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Displaying items by tag: Derg Marina

A €2.3 million marina on Lough Derg that was the subject of a planning battle earlier this year is now open for business, Afloat.ie has learned.

Derg Marina across from Killaloe is the first Ronautica-built marina in Ireland and was developed by Gary McNamara, son of Dolores McNamara who scooped €115 million in the EuroMillions lottery in 2005.

According to The Irish Times, the site — which had been a “little-used” marina — was purchased four years ago for €1.7 million, well ahead of the €550,000 guide price.

Previously the 250-berth marina, with half a kilometre of water frontage, had sold for €8 million in 2006 — but fell into disrepair in the intervening years.

Progress on the redeveloped site had been held up over a planning objection by local resident Clare Quinn, as The Irish Sun reported this past April.

But An Bord Pleanála refused Ms Quinn leave to appeal as she had not shown the approved scheme would differ materially from what was set out in the application for planning permission.

The new Derg Marina has been welcomed by the local Marine Village Residents’ Association, and Afloat.ie understands interest in the new facility among boaters across the Shannon region is high.

“It looks very smart and a big step up for the inland scene,” one boater told Afloat.ie.

Published in Irish Marinas
An inland waterways hire cruiser that struck Killaloe bridge in Co. Clare at the weekend was beached by the local volunteer Coast Guard Unit. Six people and a dog were evacuated from the hire boat.

The Cruiser was holed and was taking on water.

Killaloe Coast Guard Mobile unit was tasked to Derg Marina with salvage pumps while the Coast Guard Rescue Boat also responded according to a Coast Guard blog report here.

It was decided that in order to save the vessel from sinking that the Coast Guard would run the cruiser aground in the shallow water at nearby Ballyvalley.

Published in Inland Waterways

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).