#rnli – Crosshaven RNLI lifeboat was launched from Cork Harbour at 3.35pm this afternoon to a report of a 21' open crabber boat aground on the rocks East of Trabolgan with 1 person on board.

The skipper of the vessel had earlier caught his propellor in fishing gear and with the tide filling was driven onto the rocky shoreline.

Another fishing vessel stood by until the lifeboat arrived on scene. Crosshaven RNLI Volunteer Crew member Brian Ring entered the water with a tow rope and swam to the casualty and made fast the towline.

The lifeboat eventually dragged the boat off the rocks where the vessel was further checked for leaks and damage before handing over the tow to the stand by vessel, which was also going to Aghada village. Crosshaven Lifeboat then escorted both vessels into the harbour before returning to station at 5.40pm. Other crew on this service were Aidan O'Connor and Alan Barton.

#CorkHarbour - Marine Minister Simon Coveney yesterday (12 May) attended the contract signing for the remediation of bridge access Haulbowline Island, a €1.85 million deal that was awarded by Cork County Council to L&M Keating Ltd.

Commenting at the signing, the minister said the "major contract" is "a key infrastructural element of the remediation project" for the toxic waste dump at the former Irish Steel/Ispat site on the Cork Harbour island.

The work, which will extensively upgrade the current bridge infrastructure, will address significant access demands involved in carrying out the remediation of Haulbowline, with a view to the future development of the island and surrounding areas in the longer term.

Minister Coveney said he welcomed the decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission for the remediation of the East Tip and awaits a decision from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the application for a waste licence.

"The project is now entering an exciting phase where the hard work that has been going on behind the scenes will now lead to construction activity on the island.”

#corkharbour –  A French sailor took advantage of gusty weather in Cork Harbour to pass race leader Jeff Condell to win yesterday afternoon's revival of the famous 15–mile Round Cobh Island windsurf race. The race, organised by Eddie English of Sailcork, was won in an impressive time of two hours and 25 minutes but not good enough to beat Oisin Van Gelderen's long standing record set in 1998 of one hour 29 mins 24 secs.

Originally scheduled for Saturday, 50–knot gust put paid to any plans so the windsurfing fixture was rescheduled for yesterday afternoon in much more manageable 15 to 20 westerly winds.

The course for the race, that was first staged in 1983 but not run for many years, featured a start at Cuskinny Bay (one mile east of Cobh) leaving Great Island to starboard (round the island westabout or clockwise). The finish was also in Cuskinny Bay at the impressive flagship, Soubrette under the command of Gene Ryan.

Race veteran Condell led the 25–boat fleet most of the way round but on the final beat to the finish line a passing squall gave Frenchman Marius Fedotovas the edge on Shannon's Condell for the overall win.

Also competing were past Irish windsurfing champions Robin Bateman, Vincent Geary and Hannes Louet, to name a few (see results below). The sailors raced on a variety of early version 'sailboards' such as 'division 2' boards with round bottoms and daggerboards, popular in the 1980s but not seen since.

The race revival is part of the SailCork 40 celebrations and there was plenty of enthusiasm to dust down the old boards and take part in this great event. 

The course required the negotiation of the Railway Bridge at the Fota Channel and Belvelly Bridge (road bridge). The course also passes beneath some telegraph and electricity wires - there is plenty of safe clearance for windsurfers but NOT safe clearance for larger sailing dinghies.

Results:
Marius Fedotovas
Jeff Condell
Hannes Louet
Fintan Day
Steve Flanagan
Robin Bateman
Rory Allen
Cormac O' Brien
Neil Sandes
Colman Phelan
Cullen Allen
Greg Day
Ian Bradley
Andrew Christofides
Kevin Cunningham

Race Officer: Eugene Ryan + Dermot Devlin

Scroll down for more photos by Bob and Chris Bateman

#lifeboat – Courtmacsherry RNLI All Weather Lifeboat continues to tow a 75–foot fishing vessel that had got into difficulties earlier today 35 miles off Courtmacsherry in West Cork. It is now proceeding to take the trawler to the safefy of Cork Harbour. As the conditions at sea today are poor with strong winds, it will be 7.30 pm this evening before both vessels arrive at the mouth of the Harbour. Following the successful location of the stricken Trawler at 10 am this morning, both vessels are making slow pace in poor conditions. There are six crew on board the fishing vessel.

