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Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Tom MacSweeney
Will Brexit affect cruising?
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The reality of Ireland as an island nation is becoming more publicly apparent with each passing day as the possibility of a ‘no deal’ Brexit looms closer. Our…
Record numbers participated in December's Winter Sailing Series on Dublin Bay
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The last race of the Winter League ended the sailing season in Cork Harbour ….. Around the country, December racing, for those still with the ability and determination…
Johanna Murphy, Commodore of SCORA
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. “I intend to promote sailing in general and also to promote coastal offshore racing.” That was the declaration of Johanna Murphy from the Great Island Sailing Club in…
The Lady Min once was a “thorn in the side” of the renowned Cork Harbour yacht racing aficionados
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. There is a great lot to be said about the pride of a family in a boat and there is nothing wrong with being old when age is…
RCYC Vice Admral Colin Morehead with younger sailors Robyn Lynch and Tom McGrath, the winner of the Under 25 Sailor of the Year at last week's prizegiving
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here ….Getting more younger sailors into cruiser classes is vital to ensure the future of racing these yachts. From meeting with and talking to club officers around the country, it…
RCYC's second race of its winter league for Cruisers in Cork Harbour
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. As Winter approaches and onshore activity at clubs begins to focus on annual meetings, conversation topics, I find, seem to focus on perennial issues about the state of…
Cork Harbour racing in this month's Royal Cork Winter league
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast ….Tom MacSweeney here…. The three Cork Harbour yacht clubs – the Royal Cork at Crosshaven, Monkstown Bay and Great Island Sailing Clubs – have decided that the format of a combined clubs racing…
Ballinacurra historian Ursula O'mahony presents the first Bransfield Memento to Nena Creenan
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast ….Tom MacSweeney here …. Creenan’s hostelry in Ballinacurra village, close to the town of Midleton in East Cork is a hallowed place in the annals of sailing. On its walls hang photographs and…
Government's 108-page Baseline Report
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. The marine sector is about to be planned for the first time. This is the development of Ireland’s first national marine spatial plan, about which a public consultation…
Lough Ree Yacht Club Commodore, Garrett Leech
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here …. That the Royal Cork at Crosshaven is the oldest yacht club in the world is well-known, even if there are some elements who have challenged, though unsuccessfully, that…
Kinsale Yacht Club has a strong Squib fleet
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast ….  The Squib Class are heading for Lough Derg this weekend where the Yacht Club is holding its annual Freshwater Keelboat Championships at Dromineer. It’s an end-of-season event and, for Squib sailors, follows…
Jim Doyle Mbsc owner of Green Sleeves with the 'Alta To Starboard To Finish' Trophy
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast … Sailing the 27-foot yacht he has owned for 20 years, Jim Doyle helmed Green Sleeves to win the ‘Alta to Starboard Trophy’ in Monkstown Bay. It’s an unusual trophy, made by the…
Yachts pass the Muglins Rock on Dublin Bay in a passage race on the East Coast of Ireland. Questions are being asked in a UK survey whether sailing needs to change its approach to attracting more people into the sport
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney here ….. Sailing is at a “tipping point” across the water in the UK – with the future coterie of potential sailors, the “Millennials” as they are described, taking a…
John Twomey and his crew competing in the Sonar Paralympic class in Kinsale
Hello and welcome to my weekly Podcast …. Tom MacSweeney reporting on current sailing and maritime topics and this week, reflecting on how I have been fortunate during my years of sailing and reporting the sport to meet many disabled…
The RNLI try to free a yacht entangled in pots in the UK
Hello and welcome to the weekly MacSweeney Podcast … There is no national listing that I can find of the number of incidents in which leisure craft have become entangled in fishing gear in Irish waters. When it happens, this…
Tom MacSweeney's Scribbler white sail racing in Cork Harbour
Hello and welcome to the weekly MacSweeney Podcast …. It’s been a week with interesting topics, from dirty boats to dirty ports, the pleasant sight of island-racing dinghies but the nastier tale of what submarines might be doing off the…