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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: property

#dublinport - At Dublin Port freight requiring physical checks after Brexit will, writes The Irish Times, be inspected in a warehouse formerly owned by businessman Harry Crosbie following an agreement signed by the State.

As part of contingency planning for the United Kingdom crashing out of the European Union without a deal next month, Dublin Port Company has signed a licensing agreement with the Office of Public Works to hand over use of a port-owned 13,000m warehouse on a five-acre site at the northeastern part of the port for Brexit-related checks.

The departure of the UK, the State’s closest trading partner, from the EU will lead to a huge increase in the number of UK imports requiring customs, health and safety clearance on their arrival into the port.

Eamonn O’Reilly, the port’s chief executive, confirmed it had licensed the property on Tolka Quay Road to the State, and that the OPW was fitting out the former Crosbie warehouse property and another seven-acre inspection area to be ready for Brexit-related checks after the UK’s departure on March 29th.

For more on this development, click here.

Published in Dublin Port

#Property - A sea view in scenic Greystones is just part of the appeal of Rowan Point at the Wicklow town’s Marina Village development.

The first phase of 58 apartments is now for sale off plans, with views either north to Bray Head, east to the sea or west to the Sugarloaf.

Prices range from €425,000 for first floor units to €950 for penthouses, and unique touches include local stone countertops.

The Irish Times has more on Rowan Point’s first phase HERE.

Published in Waterfront Property

#Property - Galway City Council has granted permission for the construction of new student accommodation on the former Topaz oil site in Galway Docks, as Galway Bay FM reports.

Two blocks of seven and eight storeys each would provide 345 bedrooms as well as space for business start-ups in the plans by Bonham Dock Limited.

However, a number of restrictions have been attached to the project, which constitutes a phase of the masterplan for a ‘New Galway’ between the docks and Ceannt Station rail yards.

Back in September, ambitions plans for floating student accommodation in the city’s cocks were ruled out by the Galway Harbour Company, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Published in Galway Harbour
Tagged under

#Property - New Ross Boat Yard in Co Wexford is now on the market at a price point of €4 million.

With 230 metres of frontage on the River Barrow and easy access to the Nore and Suir (and by extension the South East Coast), the 1.62-hectare property also comes with a sizeable dry dock, one of only three in the Republic that can handle large commercial boats.

Additionally on the site is a 50-tonne marine travel lift and winter storage space or as many as 150 vessels, thanks to signifiant refurbishment over the last decade by its present owner.

With an annual turnover of €840,000, and planning permission in place to adapt the dry dock for year-round service, the boat yard is sure to be an attractive prospect.

CBRE Ireland has more on the property HERE.

Published in Waterfront Property
Tagged under

#Galway - Galway Harbour Company has ruled out any notion of floating student accommodation in the city’s docks.

According to Galway Bay FM, harbour CEO Eamon Bradshaw said lack of space in the inner docks was the reason for rejecting the proposal by a local property management firm in an effort to alleviate the accommodation crisis facing NUI Galway students.

Last month Winters Property said it was in talks to bring to the city two purpose-build apartment barges, with a capacity of more than 400 between them.

The company’s managing director Enda McGuane also said he was discussing the possibility of mooring at the private Mud Dock owned by Capt Sam Field-Corbett, the champion of waterside accommodation behind the Naomh Eanna restoration.

Published in Galway Harbour
Tagged under

#Galway - A property management firm in Galway believes a solution to the city’s rental crisis for students could be found in the form of large-scale floating accommodation, according to The Irish Times.

Winters Property says it could have two such purpose-built apartment barges, with capacity for more than 400 NUI Galway students between them, in Galway Docks within weeks.

The barges are developed by Liverpool-based Bibby Maritime for use in the oil and gas sector and corporate events, and the company currently has two such vessels available.

But planning permission is another matter, with berthing space at a premium in the city and priority given to commercial traffic.

Winters Property’s managing director Enda McGuane says he is in discussions with Capt Sam Field-Corbett, waterside accommodation advocate behind the Naomh Eanna restoration, about the feasibility of using his privately owned Mud Dock as a mooring location.

The Irish Times has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Galway Harbour
Tagged under

#CorkHarbour - More than three acres of Cork docklands are coming to market, as the Irish Examiner reports.

The lands comprise a warehouse property between Monahan Road and Centre Park road east of the city centre, in an area already set for transformation between the revamped Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the new Marina Park regeneration project, adjacent to Cork City Marina by the former showgrounds.

Commercial and residential developers alike are expected to express interest in the 3.31-acre site, zoned for mixed use, and with a guide price of €1.2 million per acre.

Interest in this part of the city is growing with the imminent move of the Port of Cork downriver — and city planners are already meeting with potential buyers for the port’s historic buildings on Custom House Quay.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.

Published in Cork Harbour

#WaterfrontProperty - The Galway Advertiser has details of a detached family home near Barna with views over Galway Bay on the market for €570,000.

The waterfront house sits on a half-acre site and comes with spacious rooms featuring south-facing windows, designed "to allow free flow" through the home.

Also worth noting is the large attic with potential for conversion, ad the planned gardens between the house and its spectacular vista over the bay.

The Galway Advertiser has more on this property HERE.

Published in Waterfront Property
Tagged under

#Property - A prime seafront site in the South Dublin suburb of Booterstown is on the market for €1 million, as the Irish Independent reports.

Located between the Rock Road and the Dart line and adjacent to the nature reserve, the five-acre site is described by agents Knight Frank as a "unique development opportunity" with "spectacular" views of Dublin Bay.

The lands comprise two areas zoned 'objective Z9' and 'objective F', both of which require preservation of open space and recreational amenity under the respective developments plans of Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown councils.

The Irish Independent has more on the story HERE.

Published in Waterfront Property

#WaterfrontProperty - Aberystwyth Marina and its 150 berths in West Wales are on the market, and the whole lot could be yours for just £2.5 million (€2.9 million), according to Wales Online.

The 23-acre marina, which has planning permission for an extra 40 boat moorings, reportedly has an annual turnover of more than £300,000, and is the first marina in the UK to be available on the open market for more than five years.

Located on the banks of the River Rheidol as it flows into Cardigan Bay, Aberystwyth Marina has the added benefit of being just a day's crossing of the Irish Sea from the East Coast of Ireland and our bustling sailing scene.

But pretenders beware - current owner Merlin Developments is only looking to sell the business to an experienced and proven operator.

Wales Online has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Waterfront Property
Tagged under
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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]