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Displaying items by tag: Irish Search and Rescue

Philip Bartlett has been appointed Bristow Ireland’s director of Irish search and rescue (SAR) helicopter and fixed-wing aviation.

“Bartlett will be responsible for leading the Bristow Ireland team responsible for delivering life-saving missions across the country,” the company says.

Bristow Ireland is due to take over provision of rotary and fixed-wing aviation services for the Irish Coast Guard, and received its air operator certificate from the Irish Aviation Authority earlier this year.

As part of the contract with the Department of Transport, the company will run six SAR-configured AW189 helicopters from dedicated bases in Shannon, Sligo, Waterford, and Weston.

The new contract will include a day and night fixed-wing service operating out of Shannon.

Bartlett has 33 years of experience in Irish and British aviation, and was most recently chief technical officer for Shannon Technical Services.

Before that, Bartlett was a technical operations manager for Nordic Aviation Capital, where Bristow Ireland says he “gained a perspective on the regional aircraft leasing business, including managing aircraft deliveries and returns, to and from various international airlines”.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Hons) in aircraft engineering, aerodynamics, business, and quality from Kingston University.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; an incorporated engineer with the British Engineering Council; and holds an EASA Part 66 and national aircraft maintenance engineer’s license from the Irish Aviation Authority.

Published in Coastguard

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)