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Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Irish Schools Team Racing National Champions 2024. Schull Community School (from left to right) Billy Coakley Commodore Bantry Bay Sailing Club, Killian Power, David Copithorne, Lucy Copithorne, Ryan O’Driscoll Captain, Silvia Abeila Garrido, Heidi Hogan and Kathryn Kingston Event Director
Saturday 4th of May 2024 saw 14 schools taking to the water to compete in the Irish Schools Team Racing National Championships 2024. For the first time since the inception of this event in 2004 and marking its 20th anniversary,…
Irish Optimist Development Squad in alphabetical order by first name: Aisling Morrin, Alex Hoban, Amy Russell, Arthur Fegan, Ben Smyth, Brendan Hughes, Caroline Byrne, Cian Farrell, Edward Fitzmaurice, Eabha Brennan-Hobbs, Elena Hoffman, George Creighton, Jack Ryan, Jamie Blennerhassett, Jess Tottenham, Jess Walsh, Joe Kingston, Louis Trickett, Maximilian Millane, Max O’Sullivan, Milo Slattery, Oliver Kenneally, Oscar Rowan, Oran Collins, Rebecca Murdock, Ruairi Slattery, Stephanie Rock, Tristan Bendon, Zoe O’Hare (Felix Crinion not pictured)
Last weekend, Lough Ree Yacht Club hosted young Optimist sailors from clubs all over Ireland for their annual Development Squad training session. The session was led by Head Coach Dara O’Shea from Cork and under the guidance of IODAI Training…
The ITCA Topper Ireland Traveller comes to Donaghdee in late May Topper Ireland
The ITCA Topper Ireland Traveller is a well-established series, and Donaghadee Sailing Club on the North Down coast will host an event on 26 May. Stuart Ogg is the event organiser, and he and his team say that the club…
Some of the 18-boat Kinsale Yacht Club cruising fleet berthed at the Naval Services Yacht Squadron at Haulbowline for their overnight visit
Members of the Kinsale Yacht Club Cruising Group had a wonderful start to the cruising season with a BBQ and overnight stay at the Naval Services Yacht Squadron in Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork Harbour. The event was organised by…
Mark Gannon, coxswain with RNLI Courtmacsherry
RNLI coxswain Mark Gannon with West Cork’s Courtmacsherry lifeboat was on a call out in December 1981 when he and his crew heard over the radio about the Penlee lifeboat disaster - when an entire lifeboat crew was lost off…
The former Tonnerre de Breskens 3 has spent the last number of years racing in the Meditteranean as Tonnerre de Glen but will be Dublin Bay based from June under new Royal Irish Yacht Club skipper Pete Smyth
Noted Dublin Bay inshore and offshore sailor Pete Smyth of the Royal Irish Yacht Club has purchased the famous Ker 46 Tonnerre de Breskens 3 which will arrive in Dublin Bay three weeks before its first major event, the 2024…
Alan Green and Chris Doorly of the National Yacht Club are one of six Irish Flying Fifteens racing at the 2024 European Championships in Brittany
Six Irish boats are competing at the Flying Fifteen European Championships starting on Thursday (March 9th) at Crozon Morgat in Brittany. With crews also from France, Spain, Belgium, and the usual UK contenders, it promises to be an exciting four-day event.…
Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove from Dublin's Howth Yacht Club lead Irish hopes at the 49er European Championships in La Grande Motte in the South of France
Big breeze and massive wind shifts of day two of the 49er European Championship delivered plenty of drama in La Grande Motte, the South of France as the gap narrowed between the two Irish rivals who are using this event…
Some of the 23-boat Water Wag dinghy fleet sail home to the Royal Irish Yacht Club after Wednesday night's AIB/DBSC race at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Race Officer Tadgh Donnelly, aboard the committee boat 'Spirit of the Irish', set a three-round windward/leeward course in a 10-knot southwesterly breeze for the third Water Wag race of the AIB/DBSC 2024 season. The 23-boat fleet’s start was postponed due…
Artist’s impression of the envisaged ORE hub at the Cork Dockyard site
Plans to develop an offshore wind energy hub in Cork Harbour have been shelved as Doyle Shipping Group has pulled out of the scheme. As reported on Afloat.ie just three months ago, the 15-hectare Cork Dockyard facility at Rushbrooke had…
Howth Yacht Club's Eve McMahon in Marseille ahead of the Olympic Torch Relay
Celebrations are about to get underway in Marseille, France today (8 May) as the city prepares for the arrival of the Olympic flame to French soil. Irish Sailor of the Year and Team Ireland Paris Scholar Eve McMahon has been…
The boss of P&O Ferries, Peter Hebblethwaite, earned more than half a million pounds last year. Above: amidships of newbuild P&O Liberté, which officially joined its twin Fusion-class fleetmate, P&O Pioneer, on the company’s flagship Dover-Calais service, as Afloat previously reported.
