Displaying items by tag: Appledore, Devon

24th February 2023

Proposed Clean Maritime Innovation Centre at Appledore, north Devon Receives £15.6mn Investment

In south-west England, Torridge District Council has received its largest ever investment of £15.6mn to boost and develop its proposed Clean Maritime Innovation Centre at Middle Dock located next to Harland & Wolff’s Appledore shipyard.

The funding for the Centre was issued by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in order to establish Torridge and wider northern Devon as a global-leading research and development hub for innovation in clean maritime technology and support industry.

Set to launch in 2025, the centre will display key industry partnerships from the Centre of Future Clean Mobility (CFCM) at the University of Exeter and the University of Plymouth offshore renewable and maritime autonomy specialisms, as well as state of the art research. This project is expected to propel the repositioning of Appledore as a region of excellence for clean-propulsion shipbuilding, as advancements away from diesel heighten over the next few years.

Tom Hart, General Manager at Harland & Wolff Appledore added: ‘’We are excited to hear about the approvals for the maritime innovation centre in Appledore. This will bring a vast amount of innovation into the industry, as well as opportunities for Harland & Wolff through research and development into net zero vessels for the future.

He added “this new development will undoubtedly place our Appledore facility in the heart of a green shipbuilding centre of excellence and will generate the technical expertise required to support a new generation of clean vessels as we move to net zero.’’

Published in Marine Science

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Could Mystery Boatman Steer Appledore, Devon Shipyard's Future

One of the UK's oldest commercial shipyards, Babcock in Appledore, Devon is set to make a decision on the fate of its shipyard next month, with 200 workers facing an uncertain future. Babcock is widely reported to be considering closing the shipyard whose order book is empty following completion of a contract to build a quarter of offshore patrol vessels (OPV's) for the Irish Naval Service. AFLOAT adds the final OPV LÉ George Bernard Shaw (above: docked at the yard earlier this year), made a delivery passage this month across the Celtic Sea to Cork Harbour.

#Ports&Shipping - A mystery that has got the City's of London's defence and industry experts speculating: just who is behind Boatman Capital Research?

As Sky News reports, Boatman last week published a damning report on Babcock, the engineering services group, which is credited with knocking £130m - or 4% - from the company's stock market valuation.

Its opening paragraph says: "Our investigative team has been researching Babcock for the past six months.

"We have reviewed hundreds of pages of company accounts, government documents and have interviewed numerous sources in the defence sector.

"In our opinion, Babcock has systematically misled investors by burying bad news about its performance.

"We believe that Babcock's senior leadership team - specifically the chairman and chief executive - are not up to the job and their failings will damage the company's future prospects."

For much more on the uncertain future that awaits the West Country shipyard dating to 1855 (click here)

Afloat adds in much more recent times the yard on the River Torridge near Bideford built for the Irish Naval Service, the OPV80/P50 'Roisin' class pair LÉ Roisin in 1999 and two years later LÉ Niamh. This took place when the yard was under ownership of Appledore Shipbuilders, a subsidiary of Langham Industries.

Other orders for Irish interests included Arklow Shipping, when the facility built a pair of bulk-carriers during the early 1990's. The sisters each 7,182dwt, Arklow Brook and Arklow Bridge were sold in recent years as previously reported in Ports & Shipping news.

Plus Appledore constructed the current Shannon Ferries operated double-ended car-ferries, Shannon Dolphin in 1995 and larger half-sister Shannon Breeze in 2000.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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Forty Foot Swimming Spot on Dublin Bay

The 'Forty Foot' is a rocky outcrop located at the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for 300 years or more. It is popular because it is one of few spots between Dublin city and Greystones in County Wicklow that allows for swimming at all stages of the tide, subject to the sea state.

Forty Foot History

Traditionally, the bathing spot was exclusively a men's bathing spot and the gentlemen's swimming club was established to help conserve the area.

Owing to its relative isolation and gender-specific nature it became a popular spot for nudists, but in the 1970s, during the women's liberation movement, a group of female equal-rights activists plunged into the waters and now it is also open to everyone and it is in the control of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Many people believe that swimming in extremely cold water is healthy and good for the immune system.

Is it safe to swim at the Forty Foot?

The Forty-Foot is a great place to swim because there is always enough water to get a dip but like all sea swimming, there are always hazards you need to be aware of. For example, a lot of people like to dive into to the pool at the Forty-foot but there are submerged rocks that can be hazardous especially at low water. The Council have erected signs to warn people of the underwater dangers. Other hazards include slippy granite cut stone steps that can often be covered with seaweed and of course marine wildlife including jellyfish that make their presence felt in the summer months as do an inquisitive nearby Sandycove seal colony.