Displaying items by tag: Harbour Redevelopnment

30th September 2014

Councillors Given 2016 Start Date for Bantry Harbour Redevelopment

#BantryHarbourPlans – According to the Southern Star newspaper, councillors during a recent western committee meeting in Cork, were given a date for the much-mooted ambitious plans for Bantry Harbour.

Plans for the multi-million euro re-development of the town's inner harbour were once more outlined to the members, including the detail that Phase One, which will cost up to €7m, will see the dredging of the inner harbour, improvements to the town pier, an amenity area, and the construction of pier side pontoons.

But the meeting heard that it could be almost two years – in 2016 – before the work gets underway.

Brendan Keating, CEO of the Port of Cork company, told councillors that the Phase One work was necessary to ensure that Bantry Bay will become a key regional port for the south west.

To read more of the plans, the newspaper has a report here.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour