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Displaying items by tag: Ian O'Meara

For the last 45 years, Oyster Yachts have built a reputation for signature performance blue water cruising yachts built to the finest level of craftsmanship. This is a company that is not just building but are creating through personalisation and customisation of design with their owners and where innovation is the norm.

At the Oyster Yachts World Rally presentation in the National Yacht Club, on Thursday, Oyster confirmed the appointment of Ian O'Meara, as their Representative in Ireland.

At the announcement Paul Adamson, Oyster Yachts CCO, said, we are delighted to welcome Ian to our team. We have many Irish Oyster Owners and with Ian’s knowledge of the Irish Marine Leisure Market he really is the perfect fit.’

Oyster

In conversation with Ian, it became clear that his love of Oyster Yachts started when in his late teens he crewed ‘Sundowner’ an Oyster 37 owned by Barry O' Donnell of the RIYC, and most recently with Liam and Ruth Shanahan aboard Ruth II on their Oyster 625. ‘Oyster make without doubt the finest blue water Cruising Yachts in the world. I have followed them closely over the years and delighted to see the direction the company is now taking under Richard Hadida in design, innovation and the added value to their customers in terms of specialisation and craftsmanship. It’s clear having spoken to Oyster Yacht owners that the after sales back up service is world class. ‘

O'Meara went on to explain the Oyster World rally which no doubt is on his bucket list. ‘The other unique point of difference Oyster Yachts offer is The Oyster World Rally. This round the world rally provides its owners with a unique opportunity to sail around the world taking in the most beautiful sailing grounds with the professional support of Oyster all the way. It’s true what they say ‘the world is your oyster’’

The appointment of Ian O'Meara in Ireland is Oyster Yachts recognition of Ireland as a growing market for their customer base - the discerning blue water yacht owner. With O’Meara’s experience and positioning in Irish sailing he is perfectly poised to connect the discerning blue water sailor with one of the world’s greatest boat builders.

For further details, please contact Ian at [email protected] Telephone 086 2576438

Published in Boat Sales
Tagged under

#ONLINE RETAIL - If Viking Marine boss Ian O'Meara has any regrets, it's that he didn't get into online trade much sooner.

In an recent interview with The Sunday Times' Sandra O'Connell, the 52-year-old managing director explains how the internet has provided him with a low-cost opportunity to diversify his business in these recessionary times.

Aside from retail outlets at The Pavillion in Dun Laoghaire and Kilcoole in Co Wicklow, both serving the vibrant east coast sailing community, the company now has Quickropes.com which provides hundreds of different ropes for any need - not exclusively boating.

"We thought there might be a market there for a specialist site, and it turns out there is," says O'Meara. "It's early days, but it's tipping along nicely."

It makes a refereshing change from the usual trend from losing custom in its brick-and-mortar outlets to the web, with the perception being that prices for everything are cheaper online.

"All too often we get people who come in to try on clothing items for size, only because they want to go and order them online," he says.

Another challenge brought by the internet is the expectation of the variety of stock Viking Marine is expected to carry. "We sell everything from a needle to an anchor," says O'Meara. "When people come in for something, they expect to find it."

But it appears the business is weathering both the choppy waves of the changing marketplace and the storm of the global financial crisis, thanks to some difficult but necessary sail trimming.

"In any case, I'm a sailor," he says, "it's what I do, it's what I love, and the business is still very much a part of that passion."

The Sunday Times has more on the story HERE (subscription required).

Published in Marine Trade

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.