The Port of Cork Company has issued a warning to all mooring holders in Cork Harbour that it is going to remove all unauthorised, unpaid or poorly marked moorings in Cork Harbour.

“It is the responsibility of the mooring holder to ensure that their mooring is in the correct position and is clearly marked at all times with the correct mooring number,” the Port Company says. “We hereby give notice that it is the intention of the Port of Cork Company to remove all unauthorised, unpaid or poorly marked moorings over the coming months, from the week commencing 26th of February.”

It has “suspended” the issuing of mooring positions for applications received after 10th of January, “until these works have been completed” and says it will resume “issuing mooring positions on 1st April 2024.”

At the end of March, the Strangford and Lecale Partnership started a new pilot study of Advanced Mooring Systems in Strangford Lough. It is the first study of its kind in Northern Ireland, and these eco-friendly moorings will avoid or limit the damage caused to the seafloor habitats and species by the swinging chain of traditional boat moorings.

The Partnership covers the whole of the Strangford and Lecale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, taking in much of the Ards Peninsula, Strangford Lough and Lecale. It brings together statutory authorities to improve heritage management across the whole of the area and is underpinned by the Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Newry Mourne and Down District Council and Ards and North Down Borough Council.

Two different types of advanced mooring systems were installed in Ballyhenry Bay following condition assessments of the Seagrass around the existing swinging chain moorings. The site is just north of Portaferry on the eastern shore of the Lough near the Narrows.

A Seaflex Mooring unit about to be deployed

The diver video recorded the seagrass condition around the entire circumference of the mooring, the old mooring was removed and the new mooring installed.

The two different systems being trialled are Seaflex, an elastic and environmentally friendly mooring solution and Sterling which uses floats to keep the chain off the seabed.

The area will be resurveyed next year to see which has been more successful in allowing the seagrass to re-establish. This work is being carried out by Cuan Marine Services Ltd, in partnership with local mooring owners, and funded through the NIEA Challenge Fund. This fund supports the Water Quality Improvement Strand of the Environmental Challenge Fund which seeks to support projects that help people connect with and seek improvements to their local aquatic environment.

Cuan Marine Services are carrying out the Strangford Lough study

Cuan Marine Services were employed by Newry Mourne and Down District Council to deliver a feasibility study ‘Potential for advanced-moorings as management option for Strangford Lough Marine Protected Areas (MPA)’

Moorings in front of the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire will be removed next season because of repair works being carried out on the East Pier's Number One berth. 

According to an Afloat.ie source, Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company has told the club that a barge will 'operate from the south end of No. 2 berth (Carlisle Pier) and the East Pier and its track being through the existing moorings'.

The NYC has several mooring trots in this location and is used for a dozen or so small boats, RIBs and Ruffian 23 keelboats.

It is understood the moorings will be removed from June 2016 until sometime in 2017.

#moorings – Waterways Ireland intends to open the Extended Term Serviced Moorings in Sallins, Co Kildare in October 2014. The moorings in Sallins have been created with a number of services to provide a high standard of facility. The moorings have electricity, water, lighting and access to broadband, a sewage pumpout and rubbish disposal facilities.

Initial applications for berths in the Extended Term Serviced Moorings will open on 1 September 2014 for three weeks to boaters holding a Combined Mooring & Passage Permit (CMP).

To find more about the Extended Term Serviced Moorings contact Waterways Ireland or download the application form, criteria and guidelines from www.waterwaysireland.org; by Tel 0044 (0)28 6632 3004 and asking for a Extended Term Serviced Mooring Pack or by writing to ETS Mooring Application Pack, Waterways Ireland, 2 Sligo Rd, Enniskillen, BT74 7JY.

The Application Process requires the applicant to already hold a Combined Mooring & Passage Permit, complete the application form, and submit the enclosures and fees including a security deposit with the application by the 22nd September 2014. The Extended Term Serviced Mooring rate of €152 applies to these berths currently. Applicants are advised that the charging regime will be subject to change when new Bye-Laws come into force (currently at draft stage).

Evaluation of the applications will take place after the closing date. A license will be issued only on payment of the balance of the fee and the signing of a license agreement.

#dlmarina – A year after yacht clubs reacted to a cut in Dun Laoghaire Harbour's swinging moorings, the Royal St. George, has vacated it s long held east bight moorings at the request of the Dun Laoghaire harbour Company and relcoated to the town marina.

The harbour company requires the east bight area to facilitate visiting cruise ships, a new area of revenue for the harbour.

The Royal St.George, the country's biggest club, says 'As opposed to doing a partial withdrawal over the 2014/2015 seasons we have agreed a new facility with Dun Laoghaire Marina in their West Bight section'.

