft to the limit,…

With a 7th overall in the mega-large fleet at the KBC Laser Worlds in Dun Laoghaire in July followed by December’s 9th overall in World Sailing’s Aon Youth Sailing Worlds in Auckland, Nicole Hemeryck – who turned 18 in December…

For months now, Enda O Coineen’s campaign in the Vendee Globe with the veteran IMOCA 60 Kilcullen Voyage has captured public imagination as the resilient 60-year-old lone sailor has battled the challenge of a lifetime in the most demanding sailing…