WM Nixon
William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.
New Sailing Instruction Module - Santa Cruz Sailing School Does it With Surf….(VIDEO)
13th January 2021 Youth Sailing
They say that a good junior sail training programme will gradually introduce the young people to an increasingly demanding range of experiences afloat. But we doubt if the instructors in Santa Cruz in California at the weekend had had something…
Dublin Bay 21 Class Restoration in Kilrush Honoured in Annual Wood Awards Ireland
13th January 2021 Historic Boats
The continuing restoration of the Dublin Bay 21 class of 1902, in the longterm project guided by Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra of Dun Laoghaire, has seen the work of Master Shipwright Stephen Morris of Kilrush and his team…
Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle 2021: Rockabill Going for the “Threepeat”
11th January 2021 Dun Laoghaire Dingle
It’s only a week since the listings opened for the National YC’s 2021 Volvo Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race scheduled for June 9th, and already 15 definite entries have arrived in with such speed that the organising committee - under…
For sure, the pandemic-plagued year of 2020 - with its stop-start framework of activity afloat and ashore - was something beyond most sailors' experience. Yet ours is nothing if not a can-do sport. And while some sailing enthusiasts – particularly…
Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Will Show That Worse Things Can Happen at Sea
6th January 2021 Dublin Bay Old Gaffers
If you think that life is tough under the current pandemic, then the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association has just the thing to put current national and personal problems into perspective, with a comprehensively illustrated Zoom talk by noted maritime…
Belfast Lough's Sailing History Given Added Insight by Regatta Portrayal of 1829
4th January 2021 Belfast Lough
The history of sailing in Belfast Lough became so hectic in the 1890s, with the pioneering development of One-design keelboat classes and the first of Thomas Lipton's five America's Cup challenges going forth from Royal Ulster Yacht Club in 1899,…
Dublin Bay Sailing Club's recognition today as the Mitsubishi Motors "Sailing Club of the Year" 2021 on the strength of achieving a remarkably full programme in 2020 when Pandemic Regulations permitted is well merited. Yet it's only the second time…
Paddy Judge, a long-serving committee member and flag officer with Howth Yacht Club, succeeded Ian Byrne as Commodore as the members were asserting the club spirit with an impressive entry in the competition for the best Christmas Festive Lights display,…
When the Courtmacsherry Harbour Boat Club was founded ten years ago, the late Tim Severin - the neighbourhood's own legendary sea adventurer and explorer of international renown - found himself in several roles at the inaugural gathering. Naturally, he was…
Happy Irish Sailing Days May Not Be Here Again For a While, But We Can Hope…
26th December 2020 W M Nixon
Our header photo is one whose use had not been anticipated for at least another month, and hopefully not at all. For it was optimistically expected that by late January, we'd have evidence the vaccines were beginning to work, with…
In Greek mythology, at the Winter Solstice, there is a brief calm for the Halcyon Day, and this was the experience of the crew on the Limerick ketch Ilen as they headed away on Monday evening, after a busy two…
There are only a few harbours in Ireland where you get the feeling that the land is effortlessly embracing the sea rather than endlessly battling it, but Kinsale is undoubtedly one of them. The picturesque port town provides a gentle…
The great Captain Cook may have voyaged to the Pacific in 1769 for the astronomical purpose of observing the Transit of Venus from Tahiti. But tonight (Monday) the crew of the Limerick ketch Ilen have a more modest hope -…
The Irish Laser class would remind you of a murmuration of starlings. They major in highly flexible shape-changing formations in which the actual moving around of the fleet is a matter of independent individual units somehow sweeping together with apparently…
In normal times, the yearly Irish sailing fixtures list is a reasonably harmonious programme based around annual or biennial pillar events of various types and sizes, an ongoing succession of regattas and championships which slot together in a reasonably meaningful…
Galway Bay Sailing Club Can Still Celebrate Pandemic-Plagued Golden Jubilee Year
16th December 2020 Galway Harbour
Galway Bay Sailing Club, comfortably ensconced in their fine clubhouse at Renville New Harbour near Oranmore at the head of Galway Bay, can look back at many ups and downs during the fifty years of sailing development they've experienced from…
This week, Ann Kirwan of the National Yacht Club became the 25th Commodore of Dublin Bay Sailing Club at the club's 136th Annual General Meeting, in succession to Jonathan Nicholson of the Royal St George YC. This harmonious change of…
The Limerick ambassadorial ketch Ilen arrived on the Liffey River at Dublin in the late hours of Sunday after a fast passage, and since then has been out daily from Poolbeg Y & BC's marina on Dublin Bay with a…
Global circumnavigator Bill King of Oranmore Castle in Galway had lived to be 102 when he died – still very fit – in 2012. Yet he’d led such an extraordinary life of adventure and danger ashore and afloat and under…
Dun Laoghaire’s Haunted Harbour Provides Surreal Setting for Sailing Spooks
7th December 2020 Dun Laoghaire Harbour News
You will have seen Afloat’s photos (posted this morning) of various training “clinics” emerging into sunshine yesterday in and off Dun Laoghaire harbour as people tried to get in some regulation-compliant sailing after the "ghost season” which seems to have…
