Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Manx Ferry news

#ProposedManxFerry –There is "very high interest" in plans for a new ferry service on the Isle of Man which has prompted shipping operators to hold a public meeting.

The Ellan Vannin Line, owned by Manx company Sea Alliance aims to introduce a freight service this year and a passenger service in 2014.

All island operations are currently handled by the Steam Packet Company.

Sea Alliance head Kurt Buchholz will update progress at an open meeting in Nobles' Park at 18:00 (BST) on Friday. For more on this story the BBC has a report.

 

Published in Ferry

#MANX FERRY – Sailings between the Isle of Man and Merseyside resumed service once again for the winter season, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co.'s ro-pax Ben-My-Chree started Douglas-Liverpool (Birkenhead) sailings this month and the vessel will also continue to operate services on her regular Douglas-Heysham route.

Crossing time from Birkenhead's Twelve Quays Ferry Terminal to the Manx capital take 4 hours 15 minutes. For sailings schedules of both routes click HERE.

Published in Ferry

#ISLE OF MAN FERRY – This Easter bank holiday weekend marks the start of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co.'s seasonal-only Dublin-Douglas ferry service, with a sailing scheduled to depart this evening, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The wave-piercing catamaran fastcraft Manannan had departed the Manx capital this afternoon to form the inaugural outbound sailing, which takes nearly three hours to complete. The 96m fastcraft is the largest of her type in the Irish Sea and she was built by InCAT in Hobart, Tasmania. She also maintains sailings on the Douglas to Belfast and Liverpool routes.

For sailing timetables across the network of routes to the Isle of Man click HERE and for a guide about  the fastcraft and conventional ferry Ben-My-Chree click this LINK.

Published in Ferry

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.