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Displaying items by tag: Operations

Darren Byers has been appointed Port Manager at Stena Line based in Belfast Harbour.

With over 20 years’ experience within Maritime operations, Darren joins the ferry and port operator from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) where he was Area Life Saving Manager covering Ireland and the Isle of Man. This year is notably significant, as the RNLI is to celebrate its 200th birthday on 4th March.

An experienced operations manager, Darren, from Bangor Co. Down, will manage the safe, efficient and effective operations in the Belfast terminals and support the success of Stena Line in Belfast Harbour.

He will support Duty Managers and lead the teams in the day-to-day functions at the Port.

The ferry operator has three routes serving Belfast Harbour, connecting Cairnryan, Scotland and Birkenhead (Liverpool) in addition the freight-only service to Heysham also in England. 

Published in Stena Line

The Commissioners of Irish Lights continues to provide essential services to maritime trade for Ireland, north and south during the Covid-19 crisis. 

In an update yesterday on operational activity, Irish Lights announced that their ILV Granuaile and coastal teams provide important maintenance for marine aids to navigation, vital for the safe movement of food, fuel, medical, hygiene and other supplies.

Our 24-hour emergency number remains open as always in the event of a need to report an aid to navigation that is not functioning correctly – +353 (1) 2801996.

In line with government advice in relation to a range of public health and safety measures to delay the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Irish Lights has put in place working arrangements to protect our employees and to keep them safe, while at the same time continuing to allow us to deliver our essential safety at sea services.

The Irish Lights facility in Dun Laoghaire Harbour is open on a restricted-access basis. The office and buoy yard remains accessible for essential operational requirements, and will continue to support the work of Irish Lights around the coast and at sea. Deliveries will be accepted, please phone ahead to reception at 01 271 5400 in advance.

Business operations continue with the majority of our employees working from home. They can be contacted as normal by email or phone.

Essential maintenance and outage response work continues around the coast, and revised health and safety measures have been put in place for the protection of employees working in coastal locations. ILV Granuaile operations and essential buoy maintenance work, outage response, and wreck response continue. Extra precautions are being undertaken to ensure optimal health and safety standards on the vessel.

Requirements are being reviewed on an ongoing basis, please see CIL's website or Twitter for further updates.

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