Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

As reported in Afloat.ie on 1st September here, fifteen-year-old solo sailor Timothy Long from Buckinghamshire is fundraising for the Ellen McArthur Cancer Trust by sailing solo around Britain, a distance of approximately 1600 miles. In his Hunter Impala 28 'Alchemy'…

The All Ireland Coast Watch survey for 2020 starts on Tuesday 15th September and Judith Caldwell of the Strangford Lough and Lecale Partnership is confident that there will be uptake around Strangford Lough and is keen to promote and encourage…

Scottish yacht designer Alfred Mylne designed the River Class in 1920 at the behest of eight members of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club (RUYC) in Bangor on Belfast Lough. Next year the design is celebrating its 100th anniversary. In all…

Irish Tokyo 2021 solo campaigner, 27-year-old Donaghadee Sailing Club member Oisin McClelland has clinched a personal best, claiming 23rd spot at the Finn European Championships at Gdynia in Poland. The event ran from 1st to 6th September and was the…

Last year Jonny Clements took part in a boating event in Lough Erne in a mixed fleet of craft from canoes to sailing boats. Having been impressed by the sailing dinghies and not having ever sailed before, he bought a…

Mayor of Ards and North Down Councillor Trevor Cummings, visited teen solo sailor Timothy Long onboard his yacht Hunter Impala yacht, Alchemy to welcome him officially to Bangor. As Afloat reported previously, fifteen-year-old Timothy aims to become the youngest person…

Ballyholme Yacht Club is to bring Dom Moore from Surf Sanctuary, Newquay in the UK to deliver the first British Stand Up Paddleboarding Association (BSUPA) Instructor Course in Northern Ireland. Dom is currently putting 16 students and two instructor assessors…

 The Royal Yachting Association Northern Ireland Youth Championships on 19/20 September will feel the ongoing effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in that a restricted Youth Sailing Championships will be run on the 19th and 20th September at Ballyholme Yacht Club…

Timothy Long from Buckinghamshire in England is only 15, and by the time he finishes his fundraising solo sail around Britain, he will have 1,600-miles under his belt. In his Hunter Impala 28 'Alchemy' Timothy covers around 45 miles a…

A Notice to Mariners issued on 29th August by Bangor Harbour on Belfast Lough warns that the slipway in front of the Lifeboat house has been closed due to a sunken vessel. On Wednesday night (26th August) the owners of…

It's only 160 km by road but the passage north from Dublin Bay for the twelve Cruising Association of Ireland crews who set out for Belfast Lough was a great deal more. With stopovers in Carlingford Lough and Ardglass on…

In what is understood to be the first open event in Northern Ireland this year, 41 Toppers including two from Dublin Bay, raced at Ballyholme YC on Belfast Lough yesterday (22nd August) for what turned out to be a lively…

The last of three Irish Multihull events this year will be the Northerns at Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough on 17th and 18th October. It also has the grand title of Weekend of Speed, rescheduled due to COVID 19.…

An appropriate title for a GP 14 event to be held (hopefully) in October at the Larne club. The word toddy comes from the toddy drink in India produced by fermenting the sap of palm trees and its earliest known…

Belfast Lough's Mikey Ferguson found the Lonely Rock Race on Pip Hare's Open 60, Medallia, shorter than planned due to the impending storm. The race director decided to shorten the course with the turn at Wolf Rock off Land's End…

Twelve celebrities are taking part in the challenge of a lifetime, to row the entire length of Britain, in a brand new, epic adventure series called 'Don't Rock The Boat'. The 5 x 60-minute series will see 12 famous faces…

The all-weather RNLI lifeboat from Donaghadee on the North Down coast launched at 3 am this morning (Tuesday18th) to the Belfast Coastguard's request to assist a 15m fishing boat with one person onboard. The boat, which was on passage from…

Portaferry Coastguard Rescue Team on Strangfrod Lough in Northern Ireland has warned of hundreds of Lion's Mane jellyfish washed up on the shore at Cloughey on the eastern coast of the Ards Peninsula. It's a small village with a beautiful…

The minehunter HMS Ramsey under the command of Lieutenant Commander Joel Roberts, arrived into Bangor Harbour on Belfast Lough over last weekend on an exercise visit. The 53m vessel is moored alongside the Eisenhower Pier, so-called as before departing for the…

Down Cruising Club is celebrating a return to the water with a Members' Day next Saturday (22nd August). Located at Ballydorn, near Whiterock on Strangford Lough, DCC occupies an unusual clubhouse, the old Lightship, Petrel. It was built in 1915…