#CorkHarbour - The Irish Examiner reports on An Bord Pleanála's approval of a €40 million scheme to turn the toxic waste dump on Haulbowline Island into a public park.

Plans for the Cork Harbour site, adjacent to the former Irish Steel/Ispat plant, are still subject to the granting of a waste licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the coming weeks.

But this week's planning approval "was a big set necessary to convince people that this clean-up will happen," said Marine Minister Simon Coveney.

Conditions attached to the planning board's decision include the declaration of a 1km monitoring zone around the site with marine mammal observer to ensure that wildlife are not disturbed by the works to make safe some 500,000 tonnes of waste, including many toxic heavy metals and cancer-causing materials. The Irish Examiner has more HERE.

Last month the Green Party's Dan Boyle criticised the Government's slow progress on dealing with the Haulbowline site after the latest in a series of risk assessments was commissioned more than 18 months after the clean-up package was signed off.

In February this year local councillors raised concerns over leaks from the toxic waste site during that month's severe weather and high tides.

#portofcork – The Port of Cork Company has lodged a planning application with An Bord Pleanála for the Ringaskiddy Port Redevelopment project in the lower harbour. The application is being made under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act.

The planning application to An Bord Pleanála includes the following redevelopments under which will form an extension to the existing facilities which currently operate at Ringaskiddy.

The Ringaskiddy Port Redevelopment project consists of four key areas:

Ringaskiddy East (Container Berths and Multi-purpose Berth (CB/ (MPB))
• A new 314m Container Berth 1/ Multipurpose Berth that will be capable of accommodating vessels carrying a range of different cargoes including containers, freight and general cargoes;
• An additional 200m Container Berth 2
• Surfacing of existing port lands to provide operational areas;
• Dredging of the seabed (at new berths) to a level of -13.0 m Chart Datum (CD);
• Demolition of existing link-span
• Installation of link-span comprising a floating pontoon and access bridge;
• Installation of container handling cranes and terminal transport equipment;
• Maintenance building, administrative buildings and entrance kiosks; and
• Ancillary car parking, lighting and fencing.

Ringaskiddy West (Deep-water Berth Extension)
• A new 182m extension to the existing Deep-water Berth (DWB) which will comprise a filled quay structure extending no further seaward than the edge of the existing DWB;
• Dredging works (within Ringaskiddy basin) to varying levels to facilitate navigational access to the new facilities; and
• Lighting.

Road Improvements
• Improvements to the external road entrance into the Ringaskiddy Deep-water Terminal and to Ringaskiddy West;
• Improvements to the internal link road between Ringaskiddy East and Ringaskiddy West;
• Road improvement works within the existing harbour lands at Ringaskiddy East;
• Improvements to internal road network at Ringaskiddy East to facilitate future access to the N28; and
• Lighting and fencing.

Paddy's Point Amenity Area
• Construction of a new public pier, slipway and boarding platform;
• New planting and landscaping to provide public amenity area;
• Boat storage, lighting and fencing.

These plans are the first phase of the implementation of the Port of Cork's Strategic Development Plan Review (2010), the core principles of which were endorsed in the National Ports Policy, which highlighted Cork as a Tier 1 port of national significance. This Policy also identified the continued commercial development of the Port of Cork Company as a key strategic objective.

Over the last twelve months, the Port of Cork has carried out a number public open days and public consultation, to both inform and listen to the stakeholders around the harbour. Where possible, the comments from residents and communities within the harbour were considered and some amendments were made to the proposed plans presented at the time.

Speaking about the planning application, Brendan Keating, Chief Executive, Port of Cork said: "We have had constructive pre-application engagement with An Bord Pleanala to date and we are pleased to be lodging our planning application for Ringaskiddy Port Redevelopment today. Our needs as a port of national significance have not changed and as a Tier 1 port, the Port of Cork must be able to meet the needs of the region and those of our customers."

He continued: "Being able to accommodate larger vessels is of utmost importance if the Port of Cork is to remain competitive and future proof Cork as an international gateway for trade."

