Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Waterways Ireland

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users that Lock 3 on the main line of the Grand Canal at Inchicore in Dublin will be closed from Friday 5 May until Saturday 3 June to facilitate emergency repair works on the lock gates.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users that Drumleague Lock on the Shannon Navigation’s Lough Allen Canal has been reopened for the May Bank Holiday as of Saturday 29 April but will close again from Tuesday 2 until Saturday 13 to facilitate continued emergency repair works to the lock gates.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users on the Erne System that remedial works are planned for Corradillar Jetty on Upper Lough Erne on Friday 21 April and from next Monday 24 to Friday 28 April.

Access to the Co Fermanagh jetty and slipway will be limited during the above dates with the site closure on Monday to include the jetty, slipway, quay and car park, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Mechanical equipment will be operating on land and on the water. Masters of vessels and waterways users should proceed with additional caution in the vicinity of the works and adhere to instructions from works crews and signage.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and users of the Grand Canal that ground investigation works have commenced Phase 2 of the Grand Canal Greenway between Sallins and Lowtown in northeast Co Kildare.

These Kildare County Council works started on Tuesday 18 April and are expected to last for approximately eight weeks.

The towpaths shall mostly remain open for public use for the duration of the works but intermittent closures will be necessary during trial hole excavations.

Advance warning signage will be erected on the towpath to warn the public of any closure. Boat navigation will not be affected, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland informs masters of vessels and waterway users on the Shannon-Erne Waterway that the waterfront jetty in Leitrim village is now owned and managed by Waterways Ireland.

This jetty is located upstream of the slipway on the northern side of the waterway. The Shannon Navigation Bye Laws apply to this jetty from Monday 17 April, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises all masters of vessels and users of the Lower Bann that Carnroe Lock has been reopened open to navigation after repair works.

The Northern Ireland river lock had been closed for infrastructure maintenance last December, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Masters of vessels are advised that water levels between Carnroe Weir and the The Cutts are currently high, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users that Drumleague Lock on the Shannon Navigation’s Lough Allen Canal will be closed from Tuesday 18 to Saturday 29 April to facilitate emergency repair works to the lock gates.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels on the Shannon Navigation that in-river works for the construction of the Killaloe Bypass bridge commence Monday 17 April and are expected to continue for several months until December.

The bridge is being constructed around 1km downstream of the existing Killaloe–Ballina bridge.

Plant and other equipment that will be operating on the navigation during these in-river works include the following:

  • Jack-up piling barge, 22m x 17m x 2.44m
  • Stabilising crane barge, 30m x 23m x 1.88m
  • Piling rig, 85t
  • Crawler crane, 130t
  • Tugboat/pusher boat Tiger 2
  • Dumb barge, 23m x 9m
  • Landing craft
  • Safety boat
  • Landing pontoon and gangways

Piling will commence on Tuesday 2 May with three bridge piers being constructed in the navigation by December, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways says.

A buoyed navigation channel has been provided for 100 metres either side of the in river works since Friday 14 April. The navigation channel will be to the west side of the barges/pontoons from Monday 17 April to Wednesday 31 May.

Masters of vessels are requested to proceed at slow speed, with additional caution in the vicinity of the works, and to follow the instructions of the safety boat crew.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of craft wishing to make passage on the Royal Canal in Dublin that a navigation restriction is to be applied to use of the 10th Lock in Ashtown for boat passage.

The maximum beam of craft that will be permitted to pass through this lock will now be restricted to 3.5 metres, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways says.

This restriction is necessary due to structural checks recently undertaken on the lock, which identified a need for limiting the size of craft that could pass through the lock, it adds.

Published in Inland Waterways

Waterways Ireland advises masters of vessels and waterway users on Lough Ree on the Shannon Navigation that Red Conical No 616, north of Hare Island, has moved off station.

A temporary red navigation marker has been installed at this location. Masters of vessels are urged to proceed with additional caution in the area, the cross-border body for Ireland’s inland waterways adds.

Published in Inland Waterways
Page 14 of 68

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).