Afloat – Ireland's Sailing and Boating Magazine
Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team have won a sixth consecutive World Sailing Women’s Match Racing World Championship after dominating the 2026 title decider on San Francisco Bay. The French skipper and crew Maëlenn Lemaitre,…
The 2026 EurILCA Master Series has concluded on Lake Garda just over a week after Ireland’s Roger Craig claimed the ILCA 7 Master European title in La Baule. Nearly 90 sailors from 11 nations contested the final event of the…
A record 222 athletes from 40 nations begin racing in Portugal on Monday, October 5th, at the 2026 World Sailing Inclusion Championships in Portimão. The six-day championship runs until Saturday, October 10, with medals to be decided across nine events…
Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy and Barry McCartin have been crowned Irish Sailing’s 2026 Dinghy Champions after winning a six-boat final on Dublin Bay on Sunday. Murphy and McCartin produced the strongest performance across three final races in the supplied…
Ballyholme's Leo West-Hurst Takes Topper Traveller Series Win at Royal Cork
4th October 2026 Royal Cork YC
Leo West-Hurst of Ballyholme Yacht Club produced three race wins to take the 41-boat Topper 5.3 division at the Topper Ireland Traveller Series meeting at Royal Cork Yacht Club on Sunday (October 4). Four races were sailed at Crosshaven, bringing…
When Damien Guillou of France and then Pat Lawless of Ireland exited the Bay of Biscay ahead of the rest of the Golden Globe Race fleet, it was becoming increasingly clear that a weather pattern was developing that might give…
The annual Irish Groundfish Survey (IGFS) off the Atlantic coastline of Ireland is now under way for 2026 and will continue to Wednesday 18 November, subject to operational and weather constraints. The IGFS is a demersal trawl survey carried out…
Conor O'Higgins' JPK 10.80 Rockabill VI has won the Leinster Boats 2026 Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club Kish Challenge after a light-wind race in which she was the only boat to finish within the time limit. With the breeze variable…
Portrush Lifeboat Launches to Reports of Kayakers in Difficulty Off White Rocks
4th October 2026 RNLI Lifeboats
Portrush RNLI was requested to launch by the coastguard at lunchtime on Sunday (4 October) to reports of kayakers in difficulty at White Rocks on Northern Ireland’s North Coast. The two persons with their inflatable kayak had entered the water…
Kinsale Yacht Club’s Finbarr and Colm O’Regan strengthened their grip on IRC Spinnaker 1 with two wins from three races as the Royal Cork Yacht Club Autumn League completed its second Sunday of racing off Cork Harbour. Three races were…
Former Faroe Islands-Jutland, Denmark Ferry Visits Belfast Harbour As 'Bookfair Store' Ship
4th October 2026 Belfast Lough
Belfast Harbour recently saw the arrival of the world’s largest floating bookfair store ship, which marks the third and final call to the island of Ireland this season with public tours available, writes Jehan Ashmore. As Afloat previously noted, the…
Waterways Ireland advises boaters on the Royal Canal and Grand Canal that there will be one further lift of Newcomen Bridge in Dublin’s north inner city in 2026, scheduled for Saturday 10 October, before further engineering works on the bridge…
Tim Norwood and Luke Donagh scored three straight wins as the Irish Sailing Dinghy Champions’ Cup opened at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire. Tim Norwood and crew Luke Donagh produced a clean sweep on the opening…
The two leaders in the Golden Globe Race 2026 continue to sail merrily down the South Atlantic off the coast of South America in a continuing soldier's wind from east sou'east, while the remainder of the fleet continue to be…
France’s Thomas André and Colombe Julia have won the 2026 Offshore Double Handed World Championship after taking a closely fought 190-nautical-mile final off Marseille. The French pair, racing FRA01, emerged from a four-boat battle in light and shifting winds to…
A reef off West Clare which is familiar to big wave surfers is linked to a local superstition that it was once the location of a village swallowed by the sea. The legend of Cill Stuifín is the theme for…
Damien Toner has been appointed Director of Development and Innovation Services at Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). He has over 30 years’ experience in the seafood industry in the private and public sectors, having previously worked for Údarás na Gaeltachta, Inland…
Sligo-based surf pioneer and three-time national champion Seamus McGoldrick has explored 6,000 years of local history for a book he has just published. Waking Maeve: an excavation of Sligo’s landscape, myth and history spans a period from “Stone Age tomb…
Howth sailor Eve McMahon and Olympic rowing medallist Aifric Keogh have outlined the financial pressures facing Irish athletes as the OFI seeks changes to tax relief. Eve McMahon says her €40,000 annual Sport Ireland grant helps her compete as a…
Donaghadee RNLI launched late on Wednesday night (30 September) after a fishing boat was reported to have collided with a cargo vessel east of the Copeland Islands. HM Coastguard paged the volunteer crew at 11.20 pm after a report that…
