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Displaying items by tag: Floating hotel

The green light has been given to Ireland’s first floating hotel, as BreakingNews.ie reports.

In May last year Afloat.ie carried news of the proposals to bring a 70m barge to the Lower Bann at Crannagh Marina in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

Seamus Carey, owner of the Crannagh Complex, said he was motivated by a “surge” in visitor numbers to his marina before the first COVID-19 lockdown — as well as his disappointment in losing a Mississippi-style paddle steamer that he had first intended as an attraction.

Now Carey has expressed his delight at planners’ approval to moor the barge, which would be fitted out as a four-star hotel with 36 en-suites as well as facilities for dining and functions.

BreakingNews.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

Two years after his dream of a riverboat barge on the River Bann was lost to the Irish Sea, a Northern Ireland marina owner is making plans for Ireland’s first floating hotel, as Belfast Live reports.

Seamus Carey, who owns the Cranagh Marina Complex, has filed a planning application for a 70-metre barge he’s found in Norway which he intends to renovate into three-star accommodation with 36 cabins, a restaurant and function room.

He said “surge” in visitor numbers at his marina complex before the Covid-19 lockdown moved him to reflect his plans — which initially sank with the loss of the Mississippi-style paddle steamer MV Oliver Cromwell off the North Wales coast in May 2018.

Belfast Live has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.