It is intended that all Royal St George boats on the East Bight will relocate. Moorings in front of the club house are currently unaffected. The club says it has agreed a very favourable rate with the marina and takes into account the notified increases for mooring charges.

A launch service between the club and the Marina will be available and currently a scheduled service is being drawn up, this will be the only point of access to the West Bight.

The initial agreement between the club and the marina is for a period of 4 years.

The club website advises 'the West Bight berthing rate exclusive to RSGYC members will be €170 p/ meter vs. the Marina's advertised rate of €217.50 p/ meter'  This rate is available from Lift In – Lift Out and only to RSGYC members that availed of moorings in the last few years.

For 2013 Royal St.George mooring rates were €147 p/ meter. With the increases from the Harbour Co for 2014 the rate would be in the region of €155 p/ meter, the club estimates.

The west bight marina facility will only be accessible from the RSGYC club house pontoons and will be served by the Launch Service with one pickup/ drop off point on the West Bight which will increase efficiency.

#moorings – Swinging moorings in Dun Laoghaire harbour are being reduced this month in favour of 'low cost pontoon parks' and the town marina but the move has taken mooring users – including the four waterfront yacht clubs –  by surprise with the 2013 boating season just weeks away.

Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company (DLHC) says that approximately 40 of the estimated 400 swinging moorings are not being used in the harbour. The plan is to remove these in advance of the sailing season but the Commodore of the country's biggest yacht club, Martin Byrne of the Royal St. George YC, told Afloat.ie that 'the timing is upsetting for sailors who have used these moorings for over a hundred years. We see no need for the requirement to do this now'.

A Harbour source has told Afloat.ie that there are plans for sizeable cuts in the mooring numbers in the years ahead. The Royal St. George Yacht Club and Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Clubs (DMYC) stand to be the most affected by the first phase of reductions this month.

DLHC says the moorings need to be reduced in order to provide space for the company to handle an increase in commercial shipping activity such as a replacement Holyhead ferry and cruise liner traffic escpecially in and around harbour berthing areas.

According to the source the Royal St George Yacht Club will lose eight moorings in front of its club (for small boats) this year and another eight next year from this area. 17 moorings will be lost from the 'east bight' area this year.

Harbour Company Chief Executive Gerry Dunne told Afloat.ie "It is envisaged that swinging moorings will remain a feature within the harbour, albeit the current quantum will gradually be reduced over the coming years'.

The Harbour Company estimates that it takes up approximately five times as much water-space to accommodate a boat on a swinging mooring versus the space that the same boat would require in a more structured pontoon configuration.

There is uncertainty surrounding some of the National Yacht Club moorings but up to 22 could be gone next year from the east bight.

There will be no change at the Royal Irish Yacht Club at this stage as their moorings are located either inside the marina breakwaters and the west bight (opposite to the marina breakwater) according to the source.

Most of the moorings at the Coal Harbour are to be replaced with a new boat park concept currently in the tender process. The DMYC will lose the outer of the three strings at the west bight. A handful of moorings outside the east marina breakwater will also go.

Ultimately, the harbour masterplan launched in 2011 sees the development of two low-cost pontoon parks, one alongside the East Pier and one in the old harbour. The masterplan drew a substantial response from the yacht clubs.

 

There's an old joke about a Scottish hellfire preacher trying to educate his flock about the punishment awaiting them if they do not mend their ways. He tells them that the ungodly will find themselves in the flames of hell, suffering unimaginable torments, and that they will cry to the lord for mercy, saying "Laird, laird, spare us: we didna ken whit torments awaited us." And, he tells them, the lord in his infinite goodness and mercy will gaze down upon them from heaven and he will say unto them "Well, ye ken noo".

 

WI and the canals

Some folk with boats on the Royal, Grand and Barrow may be feeling a bit like the ungodly at the moment, with the role of the lord being played by Waterways Ireland (WI). It seems that, as predicted here, WI is finally moving to take control of its canals.

Several new initiatives are under way, more are promised, some are predicted — and all in all it probably amounts to the biggest set of changes to boating on the canals since the end of commercial carrying. Furthermore, there are suggestions that the canals are being seen as a pilot study: that some of the changes will be applied to the Shannon and the Erne in years to come.

 

Cheap boating

Until now, you could keep a boat on the canals for e126 a year. That covered as many miles as you wanted and passage through as many locks as you wanted; it also covered mooring for the year. There is a bye-law that says you must not stay in one place for more than five days at a time, but it was widely ignored and scarcely ever enforced.

