Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Gear failure continues to haunt the Volvo Round the World Race with two boats in the seven boat fleet – led by Bouwe Bekking’s ‘Movistar’ – now back in port only 72 hours into the second leg from Cape Town…
Sailing by David O'Brien for Irish Times Friday, December 30th 2005.Limerick's Ger O'Rourke and his 12-man crew swept into Hobart yesterday (Thursday) to a class win in the Sydney-Hobart that also gained him fourth place overall in Australia's classic 628…
Offshore racing makes a comeback in Dun Laoghaire next season with a four race series of overnight races that has already got a thumbs up from the Irish Cruiser Racing association (ICRA).Organised by offshore sailor Adrian Lee – a veteran…
Damian Foxall is out of hospital, suffering only a compressed sternum and bruising following this week's dramatic rescue from the capsized 60 foot trimaran Fonica some 450 miles off the French coast.As storms caused havoc for the Transat Jacques Vabre…
Kerry's Damian Foxall (36) was evacuated by helicopter from his stricken trimaran Fonica early yesterday (Tuesday following a capsize that hurled him into the rigging of the 60-foot craft breaking three ribs, a shoulder and collar bone.The accident happened when…
The National Yacht club is to draw a line under it's ratification of any further solo Round Ireland sailing record attempts following a warning from the Department of the marine advising yachtsmen that they must comply with the rules of…
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has published draft 2008 Olympic nomination criteria that will see the Beijing team selected by its own committee rather than by trials alone.In a separate development the Association's performance manager Garrett Connolly has announced his…
Belgian yachtsman Michel Kleinjans crossed the National Yacht Club finish line off Dun Laoghaire to set a new single-handed record time around Ireland of four days, one hour and 52 minutes on board his 1997 Open 40 ‘RoaringForty’, bettering the…
An investment in new boats that will top one million Euro is being made to win the Commodore’s Cup for Ireland as the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA) announced yesterday (Thursday) the first of up to three three-boat teams for…
An Irish Commodore's cup trials series is one possible outcome from next week's meeting of Irish Cruiser Racing Association chiefs who can decide to send as many as four Irish teams to next June's event in Cowes. The Commodore of…
The annual fixtures calendar, long held out as an example of bad planning, is set to be overhauled if an Irish Sailing Association (ISA) proposal that attempts to 'grade' events goes ahead.In a working paper sent to clubs and classes…
Olympic and international competition will add spice to this morning's (Friday) Fireball championships – just one of five national titles to be decided this weekend – when a 40-boat fleet starts off Wicklow head.Athens 49er helmsman Tom Fitzpatrick has already…
It was a grey start but a nonetheless bright new beginning on Dublin bay yesterday afternoon (Thursday) as all four waterfront yacht clubs joined together for the first gun of the inaugural Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta. Organised in just six…
If solo sailor Larry Hynes (38) can make it to Dun Laoghaire for tea-time this evening (Friday) he will break the Round Ireland single handed speed record, but early this morning (Friday) after seven nights at sea the prospect of…
Afloat magazine has obtained documents relating to the fatal drowning of Jack Sweeney when his Baltic lifejacket failed to operate in August 2003.The documents, one from lifejacket manufacturer Baltic and the other from the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, specify the…
The debate of what things are intolerably unlucky aboard a seagoing vessel has resurfaced again online, and one of Ireland's top offshore racers is being held up as the ultimate debunker of superstition. Green paint jobs are mortally unlucky, it…
A necklace of safe harbours and marinas around the coast is essential to begin realising the true economic potential of the marine sector, according to a new paper on the issue by the Irish Marine Federation.
It's a return to warmer climes for inveterate RStGYC cruiser Michael Holland, whose Dubois-designed 72-foot ketch is the only Irish-registered yacht taking part in Antigua Sailing Week. Holland and crew spent several weeks at the beginning of 2008 cruising Antarctica,…
All credit to the RNLI - not just for their trojan rescue work, but for some innovative marketing. The good folks at Lifeboats HQ have come up with a way for you to keep track of what boats are launching…
A near gale ushered a nine-boat fleet out of Dun Laoghaire last weekend as the seasons first Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association (ISORA) race got underway.ISORA chairman, Peter Ryan, said the turn-out was very encouraging and expressed hope that the…
