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Displaying items by tag: Banríon Uladh

A new fisheries protection vessel (FPV) for Northern Ireland was commissioned in a ceremony presided by the fisheries Minister Michelle Gildernew MP, MLA in Bangor Harbour on Thursday, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The Banríon Uladh which cost £2.2m (with 50% funding from the EU) has replaced the smaller sized vessel, Ken Vickers, which has been in service since 1992. The new 26-metre craft is based in the Co. Down harbour and is crewed by fisheries officers from Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).

The FPV was built by AS Baltic Workboats in Estonia and the 25 knot plus craft has already entered on operational duties as part of the Joint Deployment Plan with the Irish Naval Service to underpin fishery protection arrangements.

Layout of the vessel superstructure consists of the wheelhouse for a crew of three and provisional space for two observers. At the aft end there is a wet laboratory for scientific and data collecting purposes. On the lower deck the vessel can accommodate seven crew members in three twin cabins and a single cabin for the captain. Other facilities are the mess, galley and WC.

An onboard RIB, powered by twin 60hp outboards is located aft in the stern-well. Also located at the stern is a two ton capacity movable hydraulic gantry and a one ton Guerra marine deck crane. To create more deck-space for scientific research operations, the stern-well can be covered over with boards, a similar design feature is found on the Revenue Commissioners two Finish built custom cutters RCC Suirbheir and RCC Faire.

In addition to fishery protection, the craft is designed for seabed mapping, survey equipment technology to inspect inshore mussel resources for the
aquaculture industry and to detect pollutants. The ability to conduct such functions will enable greater assistance and understanding of the marine environment for DARD's science partners at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

The design of the Banrion Uladh is based on Baltic Workboats 24m Baltic 2400 class which has been operating for clients in Estonia, Latvia and Poland. In addition the same class is also to be used as a basis for boats which are under construction for the Swedish Coast Guard.

Published in Fishing

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).