The key drivers of the rationale and need for the proposed Ringaskiddy Port Developments include the existing physical constraints in handling larger vessels and the changing nature of port activities, including the trend towards port-centred logistics. Addressing these needs would allow the Port of Cork to meet and secure its future development potential, and this would translate into significant quantified economic benefits for Cork and the surrounding region, as well as the national economy

The Port of Cork is a key link to the economic success of Ireland, in particular the entire Munster region. 98% of goods imported or exported from Ireland are moved by ship, highlighting the importance of ports to our economy.

The application documents including the Environmental Impact Statement and Natura Impact Statement may be inspected free of charge or purchased on payment of a specified fee (which shall not exceed the reasonable cost of making such copy) during public opening hours for a period of seven weeks commencing on 8th May 2014 at the following locations:
• The Offices of An Bord Pleanála, 64 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1;
• The Offices of Cork County Council, County Hall, Cork;

The application documents may also be viewed on the following website: http://www.ringaskiddyportredevelopment.ie from Friday 2nd May 2014.

A further public copy will be available for viewing only, during public opening hours, at The Foyer of National Maritime College of Ireland, Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork, from Tuesday 6th May 2014.

#youthsailing – Fresh from his significant 15th overall a week ago at the Laser Europa Cup in Marseille, Royal Cork's Seafra Guilfoyle took a three point lead after the initial three races in today's opening rounds of the youth national championships off Howth. Guilfyole has a 3, 1, 1 putting him in pole position ahead of Kinsale's Ross O'Sullivan and Royal Cork club mate Cian Byrne, who were also competing in France.

420 dinghy locals Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove won the first two races and finished second in the final race of the day in the double–handed class. They lead Royal Cork's Harry Whitaker & Grattan Roberts and Peter McCann & Arran Walsh.

Full results here.

#matchracing – Two womens team are to go forward from three entries at last weekend's Irish trials for the the ISAF Women's Match Racing Worlds hosted by Royal Cork Yacht Club in June.  After a short notice event in Howth last weekend Mary O'Loughlin (and her team of Karena Knaggs, Lynn Reilly and Niamh McDonald) Laura Dillon (and her team of Maria Coleman, Carol O'Kelly and Breffni Jones) are to go forward for the invitation only event. As hosts Ireland is fortunate to benefit from two wild card invitations after one foreign team set for Cork pulled out of the event.

The J80 racing was tight and wind conditions were windy, approximately 15-20 knots from a westerly direction. Racing started with full rig and spinnakers, but, with the wind increasing  races 2 and 3 were raced without spinnakers.

The ISAF Women's Match Racing Worlds which will be hosted by Royal Cork Yacht Club, from 3-8 June 2014.

#corkharbour – A statement today by the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, that a detailed quantitative risk assessment is to be undertaken for Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour is being questioned by the Green Party's Dan Boyle.

"The biggest question is, why? Several studies have already taken place. Years of data exist. A major review of these reports was commissioned five years ago by the then Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, the first time risk information was ever made available by any Irish government.

"Three years into the life of this government we seem to have nothing but a stream of press releases designed to give the impression of activity, when in reality nothing has physically changed on Haulbowline since 2011."

#haulbowline – The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney T.D. today attended the contract signing for a Detailed Quantitative Risk Assessment of the former steelworks factory site on Haulbowline Island.

Commenting at the signing today the Minister said "this contract for the assessment of the former steelworks factory site moves the Haulbowline Island remediation project into a new phase and underpins the whole of island remediation approach that is now being adopted".

Cork County Council is acting as agent of the Minister for the remediation of Haulbowline Island. The contract was awarded to ARUP and is for a rigorous and robust Detailed Quantitative Risk Assessment (DQRA) which will be prepared in accordance with current best practice, taking cognisance of relevant legislation, standards and guidance. Additional surface water, groundwater and gas sampling will be undertaken. All available data will be collated, analysed and interpreted and a report containing the DQRA, options appraisal and remedial solution prepared. This report will outline, in detail, the proposed remedial solution.

A planning application for works on the East Tip was lodged with An Bord Pleanála on 30th October 2013 and the waste licence application was submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency on 14th November 2013.

An Bord Pleanala held a public hearing on the application on 19th March 2014 and the Bord have indicated that a decision on the application is due by 24th April2014.