The boss of P&O Ferries admitted at a Westminster committee hearing, that he couldn't live on the £4.87 an hour some of its crew are paid, he told MPs at the Houses of Parliament. Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite also revealed at…
BG Freight Line (a subsidiary of Peel Ports Group) has launched four new container vessels in a bid to drive sustainability across the shipping centre. The newbuild quartet, named to reflect their striking colours, BG Green (in service, with ‘scrubber’ at the stern), BG Blue, BG Red, and BG Orange, uses state-of-the-art scrubbers and is designed to help its customers significantly reduce carbon emissions. They will operate between Liverpool-Rotterdam, Afloat adds, as part of BG Freight Line’s network connecting UK, Ireland and near mainland Europe linking France, Belgium and The Netherlands.
Short-sea container feeder operator BG Freight Line has unveiled its greenest ships yet with four new lo-lo vessels that will help its customers significantly reduce their carbon emissions. The new ships will use a state-of-the-art scrubber to catch CO2 and…
Stena Ro Ro is to increase cargo capacity by 30% for the 2002-built freight twins, Stena Foreteller and Stena Forerunner. The vessels (Afloat add of the 4Runner class) after conversion will be ready to meet future efficiency requirements when the works are due to be completed in 2025. A half-sister Stena Carrier made a call to Dun Laoghaire Harbour in 2018 to undergo ‘survey work’.
On behalf of Swedish ferry operator Stena Line, Stena RoRo has signed a conversion contract with China Merchants Jinling (Weihai) Shipyard for the installation of an additional cargo deck on board the Stena Foreteller and a twin, Stena Forerunner. The…
The Corncrake population increase from 161 to 218 birds in just five years is remarkable
The Corncrake population has increased by 35 per cent in the past five years, particularly in breeding areas on the Atlantic seaboard. The numbers of Corncrakes recorded in the core breeding areas of Donegal, Mayo and Galway has increased by…
American Magic's New AC75 Patriot - the new boat is bristling with design features and quirks and plenty of system upgrades, translated from their warhorse AC75 of the last America’s Cup. Now, it’s all on to try to bring the famous trophy back to West 44th Street in Manhattan, home of the New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club American Magic rolled out its new AC75, named 'Patriot' for the 37th America's Cup Competition in Barcelona, Spain. The deck layout places the helms and trimmers side by side and well forward. The boat has…
Cunard's Queen Anne arrived in the UK at the Port of Southampton for a blessing by Bishop Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Winchester. The newbuild’s captain is Inger Klein Thorhauge, and an exchange of plaques to officially welcome the cruise ship took place at the vessel’s home port of Southampton, Hampshire, from where the newbuild made its maiden voyage on 3 May
Cunard Line’s Queen Anne, the newest cruise ship addition to their prestigious fleet, arrived in the UK at the Port of Southampton. This historic moment took place on the last day of April, and the occasion marks the first time…
A Fethard RNLI Lifeboat crewman rescues the sheep on the Waterford Estuary
In a dramatic rescue operation, a sheep fell from a ledge in the Waterford Estuary and was saved from being engulfed by the rising tide. The incident occurred on Wednesday, prompting the Irish Coast Guard to dispatch the volunteer lifeboat…
An adult kittiwake and a semi-fledged chick on a North Sea energy production platform
A new Offshore Nesting Bird Census (ONBC) has been initiated by the North Sea oil and gas industry to research how endangered seabirds use oil and gas platforms for nesting and rearing chicks. The census which has been created by…
Gill McIlmoyle, a former bank manager from Portstewart, joined the RNLI’s face-to-face fundraising team in 2021
Applications are now open to become one of the RNLI’s face-to-face fundraisers along the Causeway Coast in Antrim, and in counties Down and Dublin. This vital role helps the lifesaving charity reach thousands of people every year, sharing safety messages…

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