Galway Buzzes with Hookers, Viking Longships & a New Mast for Green Dragon
26th May 2017 Galway Hookers
The veteran Volvo Racer Green Dragon (back mast-less in her old home port of Galway since Sunday) has been sorted. Her spare mast will be stepped today, with the port’s adopted French supersailor Yannick Lemonnier playing a key role in…
The intriguing story of how a ship’s gig of 1796 came to be quietly preserved in Bantry House is well known among classic and traditional boat enthusiasts writes W M Nixon. The elegant craft was left behind after the unsuccessful…
When you’ve an inland sea well filled with islands, the tides running between them are bound to be quite strong from time to time writes W M Nixon. After the second day of the Morbihan Festival of Sail, the veteran…
Viking Raiders to Take Galway Tradboat Festival By Pre-Arranged Surprise
23rd May 2017 Historic Boats
When the Vikings were busy at the day job raiding along the Irish coast, they relied on a considerable element of surprise to achieve success writes W M Nixon. So much so, in fact, that they occasionally worked overtime, and…
When you’ve 1400 sailing boats gently milling about, all in seemingly amiable confusion but with lots of warm sunshine, it’s an achievement to avoid a collision, and it’s a real breakthrough when you can recognise another participant writes W M…
Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival This Weekend Sees Debut of Ilen’s 'Valentine Punt'
22nd May 2017 Ilen
The annual Baltimore Wooden boat Festival this weekend (full dates are Friday 26th to Sunday 28th May) provides the perfect setting for a remarkable range of craft of all shapes, sizes and rigs writes W M Nixon. It brings with…
Howth 17 sailors are nothing if not optimists writes W M Nixon. They need to be, sailing a fleet in which the five oldest boats date back to 1898. Yet as reported on Saturday, everything was going fine with all…
The 1898-vintage Howth Yacht Club Howth Seventeens haven’t survived and thrived for 119 years without being crazy like foxes now and again writes W M Nixon. So when six of them set off for Rosslare yesterday on their way to…
As a fleet of Irish historic yachts depart for Morbhian Traditional Yachting Regatta and Dun Laoghaire Regatta announces up to 70 classic boat entries will compete in its inaugural Kingstown 200 Cup, classic boats continue to register for Glandore's Classic…
In the Committee Room of Galway Bay Sailing Cub there hangs a neatly-framed flag writes W M Nixon. But the flag itself is no longer neat – it has been battered by the winds. This flag has been about, and…
The last time the Alfred Mylne-designed Dublin Bay 24s raced together in their home waters was Saturday, September 25th 2004 writes W M Nixon. Since then, the class has been through various traumas as projects for a group rebuild/restoration in…
The Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival 2017 from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th May will feature a remarkable selection of old, restored and new craft - traditional and classic alike - all reflecting the many aspects of the arts and crafts…
#Currach - The first of four new community-built currachs launches from Inishbofin this afternoon (Sunday 30 April), as Galway Bay FM reports. Young people from the Connemara island have been heavily involved in the traditional boat-building project, funded via the…
Some boats are Classics from birth, others acquire Classic status over time, and there are others beyond that again which have had imaginative things done to them in order to confer a new Classic status writes W M Nixon. Back…
#SaveShip! - Time is running out to save iconic Naomh Eanna, a former Aran Islands ferry and freight ship, writes Galway Independent. A voluntary group which hoped to return the ship to Galway into a maritime attraction at the Long…
#Laurentic - History lovers on Thursday 6 April will get a closer view of some of the fascinating artefacts recovered from the tragic sinking of SS Laurentic in Lough Swilly as part of a unique workshop. The artefacts from the…
