Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#islandnation – A great maritime show in Galway, controversy after the Round Ireland in Wicklow, honouring the community of Union Hall, tougher inspection of cruise ships visiting Irish ports, hogging moorings on the inland waterways, aliens in the Royal Canal,…

#VOR It's a cruel world. The Volvo 70 racers arrive in to Galway next week, and it's their last hurrah. A week today, around lunchtime, they'll become utterly obsolete after their final race of the current series, an in-port event…

#islandnation – The FISH IRELAND Exhibition in Killybegs, the Volvo Race in Galway, the Round Ireland Race at Wicklow, commemorating an Arctic hero in Courtmacsherry and where is the summer for sailing? That's quite a mix of maritime material for…

#islandnation – THIS WEEK : Smelly humans, the pace picks up in Galway, pirates in Baltimore, the response of fishermen to the condescending RNLI and a Cork beauty are amongst my topics this week, read on ..... GALWAY PACE PICKS…

#genuineprospects – If you're contemplating a gentle summer holiday in the south of England in August, forget it. Unless, that is, you see wind and rain of the kind experienced there during the past fortnight as being an essential part…

In this week's column: Safety in sailing; ocean wealth in Galway; the US Navy going green; increased shipping in the Arctic Circle; Denis Noonan and the Round Ireland Race; Australia's world ocean reserve and the UK Coastguard suggests offshore sailors…

#HYC – When you've been staging a successful sailing race annually since 1899 or thereabouts, it's something which has will have acquired its own momentum with a significant amount of baggage in the nostalgia stakes. And its enduring popularity inevitably…

#ISLANDNATION – The effect of six-on/six-off hours of watchkeeping on accidents at sea, boat hooks aboard lifeboats, 67 children drowned in 10 years, a traditional beauty in Cork Harbour and the astonishing discovery beneath the Arctic ice are my topics…

#SATURDAYSAILING – Eternal optimists among the cruiser-racer community had hoped that the success of the ICRA Championship might make the final difference to the emergence of enough enthusiasm to generate a team to defend the Commodores Cup in July. But…

#ISLAND NATION – It is encouraging that the first citizen of THIS ISLAND NATION is taking an interest in the marine sphere. I was M.C. at the national commemoration ceremonies for the Titanic centenary in Cobh when President Michael D.…

#ISLAND NATION – The Commissioners of Irish Lights, the seafood industry and country's ports and shipping movements all provided indications this week of how important the marine sector is to this nation. Twenty-one seafood companies are investing €15.5m. and creating…

#ISLANDNATION – The sinking of the Titanic in 1912, remembered so much this year in the centenary of the disaster, is probably the most well-known shipwreck, but it is not the greatest maritime disaster ever. If you want to know…

#ISLANDNATION – What the first woman Chief Executive of Irish Lights thinks about the Irish marine sphere; the first vessel of its kind built in Castletownbere; remembering Kinsale's Mario; China's oldest vessel; an 18th century Russian sailing ship takes to…

#STAR SAILING – The last time anyone said the Olympic buildup is great crack for the participants must have been way back in the previous millennium. That's if it was ever said at all at any time since the first…

#THIS ISLAND NATION – The best news for maritime Ireland this week, in my view, was the abandoning of a proposal which could have wiped out the Irish family tradition in fishing. European bureaucrats have made a shambles of the…

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE – How long can City Fathers maintain their Welcoming Committee smiles for incoming race boats? It's a question which was uppermost in Miami earlier this week, as the great and the good awaited the arrival of the…