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Displaying items by tag: MGM

Irish yacht brokerage firm MGM Boats has got 2016 off to a flying start at the London Boat Show this week with an order for five new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 389 yachts. According to John McDonald of MGM, the order for the Marc Lombard designs comes from Gibraltar–based sailing school Allabroad Sailing Academy and expands its Mediterranean fleet from six to 11.

Published in Marine Trade
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July's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta Boat of the week, Supernova, will be in action again this weekend in the Cruisers III East Coast championships. The annual fixture is being raced as part of tomorrow's DBSC Cruiser Challenge sponsored by MGM boats, Dún Laoghaire.

Entries for  the Challenge stand at 70 to date and remain open for the three day event run by Dublin Bay Sailing Club.

The DBSC Cruiser Challenge is open to Cruisers 0, 1, 2 and 3, Sigma 33s and 31.7s, who will also compete for their national championships during the event.

supernova

VDLR Champion Supernova is in action again on Dublin Bay tomorrow

Pat Shannon, vice-commodore of DBSC, says that as well as boats from the main Dún Laoghaire waterfront clubs, DBSC has invited boats from Howth, England and the Isle of Man to compete. "Last year we had 80 boats and we expect something similar. We're running it over the UK bank holiday so we might get those boats," says Pat. DBSC also welcomes Cruisers 3 to the event, who are taking part for the first time. (The Cruiser Challenge will also incorporate this year's Cruisers 3 East Coast Championships.)

This year the National Yacht Club is the host club for the event. Hal Bleakley is the race officer on committee boat, MacLir, and Henry Leonard is race officer on Spirit Of The Irish. NYC sailing manager Olivier Prouvier will coordinate activities on the water.

The organisers also plan plenty of fun after racing, with live music and barbecues in the NYC and a party for the 31.7 nationals in the National Yacht Club on Saturday night.

The main organisers are DBSC commodore Tony Fox, vice-commodore Pat Shannon, rear-commodore Chris Moore and honorary secretary Donal O'Sullivan, assisted by a team of around 28 volunteers. "We're always very grateful to the volunteers, they're the greatest resource we have," says Pat. "We have all the equipment, the greatest resource is the people who help out."

Pat adds that there are great prizes this year – half model yachts, made by Marine Model Makers of Wicklow. "They are very special, so it's worth entering," he says.

The entry fee for each boat is €105 with a reduced fee of €80 for entries received before 12th August.

Published in DBSC

The US-flagged replica tallship H.M.S. Bounty arrived into Belfast Lough this morning for the Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival (24-26 June), writes Jehan Ashmore.

Measuring some 200 tonnes, the three masted-replica ship of the original H.M.A.V Bounty where the famous mutiny against Captain William Bligh took place in Tahiti in 1789, is to open to the public.

The replica was constructed in Nova Scotia of the original Hull-built vessel for the 1962 MGM film 'Mutiny on the Bounty' starring Hollywood screen legend Marlon Brando.

The Bounty was also used in the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean II and a Lone Wolf Production Group documentary on Blackbeard and has featured in several documentaries.

'Bounty' will be open to visitors (for information www.tallshipbounty.org) and is to be accompanied by the Jubilee Sailing Trust's Lord Nelson (www.jst.org.uk/).

The festival venue is at the Queen's Quay, Abercorn Basin and Arc, behind the Premier Inn Hotel at the Titanic Quarter.

As for the Titanic, tours of the old main offices of the H&W shipyard on the Queen's Road courtesy of the Titanic Quarter Ltd will be open to the public with displays relating to Titanic and Edwardian Fashion.

In addition Titanic Bus Tours lasting two hours which are free are available from the Belfast Welcome Centre, to contact Tel: 028 9024 6609.

For a complete listing of the festival events, dates and opening hours go to www.belfastcity.gov.uk/maritimefestival/index.asp

Published in Maritime Festivals

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020