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Displaying items by tag: pontoon

The Grand Canal Marina in the inner dock of the Grand Canal Basin has a landmark 'Box in the Docks' building familiar to many Dubliners. The 50-berth facility opened in 2004 and has become an asset for boaters in the city centre especially during festivals such as the recent Tall Ships visits, permitting boating access and overnight stays (albeit via a sealock) in Dublin city.

Published in Irish Marinas

The pontoon jetty at Ballast Quay in Sligo is designed to be used primarily for day trips or shortterm stays in the City. The facility is made available for use by owners and authorised crew of leisure craft owned, managed and operated by Sligo County Council (SCC).

The pontoon is available to all local and visiting leisure craft and also available for long-term berthing either with or without crew.

The pontoon will also be available on a limited basis to sailing clubs wishing to host events during the sailing season. 

Access to the Jetty area and to the pontoon is controlled by security coded locks, which (in the interests of security) are changed on a regular basis.

A pdf download of the Sligo County Council rules for the jetty is downloadable as a pdf document below

sligopontoon2012

The boating pontoon at Ballast Quay in Sligo. Photo: WM Nixon

Published in Irish Marinas
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The Royal St. George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire harbour offers fully serviced berthing for yachts up to 70ft with pontoons automatically lit and are equipped with shore power.  Nightly rates are available. A security card service for visitors gives access to the Yacht Club.

Arthurstown Pier is at Waterford Harbour’s eastern shore, seven miles north of Hook Head lighthouse. It  is directly east of Passage East. The small quay has a stone bottom. In 2010, following the provision of €56,250 to improve boat access on piers along the Hook Peninsula such as Ballyhack, Slade and Arthurstown Wexford County Council installed a small pontoon facility to encourage leisure boating in the area. As well as local boaters the faciility is also proving popular with local fishermen.

Published in Irish Marinas

After first hatching its harbour plan over five years ago, National Tourism Award winning village Portmagee in County Kerry now looks certain to see a new pontoon finally installed at Portmagee pier in 2013. It will be a further boost for a Kerry already popular with visiting yachts and boats.

The idea is to link the network of facilities that terminate in West Cork with new facilities in County Kerry and Portmagee will be an important link in this process.

The plans are that both local Skellig Rock tourism boat operators and up to 20 visiting yachts at any one time can use the new village pontoon once it is installed.

The facility is being developed through a local community initiative with funding from Kerry County Council and Failte Ireland.

Published in Irish Marinas

Duncannon Pier Pontoon is at Waterford Harbour’s eastern shore, six miles north of Hook Head lighthouse.  It is  a small fishing port where you may come alongside the commercial wall.  In 2010, following the provision of €56,250 to improve boat access on piers along the Hook Peninsula such as Ballyhack, Slade and Arthurstown Wexford County Council installed a small pontoon facility to encourage leisure boating in the area. As well as local boaters the faciility is also proving popular with local fishermen.

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Boating facilities at the Dromquinna Manor resort in Kerry include pontoon berths offering the boating enthusiast a wonderful base to enjoy the south-west coast. The current facility comprises a long jetty in the Kenmare river.

Published in Irish Marinas

Dun Laoghaire's National Yacht Club has a small pontoon facility with limited berthing for visiting yachts. The facility also has diesel, water, power and overnight facilities are available to cruising yachtsmen with shopping facilities being a short walk away

The club's pontoon is primarily used by its members for the short term securing of dry sailec boats prior to and after racing. 

Boats dry-sailing from the platform and Club launches/RiB's have priority on the inside pontoons.

There is also a marked area for launches onto which no other vessel should berth.

Fuelling alongside may be arranged at non-racing times.

Boats may not remain overnight without the approval of the Club Boatman, unless arriving after service hours. The rate for berths are available from the club directly.

 

 

 

Foynes Yacht Club has a small pontoon facility at its base on the Shannon Estuary in County Limerick. The pontoon accommodates approximately eight visiting boats, four club boats, plus club rescue boats and  up to 12 dinghies.

The club is located at Cooleen Point, Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland. Tel: +353 69 65261 Location: Latitude: 52°36"54' N  Longitude: 09°06"484' W

Published in Irish Marinas
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Dublin Bay 21s

An exciting new project to breathe life into six defunct 120-year-old Irish yachts that happen to be the oldest intact one-design keelboat class in the world has captured the imagination of sailors at Ireland's biggest sailing centre. The birthplace of the original Dublin Bay 21 class is getting ready to welcome home the six restored craft after 40 years thanks to an ambitious boat building project was completed on the Shannon Estuary that saved them from completely rotting away.

Dublin Bay 21 FAQs

The Dublin Bay 21 is a vintage one-design wooden yacht designed for sailing in Dublin Bay.

