Friday evening’s announcement of the Irish Sailor of the Year 2023 title for 19-year-old Eve McMahon at her sailing home of Howth Yacht Club well captures the zeitgeist of mid-2020s…
Friendship, family and sailing enjoyment expressed enthusiastically through quietly efficient organisations - that was the warm theme which dominated Thursday evening’s convivial gathering in the National Yacht Club on Dun…
#irishcruising – Henry Ford famously said that if he'd started out by asking people what they wanted, they'd have demanded a faster horse. Quite. But if you don't have the lightbulb moment of a Fordian concept so utterly brilliant that…
#ruffian23 – Congratulations, Ruffian 23s – you've passed your 40th birthday. It was the Springtime of 1973 when we were invited by Dickie Brown to go down to Portaferry for a sail test of the prototype of the new 23ft…
#offshoresailing – There were four of them, back in 1968 in New York. There was Dick Nye (1903-1988). Briefly a theatrical hopeful, he'd got no further than spear carrier in an opera. But Broadway's loss was Wall Street's gain –…
On THIS ISLAND NATION this week... I take the view that every sport needs a national association to lead its development. So Ireland needs a national sailing association. How a national association serves its members must be the definition of…
#teamracing – The chances in Ireland of snowfall on St Patrick's Day are statistically better than the chances of the white stuff coming down on Christmas Day. The reason we haven't really got our heads round this notion is that…
#islandnation – On THIS ISLAND NATION this week... How the Government has misled the maritime public ... The unluckiest Ships' Captain? ..... What about this collision in Singapore! Have you checked your marina's ladders? And much more... Government reform to…
#dinghy – General de Gaulle used to say that of course it was a very difficult job to govern France – what else would you expect in a country with 387 different cheeses? So when people talk of how difficult…
#islandnation – This week...Steamship history from a small town in Cork Harbour...Coastal areas deserve State support for development projects to create jobs...Ice on the river...Grant Dalton blows his cool on America's Cup hypocrisy... Indian sharks have gone missing and more...…
#wolfhound – Abandon ship!!! Complete with its insistent screamers (that's exclamation marks to you and me), it's such a hoary old nautical cliché that when it happens, you expect awesome background music to roll, with the blackest of black clouds…
Fishing – THE MAN WHO SEARCHED FOR 60-FOOTERS #islandnation – Can you imagine spending years searching for old 60-foot boats, travelling the country's coastline because of a 'bug' within your system? Pat Nolan from Cork, who now lives in County…
#sailing – With all the high-profile Irish entries in the RORC Caribbean 600 race falling by the wayside in this year's breezy staging of the sunshine classic, it has been left to two hard-working charter boats to do the business…
#islandnation – On THIS ISLAND NATION this week – an island nation without a maritime government ... Coast Guard doesn't seem to like solo boaters.... Whispering to sharks ... Scrapping the only nuclear container ship and more .... Safety COAST…
#circumnavigation – A traditional global circumnavigation was celebrated in Dun Laoghaire last night with the award of the Irish Cruising Club's premier trophy, the Faulkner Cup, to Fergus Quinlan of Kinvara on Galway Bay for the log of the third…
#islandnation – This week – massive container ships are on the way to challenge the port capacities .... Costa Concordia Captain speaks... Slavery for Irish seafarers... Time for environmentalists to talk to fishermen.... And much more.... THE NEW AGE OF…
#americascup – It's time for the reality check in San Francisco. This morning, season tickets guaranteeing "the best seats on the bay" for the America's Cup 2013 go on sale. The America's Cup Season Pass includes a ticket to the…
#islandnation – On THIS ISLAND NATION this week – farmed fish overtake the wild kind ... Cork Harbour Master retires ...Shipping revival predicted ... EU attempt to licence leisure boating stopped ... And much more marine news ..... FARMED FISH…