Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Red Bay Boats in County Antrim has cancelled its annual trip to Ardbeg distillery in Scotland for the second time this year. Postponed in May due to bad weather the RIB trip has been cancelled again this weekend. It is…

Several boat owners in marinas in Lough Derg have been relieved of their outboards, as a spate fo engine theft has hit the lake and this week the MGM marine premises in Longford has also been hit.

In any yacht race if the wind changes direction just about anything canhappen. The last few months have been like that for Ger O'Rourke,chasing his dream of entering next month's Volvo Ocean Race. It's anagainst-all-the-odds story, and that's even before…

SOUNDINGS – September/October 2008 Total beauty is as rare in boats as anything else. And so too, in 2008, were classic summer evenings. Yet this past season, Soundings managed the combination of beautiful boats with sublime summer evenings on two…

SEASCAPES – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 I find the world of cities and big towns increasingly artificial. I prefer coastal towns and villages, where the sense of life and what is important is influenced by the sea which laps the shores.  Coastal…

SEASCAPES – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 As another sailing season moves to its conclusion with a generally poor summer where weather was concerned, one of the topics regularly debated has been the accuracy of weather forecasts. Neither Met Eireann nor any other…

Magnificent stained glass windows, a bell tower giving panoramic views over Dun Laoghaire, over 170 years of history... Dun Laoghaire’s Mariner’s Church, which houses the Maritime Museum, is close to the final phase of the restoration it’s undergone since 2006.…

The RNLI all weather lifeboat /Hilda Jarrett/ and inshore lifeboat /Bessie/ were requested by Valencia Coastguard at 15:37 to go to the assistance of a yacht that had broken from her moorings in Crookhaven Harbour, West Cork.

It’s been ninety years since the tragic sinking of the mail steamer Leinster shortly after leaving Dun Laoghaire. Over 500 people drowned in the worst maritime disaster in the Irish Sea, many of them local postal workers who sorted the…

The Volvo Ocean Race has announced the appointment of a new Communications Director, Dubliner Marcus Hutchinson, to replace Reg Gratton from the beginning of September.

Beautifully illustrated and drawing substantially on local knowledge and oral history, ‘Traditional Boats of Ireland’ reveals much about Ireland’s social and economic history: the harnessing of the sea’s resources; and how ideas as well as people, goods and animals were…

The RNLI all weather lifeboat Hilda Jarrett was tasked by Valencia Coastguard at 13:34 to go to the assistance of a yacht adrift in difficult weather conditions.

Defending Champion James Espey of Ballyholme YC emphatically retained his title at the Kia Motors Laser National Championships in Howth with an impressive string of results in the 11-race series sailed in light southerly and south-westerly conditions.

Simon McGrotty and Mark Boylan of Skerries won the season's fourth Fireball championship in Wicklow in the last weekend of August. The 27 boat fleet completed four races in gushing tides and flicking force one to three winds.

England's Craig Burlton and his three man crew became Irish SB3 champions in an open event on Dublin bay where only half of the top ten were Irish boats. The result is an indication of British prowess in the class,…

The Green Dragon Racing Team arrived in Alicante this morning after its 1500-mile delivery trip from Dun Laoghaire, skipper Ian Walker reports.Compared to the 2000 mile qualifier, which was rough, wet and all in all a pretty brutal trip, this…

He masterminded it and now he is sailing on it. Former Afloat editor Enda O'Coineen reports from the deck of the Green Dragon as the 70–footer makes its way along the Portuguese coast tonight (Thursday, August 27th).  "Man Overboard" was…

Howth became a sea of sunlit colour on Sunday (August 24th) when Pat and Olivia Murphy returned with their 41ft ocean voyager Aldebaran to complete their epic nine year global circumnavigation.

The Irish GP14 Fleet can enter this weekend’s Championships of Ireland on a high following a strong showing at the recent GP14 World Championships held in Abersoch, North Wales. For the first time in a number of years the Irish…

Two major one-design events take place this weekend in Dublin, with Lasers on the north side and SB3s on the south side. Between the two events, nearly 200 boats will hit the water in Dun Laoghaire and Howth.