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Displaying items by tag: Marina

This important new potoon facility on Clew Bay is located approximately 30 metres from the edge of the permanent pier will allow users of the pier to board and disembark from their boats in a convenient and safe manner.

Mayo Sailing Club, islanders, boatmen and County officials gathered at Rosmoney Pier for the opening for public use of the new floating Pontoon at Rosmoney in April 2013.

Rosmoney near Westport is the base for the Mayo Sailing Club whose members enjoy the excellent sailing grounds that exists among the archipelago of islands in the east of Clew Bay.

Rosmoney is located 8km from Westport town and adjoins Clew Bay. Rosmoney Bay is currently the centre of access to Clew Bay for a wide number of users. Currently there are over 100 marine craft of various descriptions moored in Rosmoney.

The pontoon is made up of a floating pontoon and ramp with safety railings, a water source and power facilities which makes it possible for boats to moor at Rosmoney including local fish farm vessels. Islanders will be allowed to tie their boats to the pontoon while on business on the mainland while other boat users are to use it for loading and uploading.

Published in Irish Marinas
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Valentia Harbour is on the south side of the entrance to Dingle Bay, in a sheltered area between the Valentia Island and the mainland. Knightstown is a fishing port and is the Island's only settlement. It provides visiting yachts with a sheltered anchorage and moorings. There is the outline of a marina (the floating breakwaters) there and they are sometimes used for berthing.

Published in Irish Marinas

Cranagh marina is located on the Bann Estuary below Coleraine, a four miles sail of the mouth of the Bann, the gateway to the North Coast from inland Ireland.  It has an 18–berth jetty that is in the process of being extended to accommodate a further 60 berths.

cranaghmarina

Cranagh marina on the river Bann. Photo W M Nixon

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Rathmullan marina is a small marina pontoon at Rathmullan, a village in County Donegal is located on the western shore of Lough Swilly and is part of the Fanad Peninsula, situated roughly 12.5 miles from the Lough's entrance and 34 miles northwest of Londonderry/Derry.

The pontoon is suitable for small vessels to berth alongside at a reasonable fee and where fresh water is laid on.  There is a concrete slipway suitable for dinghy landing. The Lough Swilly ferry also operates from the pier between Rathmullan and Buncrana, a journey of 45 minutes.

Published in Irish Marinas

Copeland Marina is one of Ireland's first marinas. Located on the northeast coast of Ireland two miles south of Copeland Island, that lies outside the entrance to Belfast Lough, and is immediately south of Donaghadee Harbour. It is a compact marina mostly occupied by local boats.  It is an ideal destination to enjoy Donaghadee and the Ard's Peninsula with the vessel completely protected in the marina from all conditions.

Manager: Gerald Nicholas.
Copelands Marina Phone: +44 2891 992184 Mobile: +44 7802 36 3382
VHF: Ch 16 ,11, 80
Email - [email protected]

Published in Irish Marinas

Glenarm has long been a port of call for sailors and yachtsmen travelling to and from Scotland's island-studded western coast and has proved a welcoming haven to visitors from all over the world.
Glenarm Harbour offers 40 fully serviced pontoon berths within the village's historical limestone harbour, which is ideally situated within a day's sail of the Western Isles and Clyde. Visiting vessels welcome.

Glenarm Harbour
Glenarm, Co.Antrim, BT44 0EA

Telephone: 028 2884 1285

Published in Irish Marinas

#greystonesharbourmarina – The Irish Sea's newest marina opens in Wicklow on Easter Monday. Greystones Harbour Marina will open on 1st April 2013 with 100 berths available initially.

Since arriving on site in December operators BJ Marinas Ltd have been working around the clock to ensure they met their target of being open for the start of the boating season on 1st April.

Managing Director Bernard Gallagher said "We're delighted to be appointed as harbour and marina operators. It's a unique and stunning site and we're looking forward to opening this new marina on Monday'

BJ started taking bookings in late January and have had a steady stream of commitment from berth holders since then.

There will be 100 berths initially ranging from six metres to 30 metres. Once completed there will be 230 berths.

Published in Greystones Harbour

#greystonesharbour – It's full steam ahead at Greystones Harbour where operators BJ Marinas Ltd are putting the final touches to the marina ready for opening in 11 days time on April 1.

Our exclusive photo (taken yesterday) shows recent progress in the marina basin with piling complete and furniture being installed.

BJ, will operate the marina and boatyard,  say they are 'really happy with the progress' and confirm the marina will open on schedule.

The pontoon installation will be completed shortly with 100 berths initially and the access bridge should also be complete by the weekend.

Office and facilities will be in place early next week and other services and the access road are also well under way.

Local boaters have already being eyeing up the new facility. Greystones Sailing Club has put together a provisional programme for Keelboat racing this season, a new era for the club.

The County Wicklow marina has received '85 serious enquiries' for berths over the Christmas and New Year Period. Berthing details are here.

The newest addition to boating on Ireland's east coast is operated by BJ Marinas Ltd, a company owned by senior marine industry figure Bernard Gallagher.

The firm are operating the new site under contract from developers Sispar and Wicklow County Council.

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Greystones Harbour Marina takes shape – pontoons are installed this week to give Ireland a new addition to its coastal marina network

 

Published in Greystones Harbour

#greystones – A piling barge to install steel poles for Greystones Harbour marina has arrived on site at the East coast harbour in County Wicklow.

Piling will take most of March to complete and the initial 100-berth marina is planned to open in April. The marina will be operated by BJ Marinas Ltd. Local councillor Derek Mitchell welcomed the arrival of the works that will provide a new destination for Irish sea boaters.

'I'm very pleased that BJ Marinas Ltd are now building the marina which they will operate from April. Its MD, Bernard Gallagher, who was Chairman of the Irish Marine Industry Federation, has provided very useful advice to the project when it was in its formative stages a decade ago' Mitchell told Afloat.ie.

 

Published in Greystones Harbour
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#greystones – Soon to open Greystones Harbour marina in County Wicklow has received '85 serious enquiries' for berths over the Christmas and New Year Period according to BJ Marinas Ltd, the recently appointed operators of the marina that is due to open on April 1st.

The marina will open initially with 100 berths and work to install the pontoon berths in the new harbour will start with pile driving in two weeks time.

The firm will operate the marina and boatyard on the purpose built site under contract from developers Sispar and Wicklow County Council. Bernard Gallagher of BJ Marinas Ltd is reporting 'a steady stream of enquiries'. Interest is mixed between sail and power craft owners.

The enquiry for the biggest vessel so far being a 55-footer. After piling on February 1st, pontoons are expected to be on site in the third week of February. Access roads are also to be completed at the site.

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Page 9 of 13

Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.