So you could, for example, keep your boat near Dublin, perhaps at a location close to a railway station, and live on it all year round. Or you could keep it there in the winter and move to the Shannon end for the summer, basing your boat at Shannon Harbour (Grand Canal), just one or two locks away from the Shannon, or at Richmond Harbour (Royal Canal), just one lock away. The cost was well below that of a Shannon marina berth.

The bye-laws simply did not reflect the ways in which people actually used boats, either as pleasure craft or for living on. And the charges to users were well below the cost of competitors' products (e.g. commercial marinas' charges), well below the charges on UK waterways and, in particular, well below the cost of running the waterways.

 

Costs to taxpayers

In the year ended 31 December 2010, WI's operating income, excluding "net deferred funding for pensions", was e547,000. That's the total for all waterways, coming from licences (e34,000), property (e210,000), operations (e202,000), interest (e1,000) and other (e100,000). The programme costs (excluding staff and other costs) were:

• Barrow e723,000

• Grand e2,074,000

• Royal e2,873,000

• the rest e2,098,000.

So the Grand, by itself, cost almost as much as the Lower Bann, the Erne, the Shannon and the Shannon–Erne Waterway put together. The Barrow, Grand and Royal accounted for 73% of the costs but for a far lower proportion of the boats and the income.

I don't intend that as a reflection on the efficiency with which the different waterways are operated: canals are entirely different in nature to river and lake navigations, with far more waterways infrastructure, and will cost more to run. But I give the figures for two reasons. First, they show that, if WI wanted to reduce the gap between income and expenditure, it would inevitably focus on the canals. Second, the figures give some idea of the extent of the subsidy being provided by the taxpayer to canal-based boaters: if there are, say, a thousand boats based on the canals and Barrow, each of them is being subsidised by (on average) about e5,500 a year from the taxpayer.

 

Costs to boaters

I'm always inclined to look at the economic angle, but WI doesn't dwell on it. Nonetheless it will increase the costs to boaters and will also increase WI's income. Instead of a single e126 annual charge, boaters will now pay

• e126 for a Combined Mooring

& Passage Permit

• e152 for an Extended Mooring

Permit (EMP)

• e250 as a damage deposit,

which I presume will be rolled

forward in succeeding years.

Furthermore, boaters applying for Extended Mooring Permits (EMPs) must produce insurance certificates; for anyone currently uninsured, that will be an extra cost, as will any survey and remedial work required.

There will be other extra costs, of which more below, in future years.

 

Controlling mooring

At the core of WI's current activity is its taking control of the banks. It is marking out lengths that can be allocated to boats; it will allocate those lengths to those applying for EMPs. It does not guarantee that boaters will get their preferred spaces, or that they will get the same space every year. But once a space has been allocated, it is reserved for one boat for the year and cannot be used by another. That probably seems obvious to anyone renting a marina berth but it will be a new practice on the canals.

The EMP system was applied first at Rathangan and Vicarstown on the Barrow Line, between Lock 34 and Griffith Bridge on the Grand and at Confey (Leixlip), 15th Lock and 45th Lock (near Richmond Harbour) on the Royal. The second batch will include places in the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin, at Pike Bridge, near Maynooth, and at Abbeyshrule on the Royal and near Lock 34 on the Royal. There will be more batches through to spring 2013; full details on http://www.waterwaysireland.org; select New Canal Permit System from the menu on the left.

Continuous Cruisers (as they're called in Britain), folk who stay no more than five days in one location, will not be required to have EMPs.

So what happens if a boater doesn't apply for an EMP but doesn't cruise continuously? If I'm reading the bye-laws correctly, WI has the power to remove a boat, store it and, if necessary, sell it, charging the owner for the costs of doing so.

 

Information or consultation?

There has been some criticism of WI for not holding consultation meetings before beginning to implement its new policy. My own view is that WI was right: such meetings produce more heat than light, with too much attention on minor individual matters and not enough useful comment on the principles. There is much to be said for creating facts on the ground.

But if consultation has been restricted, the flow of information has not. In fact WI has used its website very effectively, setting out its plans, explaining the procedures and providing FAQs with useful, not PR-type, answers. Whoever has been in charge of that exercise deserves to be commended.

 

Insurance and dry docking

One thing WI has communicated is that there is more to come.

From 2015 Waterways Ireland will be introducing the requirement for boats needing permits and wishing to use the canals to have a current hull survey to provide evidence that the boat is in good condition. [...] Your attention is being drawn to this requirement now to allow you time to prepare for 2015. [...]

The Licensee undertakes to have regular inspections of the gas and electric services of his Boat as required to ensure these are kept in a safe and serviceable condition. [...]

