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Kinsale's Cian McCarthy and Sam Hunt putting
For sure, it’s very easy to make too much of the power of the Irish global diaspora. After all, these days just about everybody in the creative arts – particularly writing, acting and music – will determinedly claim an Irish…
Dave Dwyer’s Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble crew competing at July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta
Dave Dwyer’s success with Swuzzlebubble comes from a determination to acquire the classic Farr-designed half-tonner, which had been a wreck in Greece. He comes from a Cork family that has a four-generation sailing history. Dave Dwyer’s Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble competing…
Tomek Ciezki of Heavy Man Films, director of Man Versus Ocean
When Tomek Ciezki of Heavy Man Films was asked to meet a man who wanted to make a video of his “holiday and travel photos”, he was initially doubtful. However, the footage took him aback – he was stunned by…
The first boat ever to be awarded a major perpetual cruising trophy was Royal Ulster YC member Dr Howard Sinclair’s 26ft Brenda, which received the new Challenge Cup of the Cruising Club in 1895 for a Round Ireland cruise. Built as a straight-stemmed racing boat to W E Paton’s designs in Belfast in 1886, Brenda was converted for cruising in 1891, and in 1894 she was lengthened forward with a “modern” stem to Dr Sinclair’s own designs by John Hilditch of Carrickfergus
In a week’s time, Sailing on Saturday will resume normal service with a preview on December 23rd of the up-coming Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race on December 26th, both generally and from an Irish angle, for we…
Eric de Turckheim’s NMYD 54 Teasing Machine from France, seen here on the way to winning the 2022 Middle Sea Race, is RORC “Yacht of the Year” 2023. TM’s owner has indicated a strong interest in returning to contest the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race on June 22nd 2024
We know that the biennial SSE Renewables 700-mile Round Ireland Race from Wicklow is a significant fixture in the international calendar. We know it well, because since its inception through the dedication of the late Michael Jones and his voluntary…
An artist's impression of the Bremore Ireland Port Development plan
Marine leisure facilities will be included, including the possibility of a new marina on the north-east coast, because there is room for one in the Bremore Port development at Drogheda. Dr. Joe Hiney, a director at Bremore Port and an…
Sunshine action and breeze for “cruisers” racing on Dublin Bay. Late August and September 2024 will see unprecedented national and international competition from Dun Laoghaire’s Royal Irish YC for the “boats with a lid”
Let us begin by simply setting out the pillar events of the 2024 season in Ireland, while including the major international happenings which will be of interest to our sailing community. And then we’ll provide a further take on it…
Artist Maria Simonds Gooding with An File - Blasket islander Micheál O Gaoithín
Imagine being on your own on a Blasket island, dependent on several divers to come and collect you – and then their dinghy runs out of fuel. If a fishing vessel hadn’t spotted the reflection of a mirror they had…
Telling it like it is. While there is very much more to Irish sailing than success in world-level events, it is only achievements like this that register immediately with the premier national TV news programmes
What, you might well wonder, is a blatant billboard doing at the top of the page this Saturday morning, even if it is exactly a month to Christmas, and Christmas has come early for Ireland’s younger international sailors in 2023?…
Claire Morgan and Barry Hayes with loft Shelty, Bert at their new sailing shop in Crosshaven, Co. Cork
After 50 years, there is a major change in sailmaking at Crosshaven, Cork Harbour’s dominant sailing centre..Outside the village, the loft associated with the legendary Des McWilliams and family is no longer a sailmaking centre. Barry Hayes and his wife,…
Ger O’Rourke of Limerick’s Cookson 50 Chieftain slicing her way through the Solent at the start of the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race, from which she emerged as overall winner
The Cruising Group can often emerge as the backbone of any sailing club, particularly in the winter. Back in the day when the new Howth Yacht Club premises opened in March 1987, fresh concepts were needed to ensure that the…
French oceans advisor Vincent Doumeizel
It is easier to pump oil from the bottom of the ocean than to farm seaweed, according to French oceans advisor Vincent Doumeizel. Doumeizel, from Burgundy in France, is a senior advisor on the oceans to the United Nations (UN)…
Tom Dolan sets out on his Round Ireland Speed Challenge  from Dublin Bay on October 29th
Tom Dolan halted his latest Round Ireland speed challenge on October 31st due to worsening weather forecasts off the South and Southwest coast. It was a disappointing decision for him and his team and a great many readers who had…
The start from Dun Laoghaire in 1888 of a Royal Alfred Yacht Club cross-channel race to Holyhead, where the finish would be co-ordinated by the Royal Mersey YC or the Royal Dee YC. This weekend sees two prize-givings in Dun Laoghaire with direct links to this 1888 event. The Royal Alfred YC is now merged into Dublin Bay SC, whose annual trophy distribution took place last night (Friday) in the National Maritime Museum. And tonight (Saturday) the Irish Sea Offshore Racing – formed in 1972 in a direct line of organisational descent from the early cross-channel inter-club co-operations shown above – will be holding its annual prize-giving dinner in the National YC in Dun Laoghaire
It’s prize-giving time down beside the Old Granite Pond. Last night (Friday), Commodore Eddie Totterdell presided over Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s annual re-distribution of their enormous cache of trophies in the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire. And tonight (Saturday),…
Unease in the fishing industry about lack of government co-ordination
There is a growing feeling in the fishing industry that there is a lack of coordination between various Government Departments in developing marine, specially designated protected areas. This has been particularly highlighted by the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, which has claimed that the…
A perfect start. Tom Dolan departs the Kish Lighthouse at full speed last Sunday (October 29th) at 1600 hrs. The boat may be French, but the skipper is pure Meath, and the lighthouse tower structure was built in Dun Laoghaire Harbour in the 1960s before being towed eight miles out to sea and secured into the Kish Bank at the mouth of Dublin Bay
A statement from Tom Dolan Racing, issued at 07:54 on the morning of Wednesday, November 1st after his anti-clockwise Round Ireland Campaign from Dublin in his Figaro 3 had been abruptly brought to a halt at Dingle on Tuesday evening…

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