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Displaying items by tag: Naval work welcomed

#NavalNewbuilds? - Proposals of future naval shipbuilding to be shared around UK yards including Harland & Wolff writes The News Letter have been warmly welcomed in Belfast.

The report prepared by Ulster-born industrialist Sir John Parker - a former chief executive at H&W - was published in London on Monday and contains many criticisms of the current status quo with Royal Naval procurement.

Although it is unlikely a brand new warship would ever be built entirely in Belfast, Sir John’s call for “sea-change” in current procurement procedures would see ships built in modular form across the UK for final assembly at a specific hub.

Current processes led to time delays in the supply of new vessels which in turn left old ships “retained in service well beyond their sell-by date with all the attendant high costs of so doing”.

Sir John said there was a “vibrant” UK shipbuilding, marine and defence supply chain sector which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should harness.

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Published in Belfast Lough

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago