Blogs
On last week’s Podcast I wrote about the great Galway Hookers at the ‘Cruiniú’ – the Gathering of the Boats in Kinvara County Galway, a centre of traditional wooden boats. There are other boats sailing in the waters off Kinvara…
Dublin Bay, Greystones, Howth, Cork Harbour & Kinsale: It’s Down Home Time for Irish Sailing
24th August 2018 W M Nixon
When 2018’s rain-free heat-wave of zephyrs and calms was at its peak in July, old salts of every age and gender naturally and inevitably observed in their sagacious way that it would all end with a bang. They reckoned that…
The Chairman of the Galway Hookers Association says that these iconic boats deserve support to ensure their future as part of Ireland’s maritime heritage. Dr.Michael Brogan told me in an interview which you can hear on this week’s Podcast (below):…
With 178 Optimists racing in the Irish Nationals at Kinsale, and Ireland’s GP14 dinghies in fine form after the massive Worlds in England as they gather for their own Nationals in Sligo this weekend through to Monday, there’s much to…
MGM Boats Boss Wants to Tell Taoiseach Ireland Should Have a Dedicated Marine Department
14th August 2018 Tom MacSweeney
Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist who wrote ‘Treasure Island,’ didn’t have much regard for politicians. “Politics,” he wrote in ‘Familiar Studies of Men and Books,’ a collection of his articles and essays is “perhaps the only profession for which…
ICRA Nats 2018 in Galway will Celebrate the Atlantic Seaboard’s Great Sailors
11th August 2018 W M Nixon
With three-times-in-a-row class champion Joker 2 (John Maybury, Royal Irish YC) set to defend her title for an unprecedented fourth time, the Irish Cruiser Racing Association Nationals in Galway next week will be making history at least twice over in…
It’s great to see young sailors enthusiastic about the sport. Watching Topper dinghy sailors training for their big challenge, with determination and focus, is encouraging. The sport has a future if it can hold onto young sailors. This weekend young…
Daunt Rock Lifeboat Rescue Coxswain’s Medals To Feature In Cork Museum Exhibition
1st August 2018 Tom MacSweeney
The family of the RNLI Coxswain who led the Ballycotton Lifeboat in the famous Daunt Rock rescue in 1936, have presented the medals which he was awarded for the rescue to Cork City Museum. The medals, presented to Patrick Sliney,…
In the midst of high summer, with life slowed by the all-pervading heat, it is almost impossible to contemplate the sheer horror of total conflict as experienced in the industrialised attacks of the Great War of 1914-18 writes W M…
One Good Tern Deserves Another As Dublin Port Decides Not To Extend Itself
26th July 2018 Tom MacSweeney
“One good Tern deserves another,” I was told in a discussion during the past week about the increasing importance of Dublin Bay in marine conservation terms – around the same time as Dublin Port announced that it was not going…
Cork Week 2018 Review: Royal Cork Yacht Club's Colourful Sailing Complexity
20th July 2018 W M Nixon
If you set out to explain to a stranger to sailing everything that has been going on afloat and ashore at Volvo Cork Week 2018 (and we refer only to the official events), then you’d find yourself warbling away until…
Ireland’s Sailing Military Won’t Need a Soldier’s Wind for Top Performance in Beaufort Cup & Cork Week
13th July 2018 W M Nixon
Time was when “A Soldier’s Wind” was a slightly patronising term used to describe exceptionally favourable conditions for smooth voyaging in the great days of sail, with a beam reach in a good Force 4 being held up as the…
Royal Cork Yacht Club's Under 25 Keelboat Initiative & Why Cork Week Had To Change
12th July 2018 Tom MacSweeney
I remember being part of a fleet of some 700 yachts, the sight of which, winding its way in a long parade out of Crosshaven every morning to the racing grounds, drew crowds to watch Cork Week. Those days have…
After four call-outs in three days to help fifteen people, reported earlier by Afloat.ie here, Lough Ree RNLI station has issued a warning to boat users that water levels may be lower than usual and to take more care writes…
Where is the Dept of Marine? Why Tom MacSweeney is Disgusted by Government’s Maritime Ignorance
28th June 2018 Tom MacSweeney
I am not a convinced believer in Government marine policy. Though I accept there have been improvements in the State attitude towards the maritime sphere in recent years, there is still a big defect – marine policy is not a…
National Yacht Club on Course for Another Magic Regatta Summer’s Day & Night
23rd June 2018 W M Nixon
The Annual Regatta of any yacht or sailing club is the ultimate expression of the club’s identity. The ideal is a very special mixture of the best of sailing sport afloat followed by hospitality and conviviality ashore, with it all…