Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Strikeaction

Workers who are members of Ireland's largest trade union, SIPTU have notified Zenith Energy Bantry Bay Terminals located on Cork's south-west coast, that they will take strike action next month.

The strike according to the Irish Examiner, is set to take place on 13 December at Whiddy Island where the storage facility provides for 1.4m cubic metres of crude oil,diesel,kerosene and petrol.

For more than 50 years the terminal has played a critical role in European energy storage and which has the ability to receive vessels up to the size of Vary Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) at their dedicated single-point mooring as Afloat's photograph depicts above.

The dispute concerns compulsory redundancies at the terminal in which the US based (Houston, Texas) energy company as Afloat reported in 2015 acquired the Whiddy terminal from Phillips66. 

Siptu's organiser Willie Noone said “This action results from the decision of the company to dismiss workers with long service on Wednesday, November 30, while planning to employ contractors on an ongoing basis to do their work”

Zenith which employs 31 in permanent positions at the terminal is undertaking a restructuring process which involves implementing five redundancies. 

In additon to the Irish terminal, Zenith has a terminal in the Netherlands in Amstedam and throughout the USA.

Published in Coastal Notes

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.