Contacts: 

Dublin VTS   VHF #12   tel no +353 (0)1 874 8771
Poolbeg Marina  VHF #37  tel no +353 (0)1 668 9983  
Dublin City Pontoon           tel no +353 (0)1 818 3300

Dublin City, much celebrated in verse, song and prose, sits astride the River Liffey at its entrance to Dublin Bay and has done since time began. Connoisseurs of Guinness may know the Liffey’s nectar well even if they’ve never been there, and who hasn’t heard of “Sweet Molly Malone”. Visit here and you’ll be reacquainted with these and much more beside; in the evening the pubs and streets resound with fiddles, flutes, bodhrans and the craic and the joy of it is that you can clew up right in the middle of the city at either the Poolbeg Marina or the City of Dublin Moorings pontoon (marginally closer) and weave your contented way back to your boat in the wee small hours of the morning with an uplifted heart and not a care about the morrow’s head!

Be in no doubt that it may be a hassle getting in; there are a multitude of ferries, container ships and tankers to be negotiated and if intent on going up to the City of Dublin Moorings there are also a couple of swing bridges to be dealt with, but it is, without reservation, worth it whether you go up to the City Moorings or stop at the Poolbeg marina.  Although they are close to the centre of all things Dublin the City Moorings are just far enough away to be fairly quiet but that road alongside the docks is the main route for HGV traffic from the Dock to the rest of Ireland and is busy, night and day. ... read more

Tidal Streams:

The ebb and flow through St George’s Channel bends into and round Dublin bay with streams of between 1.5kts and 2.5 kts at Springs.

Along the South shore the stream runs North from Dublin +0315 and South from Dublin -0310. Along the North shore the stream runs NE for nine hours turning NE at 0315 after HW Dublin and SW 0015 before HW Dublin.

Around the Baily of Howth watch out for the overfalls caused when the outbound stream runs into the main St Georges stream.

In onshore winds there can be quite a chop at the entrance to the entrance channel when the tide is ebbing out past Poolbeg Light and meets the cross stream around the bay.


The first thing to note about the approaches to Dublin are the two TSS; one at the Northern end of the Burford Bank and one at the Southern end.  If you include with this the Burford Bank itself then you can see that the direct approach from the East is a non starter as a passage plan.

The only departure point on the UK mainland which this affects is Holyhead and you should not plan to follow the rhumb line from Holyhead to Dublin but to veer off to the North or South to avoid the Burford Bank and the TSS. In all probability you’ll let the flood take you North of the direct line and then come back down on the ebb into Dublin Bay via the Baily of Howth and the problem becomes a not-a-problem as long as you don’t end up on the Bennet Bank.

From the North or South you just weather the headlands at the Baily of Howth (possible overfalls) or Dalkey Island. You can go through either Dalkey Sound or Muglins Sound in good visibility if you wish but coming up from somewhere like Arklow the course outside the Muglins  is less than half a mile further than through Dalkey Sound. ... read more