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Displaying items by tag: Strandhill

Additional funding for a long-proposed National Surf Centre of Excellence in Strandhill has been welcomed, as the Sligo Champion reports.

Fáilte Ireland has approved an additional grant of €321,468 for the project in a move hailed as positive news for the town, an important hub for Ireland’s surfing community.

Funding of over €1.6 million was announced for construction of the project in 2018 but councillors heard in October last year that costs had risen due to inflation and pandemic-related issues.

Cllr Declan Bree, chair of the Strandhill Maritime Board, said: “The new centre will be a significant facility for the people of Strandhill and the surf coast on the Wild Atlantic Way and will certainly attract increasing numbers of visitors to the region.”

The Sligo Champion has more on the story HERE.

Published in Surfing

#Surfing - A black rubber roof is one of the unusual features of the winning design for a new maritime centre in Strandhill, as the Sligo Champion reports.

The vision for the new surfing and coastal community centre by London architects Manalo & White also includes large concrete panels around the perimeter with Celtic seascapes and surfing scenes by Barry Britton, whose known as much for his art as for his waveriding legacy – not least being father of women's surfing pioneer Easkey Britton.

A planning application is expected to be completed by the end of April with a view to having the €500,000 facility, which would replace the existing centre used by the local surf club and other groups, ready in time for next year's tourism season.

The Sligo Champion has more on the story HERE.

Published in Surfing

#CoastalNotes - The Irish Independent's Kim Bielenberg recently enjoyed the hospitality of the welcoming coastal community of Strandhill in Co Sligo, where seaweed, surfing and sleeping under the stars are some of the key attractions.

Strandhill is just one of the many seaside hamlets dotted along the Wild Atlantic Way, an initiative local businesses have been swift to latch on to.

But the town's entrepreneurs have long been at one with the ocean and the rugged beauty of the coastline, from the local seaweed bath – a Sligo coast tradition – to the Kiwi-run surfing school and the beach campsite that welcomes hundreds of campers every summer.

Meanwhile, that same coastline provided the inspiration for artists Tom Phelan's seascape, which featured in a recently closed exhibition in Dublin.

Independent.ie has a sample of one of his striking and evocative surfboard paintings, with straight lines and sweeping curves that care calming and sedate, but a rough surfaces that indicates some tussles with the waves.

More of these works can be found on Tom Phelan's website HERE.

Published in Coastal Notes

#Surfing - A café-owning couple with twin passions for cooking and surfing have turned their successful business into an equally successful cookbook.

As reported on Surfers Village, Jane and Myles Lamberth were recently featured on the UTV series James Nesbitt's Ireland, which paid a visit to their eatery Shells Café in Strandhill, Co Sligo - a part of Ireland that's become a mecca for surfers the world over.

The Lamberths opened the café in 2010 and its popularity quickly led to the publication last year of The Surf Café Cookbook, featuring recipes for some of their favourite dishes from the menu.

Already a hit in world surfing hotspots from California to South Africa to Australia, its expected to get a bigger boost this summer with large orders from hip US chains.

Surfers Village has more on the story HERE.

Published in Surfing
#SURFING - Ireland is set to field a team of Strandhill bodyboarders at the 12th ISA World Bodyboard Championships in Gran Canaria from next week.
The event will take place in the heavy slab waves of El Frontón and la Guancha at Galdar City from 30 November to 4 December 2011.
The competition also marks the first time that bodyboard-only teams from around the world will compete in  the Open Men (Prone), Open Women (Prone), Under 18 Men (Prone) and Open Drop Knee divisions.
See video of action from El Frontón in 2010 below:

#SURFING - Ireland is set to field a team of Strandhill bodyboarders at the 12th ISA World Bodyboard Championships in Gran Canaria from next week.

The event will take place in the heavy slab waves of El Frontón and la Guancha at Galdar City from 30 November to 4 December 2011.

The competition also marks the first time that bodyboard-only teams from around the world will compete in  the Open Men (Prone), Open Women (Prone), Under 18 Men (Prone) and Open Drop Knee divisions.

See video of action from El Frontón in 2010 below:

Published in Surfing

Marine Institute Research Vessel Tom Crean

Ireland’s new marine research vessel will be named the RV Tom Crean after the renowned County Kerry seaman and explorer who undertook three major groundbreaking expeditions to the Antarctic in the early years of the 20th Century which sought to increase scientific knowledge and to explore unreached areas of the world, at that time.

Ireland's new multi-purpose marine research vessel RV Tom Crean, was delivered in July 2022 and will be used by the Marine Institute and other State agencies and universities to undertake fisheries research, oceanographic and environmental research, seabed mapping surveys; as well as maintaining and deploying weather buoys, observational infrastructure and Remotely Operated Vehicles.

The RV Tom Crean will also enable the Marine Institute to continue to lead and support high-quality scientific surveys that contribute to Ireland's position as a leader in marine science. The research vessel is a modern, multipurpose, silent vessel (designed to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research), capable of operating in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Tom Crean is able to go to sea for at least 21 days at a time and is designed to operate in harsh sea conditions.

RV Tom Crean Specification Overview

  • Length Overall: 52.8 m
  • Beam 14m
  • Draft 5.2M 

Power

  • Main Propulsion Motor 2000 kw
  • Bow Thruster 780 kw
  • Tunnel thruster 400 kw

Other

  • Endurance  21 Days
  • Range of 8,000 nautical miles
  • DP1 Dynamic Positioning
  • Capacity for 3 x 20ft Containers

Irish Marine Research activities

The new state-of-the-art multi-purpose marine research vessel will carry out a wide range of marine research activities, including vital fisheries, climate change-related research, seabed mapping and oceanography.

The new 52.8-metre modern research vessel, which will replace the 31-metre RV Celtic Voyager, has been commissioned with funding provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine approved by the Government of Ireland.

According to Aodhán FitzGerald, Research Vessel Manager of the MI, the RV Tom Crean will feature an articulated boom crane aft (6t@ 10m, 3T@ 15m), located on the aft-gantry. This will be largely used for loading science equipment and net and equipment handling offshore.

Mounted at the stern is a 10T A-frame aft which can articulate through 170 degrees which are for deploying and recovering large science equipment such as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV’s), towed sleds and for fishing operations.

In addition the fitting of an 8 Ton starboard side T Frame for deploying grabs and corers to 4000m which is the same depth applicable to when the vessel is heaving but is compensated by a CTD system consisting of a winch and frame during such operations.

The vessel will have the regulation MOB boat on a dedicated davit and the facility to carry a 6.5m Rigid Inflatable tender on the port side.

Also at the aft deck is where the 'Holland 1' Work class ROV and the University of Limericks 'Etain' sub-Atlantic ROV will be positioned. In addition up to 3 x 20’ (TEU) containers can be carried.

The newbuild has been engineered to endure increasing harsher conditions and the punishing weather systems encountered in the North-East Atlantic where deployments of RV Tom Crean on surveys spent up to 21 days duration.

In addition, RV Tom Crean will be able to operate in an ultra silent-mode, which is crucial to meet the stringent criteria of the ICES 209 noise standard for fisheries research purposes.

The classification of the newbuild as been appointed to Lloyds and below is a list of the main capabilities and duties to be tasked by RV Tom Crean:

  • Oceanographic surveys, incl. CTD water sampling
  • Fishery research operations
  • Acoustic research operations
  • Environmental research and sampling operation incl. coring
  • ROV and AUV/ASV Surveys
  • Buoy/Mooring operations