All Boats must carry adequate fire fighting equipment and have same serviced as per the manufacturer's recommendations. [...]

It is not permitted to re-fuel Boats at an extended mooring.

The requirement for insurance will probably mean more boats needing hull surveys; there is an explicit requirement for such surveys from 2015 onwards. That will put extra pressure on the dry docks, where WI has already introduced restrictions on the boats that can use them and the work that can be carried out. There is, in my view, an urgent and growing need for well-capitalised, well-managed boatyards along all our waterways. The requirements also suggest a need for more fuel sellers along the canals; as far as I know the only one is at Lowtown.

 

The Shannon and the Erne

The new arrangements will mean better management of the canals, safer boats and more income from WI, all desiderata. But the real excitement would come with their extension to the Shannon and the Erne. The legal basis for charging might have to be different, but WI must surely be planning to raise much more money from Shannon and Erne boaters. The current Shannon lock and bridge fees are pathetically small, hardly worth collecting, and they are not paid at all by those who stay on the lakes.

I am writing this before the Republic's budget is published, but I cannot imagine that it will contain good news for WI. I suspect that it will have to raise much more money itself, and that means from charges to various types of users. Robin Evans, chief executive of Canal & River Trust, which runs the former British Waterways navigations in England and Wales, said recently that his organisation gets only 35% of its funding from the State. The Irish Government must look enviously at that figure.

But it must consider the price elasticity of demand for inland boating. Usage, as measured (however imperfectly) by Shannon lock and bridge passages, has been falling over the last ten years. The chart below shows the figures for the first ten months of each year: at time of writing, figures for November and December 2012 were not available.

It may be time to reinvent the Shannon once again.

A marina on the banks of the Shannon in Co Offaly on Ireland's inland waterways could be yours for €1.5 million.

Shamrock Marina, just downstream from Banagher, offers mooring space for around 100 boats during the summer months, but has the potential and space to expand well beyond this number.

There is also scope to develop residential and commercial premises on the property, making this an intriguing investment opportunity.

Waterside Properties has more details and photos HERE.

Waterways Ireland is undertaking improvement works by way of installation of new floating moorings and realignment of aids to navigation at the public mooring facility at Terryglass harbour, Lough Derg on the inland waterways. The work is due to commence tomorrow 2nd. Dec and is expected to be finished by 24th December.

After community consultation in Scotland, brokered by The Crown Estate, agreement has been reached on the allocation of moorings in Glenuig Bay, on the Sound of Arisaig south of Mallaig.

The issue of moorings in the Bay had been contentious since Glenuig Inn Ltd. applied to position 10 moorings within the Bay. At a public meeting held in Glenuig Village Hall, on Thursday 30 September The Crown Estate and the local community came together to discuss a way forward. Through consultation with existing users an agreement was reached that will provide for most existing moorings to remain in place. Areas for commercial moorings have been set aside to be laid by Glenuig Inn Ltd. and Glenuig Community Association will act as a Moorings Association to manage the remaining moorings within both Glenuig Bay and Samalaman Bay. The new arrangements will allow the Glenuig Inn to expand its business into the leisure sailing market as well as the watersports market, and the local community to keep their boats in the Bay as they have for many years.

Alasdair Carmichael, Chair of the Glenuig Community Association said: "We are grateful to Paul Bancks of The Crown Estate and P.J. Korbel from their managing agents, Bidwells, for taking the time to meet with the various parties and to attend meetings in Glenuig Hall to enable these issues to be resolved. Without their help and patience it would not have been possible for these issues to be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties."

Paul Bancks, coastal manager for Scotland at The Crown Estate said: "This is an excellent example of our day-to-day management and facilitation that goes largely unnoticed, but which plays a vital role in managing the limited marine resource around Scotland's coast. We are delighted to be able to assist the local community at Glenuig and look forward to working with them in the future as they manage the local moorings resource for the benefit of the whole community."

Fishermen and boat owners have moored in Glenuig Bay in Moidart without consent for a number of years. Then, in 2008, the new owner of the Glenuig Inn applied to The Crown Estate and Scottish Government for 10 commercial moorings in the Bay to attract new business and provide facilities for visiting yachts.

The local community were very concerned that they would be 'evicted' from the Bay and would no longer be able to keep their boats close to their homes and businesses.

As owner of the seabed, The Crown Estate commissioned a survey in August 2010 to look at the optimum arrangement for moorings within the bay. The subsequent report, by local company Wallace Stone, identified a number of locations that would accommodate additional moorings and allow access to the important jetty and slipway in the Bay.