Seven were built between 1903 and 1906.

As of 2020, the yachts are 117 years old.

Alfred Mylne designed the seven yachts.

The total voting population in the Republic's inhabited islands is just over 2,600 people, according to the Department of Housing.

Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) commissioned the boat to encourage inexpensive one-design racing to recognise the success of the Water Wag one-design dinghy of 1887 and the Colleen keelboat class of 1897.

Estelle built by Hollwey, 1903; Garavogue built by Kelly, 1903; Innisfallen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Maureen built by Hollwey, 1903.; Oola built by Kelly, 1905; Naneen built by Clancy, 1905.

Overall length- 32'-6', Beam- 7'-6", Keel lead- 2 tons Sail area - 600sq.ft

The first race took place on 19 June 1903 in Dublin Bay.

They may be the oldest intact class of racing keelboat yacht in the world. Sailing together in a fleet, they are one of the loveliest sights to be seen on any sailing waters in the world, according to many Dublin Bay aficionados.

In 1964, some of the owners thought that the boats were outdated, and needed a new breath of fresh air. After extensive discussions between all the owners, the gaff rig and timber mast was abandoned in favour of a more fashionable Bermudan rig with an aluminium mast. Unfortunately, this rig put previously unseen loads on the hulls, resulting in some permanent damage.

The fleet was taken out of the water in 1986 after Hurricane Charlie ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August of that year. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as their sister ship Estelle four years earlier. The class then became defunct. In 1988, master shipwright Jack Tyrrell of Arklow inspected the fleet and considered the state of the hulls as vulnerable, describing them as 'still restorable even if some would need a virtual rebuild'. The fleet then lay rotting in a farmyard in Arklow until 2019 and the pioneering project of Dun Laoghaire sailors Fionan De Barra and Hal Sisk who decided to bring them back to their former glory.

Hurricane Charlie finally ruined active Dublin Bay 21 fleet racing in August 1986. Two 21s sank in the storm, suffering the same fate as a sister ship four years earlier; Estelle sank twice, once on her moorings and once in a near-tragic downwind capsize. Despite their collective salvage from the sea bed, the class decided the ancient boats should not be allowed suffer anymore. To avoid further deterioration and risk to the rare craft all seven 21s were put into storage in 1989 under the direction of the naval architect Jack Tyrrell at his yard in Arklow.

While two of the fleet, Garavogue and Geraldine sailed to their current home, the other five, in various states of disrepair, were carried the 50-odd miles to Arklow by road.

To revive the legendary Dublin Bay 21 class, the famous Mylne design of 1902-03. Hal Sisk and Fionan de Barra are developing ideas to retain the class's spirit while making the boats more appropriate to today's needs in Dun Laoghaire harbour, with its many other rival sailing attractions. The Dublin Bay 21-foot class's fate represents far more than the loss of a single class; it is bad news for the Bay's yachting heritage at large. Although Dún Laoghaire turned a blind eye to the plight of the oldest intact one-design keelboat fleet in the world for 30 years or more they are now fully restored.

The Dublin Bay 21 Restoration team includes Steve Morris, James Madigan, Hal Sisk, Fionan de Barra, Fintan Ryan and Dan Mill.

Retaining the pure Mylne-designed hull was essential, but the project has new laminated cold-moulded hulls which are being built inverted but will, when finished and upright, be fitted on the original ballast keels, thereby maintaining the boat’s continuity of existence, the presence of the true spirit of the ship.

It will be a gunter-rigged sloop. It was decided a simpler yet clearly vintage rig was needed for the time-constrained sailors of the 21st Century. So, far from bringing the original and almost-mythical gaff cutter rig with jackyard topsail back to life above a traditionally-constructed hull, the project is content to have an attractive gunter-rigged sloop – “American gaff” some would call it.

The first DB 21 to get the treatment was Naneen, originally built in 1905 by Clancy of Dun Laoghaire for T. Cosby Burrowes, a serial boat owner from Cavan.

On Dublin Bay. Dublin Bay Sailing Club granted a racing start for 2020 Tuesday evening racing starting in 2020, but it was deferred due to COVID-19.
Initially, two Dublin Bay 21s will race then three as the boat building project based in Kilrush on the Shannon Estuary completes the six-boat project.
The restored boats will be welcomed back to the Bay in a special DBSC gun salute from committee boat Mac Lir at the start of the season.
In a recollection for Afloat, well known Dun Laoghaire one-design sailor Roger Bannon said: "They were complete bitches of boats to sail, over-canvassed and fundamentally badly balanced. Their construction and design was also seriously flawed which meant that they constantly leaked and required endless expensive maintenance. They suffered from unbelievable lee helm which led to regular swamping's and indeed several sinkings.

©Afloat 2020