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Displaying items by tag: MalinWaters

#Marinas - Minister of State Joe McHugh will officially open the new €1.3 million Bunagee Marine Development on the Inishowen Peninsula tomorrow afternoon (Friday 9 June).

The new safe haven for coastal cruisers, including a breakwater and pontoons to accommodate 15 vessels, was developed by Donegal County Council as part of the major cross-border project Sail West.

It also forms part of a county-wide strategy to grow Donegal’s necklace of coastal tourism infrastructure and promote the county as a top marine destination in Europe, under the MalinWaters brand shared with Sligo, Northern Ireland’s maritime counties and Western Scotland.

Ahead of the marina's official opening, Donegal County Council Cathaoirleach Terence Slowey said: “We have a wonderful marine tourism product here in Donegal and the new Bunagee Marine Development is a great addition to our existing infrastructure.

“Situated close to the beautiful village of Culdaff, Bunagee is an ideal base that will give visitors the opportunity to explore the Inishowen Peninsula and the county.”

Minister McHugh will attend the official opening at Culdaff on Friday 9 June at 2.30pm.

The project was funded by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA Cross-border Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body. It was constructed by Deane Public Works, and Doran Consulting was awarded the contract as the consultant engineers.

Published in Irish Marinas

#MARINAS - The new shore block at Stranraer Marina is the latest project to benefit from the Sail West initiative across western Scotland, Northern Ireland and the northwest coast of Ireland.

As the Galloway Gazette reports, the new waterfront building comprises a permanent harbour office, coastguard base, showers and toilets, as well as a community education room.

“The ongoing development of the marina is key to branding Stranraer as a marine leisure destination," said local councillor Roberta Tuckfield.

"Plans to add more pontoons and another breakwater should bring in additional pleasure craft, increasing tourism numbers benefiting the whole town.”

The marina improvements have been made with the goals of boosting the number of marine leisure users in Stranraer, fitting in with Sail West and its cross-border MalinWaters marine tourism brand across the channel.

Sail West is an international scheme, headed by Donegal County Council and Larne Borough Council, which aims to encourage mariners to enjoy the North Channel coastlines of Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Other projects recently supported under the rubric of the Sail West initiative include the new coastal marina facility at Ballycastle Harbour in north Antrim and this summer's Clipper Festival in Derry.

The Galloway Gazette has more on the story HERE.

Published in Irish Marinas
The shores of Lough Swilly in Co Donegal will come alive with sails at SeaFest 2011 from 1-3 July, celebrating the region's unique coastal environment.
The weekend begins on Friday 1 July with the launch of MalinWaters, a new cross-border marine tourism initiative for the zone between the north of Ireland and western Scotland.
It's followed on the Saturday with a parade of sails and action in the Saldanha Cup, a traditional cruiser-racer sailing regatta that commemorates the 200th anniversary of the sinking of the frigate HMS Saldanha, with a course that takes on the wreck site of the ship near Ballymastocker Strand.
Among the myriad family events taking place on shore, SeaFest will also feature an abundance of Donegal's local food culture, such as fresh seafood from local waters, plus lamb, beef and pork from the county's field, prepared by talented chefs from the region.
For more details visit seafestloughswilly.com.

The shores of Lough Swilly in Co Donegal will come alive with sails at SeaFest 2011 from 1-3 July, celebrating the region's unique coastal environment.

The weekend begins on Friday 1 July with the launch of MalinWaters, a new cross-border marine tourism initiative for the zone between the north of Ireland and western Scotland.

It's followed on the Saturday with a parade of sails and action in the Saldanha Cup, a traditional cruiser-racer sailing regatta that commemorates the 200th anniversary of the sinking of the frigate HMS Saldanha, with a course that takes on the wreck site of the ship near Ballymastocker Strand.

Among the myriad family events taking place on shore, SeaFest will also feature an abundance of Donegal's local food culture, such as fresh seafood from local waters, plus lamb, beef and pork from the county's field, prepared by talented chefs from the region.

For more details visit seafestloughswilly.com.

Published in Maritime Festivals

Ireland's Trading Ketch Ilen

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

Designed by Limerick man Conor O’Brien and built in Baltimore in 1926, she was delivered by Munster men to the Falkland Islands where she served valiantly for seventy years, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties.

Returned now to Ireland and given a new breath of life, Ilen may be described as the last of Ireland’s timber-built ocean-going sailing ships, yet at a mere 56ft, it is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

Wooden Sailing Ship Ilen FAQs

The Ilen is the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden sailing ships.

The Ilen was designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to circumnavigate the world.

Ilen is named for the West Cork River which flows to the sea at Baltimore, her home port.

The Ilen was built by Baltimore Sea Fisheries School, West Cork in 1926. Tom Moynihan was foreman.

Ilen's wood construction is of oak ribs and planks of larch.

As-built initially, she is 56 feet in length overall with a beam of 14 feet and a displacement of 45 tonnes.

Conor O’Brien set sail in August 1926 with two Cadogan cousins from Cape Clear in West Cork, arriving at Port Stanley in January 1927 and handed it over to the new owners.

The Ilen was delivered to the Falkland Islands Company, in exchange for £1,500.

Ilen served for over 70 years as a cargo ship and a ferry in the Falkland Islands, enduring and enjoying the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties. She stayed in service until the early 1990s.

Limerick sailor Gary McMahon and his team located Ilen. MacMahon started looking for her in 1996 and went out to the Falklands and struck a deal with the owner to bring her back to Ireland.

After a lifetime of hard work in the Falklands, Ilen required a ground-up rebuild.

A Russian cargo ship transported her back on a 12,000-mile trip from the Southern Oceans to Dublin. The Ilen was discharged at the Port of Dublin 1997, after an absence from Ireland of 70 years.

It was a collaboration between the Ilen Project in Limerick and Hegarty’s Boatyard in Old Court, near Skibbereen. Much of the heavy lifting, of frames, planking, deadwood & backbone, knees, floors, shelves and stringers, deck beams, and carlins, was done in Hegarty’s. The generally lighter work of preparing sole, bulkheads, deck‐houses fixed furniture, fixtures & fittings, deck fittings, machinery, systems, tanks, spar making and rigging is being done at the Ilen boat building school in Limerick.

Ten years. The boat was much the worse for wear when it returned to West Cork in May 1998, and it remained dormant for ten years before the start of a decade-long restoration.

Ilen now serves as a community floating classroom and cargo vessel – visiting 23 ports in 2019 and making a transatlantic crossing to Greenland as part of a relationship-building project to link youth in Limerick City with youth in Nuuk, west Greenland.

At a mere 56ft, Ilen is capable of visiting most of the small harbours of Ireland.

©Afloat 2020