Vote for your Sailor of the Year 2011

#TITANIC - Philip Hammond's Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic will be staged at St Anne's Cathedral on the centenary of the tragedy, BBC News reports. The Belfast composer has spent over three years working on the "haunting" music that will pay tribute to the more than 1,500 people who lost their lives when the TItanic sank in 1912. His requiem uses phrases from varia...

#ANGLING - Enniscorthy anglers have secured the support of the board of Inland Fisheries Ireland in their call to lift the ban on using shrimp as bait. As the Enniscorthy Guardian reports, members of the Enniscorthy Local Anglers group argue that shrimp is ideal bait for catching salmon downstream, and are "baffled" by the ban on its use by IFI officials. In a letter to the I...

#LIFEBOATS – While RNLI beach lifeguards take a break from life-saving on the North coast of Northern Ireland, RNLI Lifeguard Supervisor Tim Doran, originally from Armagh and living in Portstewart, along with his colleague Ross Macleod, RNLI Beach Safety Programme Manager, were busy teaching others (pictured above) how to save lives thousands of miles away in Cameroon. The t...

#NEWS UPDATE - Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney has launched a public consultation process on harnessing the potential of Ireland's vast marine resources. Our Ocean Wealth is calling for input into how Ireland can best capitalise on the trillion-euro global market for marine products and services, from seafood and tourism to shipping, oil and gas, renewable ocean energy a...

#FISHING - Fishermen from Galway met Minister for Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte at Leinster House yesterday to voice their concerns over a cap on oyster dredging licences, Galway Bay FM reports. Local fishermen in the inner Galway Bay-Clarinbridge area are concerned that their livelihoods are at risk after the European Union ruled that there is over-intensification of fishing...

#BEN AINSLIE – As Britain's sailing superstar awaits a hearing with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) over the incident at the World Championships in Perth last December, the consensus in the electronic media is that he has been hard done by and blame should be attributed to the media boat that caused the wash that was at the centre of the row. While quite a few of the com...

#LASER – All Master Laser sailors are invited to compete in the second running of the Laser Inter-club Masters' Challenge being held by Howth Yacht Club on Saturday 10th March as the finale to the Laser Frostbite Series. All Masters Laser sailors are invited to enter teams (3 minimum) to compete for the trophy. The event consists of 3 races (two windward-leewards, each appro...

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - A golden dhow presented to the city of Galway by the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club marks the new connection between these host ports of the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race. The Galway Advertiser reports on the Galway-Abu Dhabi Maritime Cultural Exchange initiative, which has already seen a Galway hooker race against traditional Arabian dhows in the Persian Gu...

#FERRY NEWS - The Fastnet Line ferry service between Cork and Swansea is to close with the loss of 78 jobs. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the operator had been in examinership since last November, and a restructured business plan had been submitted with a view to resuming high-season service in April. However, in a statement the owners of the Fastnet Line said they had...

#COASTGUARD - Representaives of Italy's coastguard will give an account of its handling of the Costa Concordia tragedy at an international conference in Dublin next month, The Irish Times reports. The Italian coastguard has been invited to deliver the keynote address at Search and Rescue 2012, which is being hosted in Ireland for the first time. It is expected that this addre...

#GP14 –  Irish GP14 dinghy sailing gets a boost this season with the support of insurance firm Craftinsure for the class national championships The firm has also been selected to handle the GP14 Association insurance scheme with effect from 1st April 2012 following a review by the Association. The insurance scheme for the GP14 Class Association is one of the longest est...

#PORTS & SHIPPING – Drogheda Port set a record tonnage cargo with the arrival of Arklow Bridge (2011/4,723grt) last week. The vessel operated by Arklow Shipping N.V. as previously reported on Afloat.ie had carried 7,125 tonnes of maize, the largest ever single cargo handled in the Co. Louth port, writes Jehan Ashmore. Arklow Bridge is the  second 'B' class vessel th...

#ROWING –  Aodhan Kelly told tonight of his gutsy escape from the cabin of the stricken Sara G, which capsized yesterday just 520 miles from its destination of Barbados. All six of the crew of the ocean rowing boat, who had left Morocco hoping to break the record for rowing the Atlantic, made it to the life raft and were rescued by a cargo ship which came to their aid. ...

#FERRY NEWS - The operators of the Celtic Sea ferry route between Cork-Swansea need to secure over €1m in investment today in order to save the company after being thrown a €300,000 funding lifeline by Cork's local authorities. Cork City Council agreed last night to invest €100,000 in the Fastnet Line, bringing its total investment in the company to €365,000. It follo...

#MARINAS - Sandy Bay is the only "realistic" location for the development of a new marina in the Larne area, according to a local council majority. The Larne Times reports that a feasibility study of the borough, looking into the potential for marina facilities and watersports, identified a number of possible sites, including Curran Point and Howden's Quay, and an extension of...

#DALKEY ISLAND PROSPECT - The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has joined the chorus of opposition to the proposed oil and gas exploration off Dalkey Island in Co Dublin. As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Providence Resources has applied for a foreshore licence to search for oil or gas about 6km out to sea on the Kish Bank Basin. But the prospect has provoked a split i...

#ROWING – Ocean rower Aodhan Kelly is travelling the opposite direction to the one he expected this morning – but he is reported to be safe and well after a tumultous 24 hours. The Dubliner and the five other men in the crew of the Sara G were hoping to set a new record for rowing across the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados, but they capsized at 11 am yesterday 520 miles f...

#ROWING – The crew of the Sara G, including Irishman Aodhan Kelly, have been picked up at sea after a capsize. The shore-based team said the six-man crew were safe and well on board the cargo ship Nord Taipei. The crew had been attempting to break the world record for rowing the Atlantic Ocean....

#OLYMPIC – Both of Ireland's Olympic sailing contenders are ranked fifth in the latest official world rankings released this evening by International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Dun Laoghaire's Annalise Murphy is on equal points with world Laser Radial champion Marit Bouwmeester in fourth but the overall rankings leader is Chnia's Lijia Xu. Mens keelboat pairing Peter O'Lear...

#CRUISING – The Cruising Club of America (CCA) has awarded its esteemed 2011 Blue Water Medal to Thies Matzen and Kicki Ericson for a commendable 24 years and 135,000 miles of sailing the oceans of the world with a focus in the high latitudes of the Southern Ocean. The first Blue Water Medal was awarded in 1923; and is given to "the most meritous example of seamanship." Its r...