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Displaying items by tag: Mooney Boats, Killybegs

#BoatyardKillybegs – A pair of tugs in recent weeks have undergone overhaul work carried out at Mooney Boats, the boatbuilder, repairer and maintenance facility in Killybegs, Co. Donegal, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Tugs SMS Cian and Nomad used the services of the north-western yard that has the largest boat-hoist in Ireland, though Killybegs fleet of considerably larger supertrawlers go elsewhere. Among the drydocks used this had included Dublin Graving Docks that closed last week.

SMS Cian which operates for Sinbad Marine Services also based in Killybegs, was taken out of the water where the 30 ton bollard pull tug had seacocks removed, serviced and refitted.

In addition the 18m twin screw vessel had a stainless steel bar fitted to the top of the gunnel on the stern. The UK flagged SMS Cian was washed and painted along with new anodes fitted where required.

The rather unusual looking Nomad, having observed at Dun Laoghaire Harbour in 2009 (see below) is currently operated by Castletownbere Marine Ltd.

Work on the 10 ton bollard pull tug formerly the States of Jersey Harbour Authority tug, Duke of Normandy, involved water-blasting the deck and deckhouse in resealing the windows around the wheelhouse.

The 1972 built tug completed at Poole, Dorset, was also washed, painted and had anodes fitted to the 24m single screw vessel during her call to Killybegs.

The premier Irish fishing port is also from where Nomad previously operated for Sinbad Marine in duties asides towage but on oil spill recovery, fire fighting and as a guardship.

It was in that role that Nomad saw east coast duties off the Kish Bank, using Dun Laoghaire as a base. On that occasion the tug was on 'guard vessel' duties of Dublin Port based drillship, Fugro Synergy which carried out a series of exploratory drill wells off the Kish Bank to examine the viability of a underground coal gasification (UCG) project south-east of the iconic lighthouse.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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).