Displaying items by tag: Plans for Scilly newbuilds

30th August 2023

Shipbuilder Harland & Wolff in Move to Build and Operate Isles of Scilly Ferry

Shipbuilder, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings is in the running to build and operate two new ferries to serve the remote Isles of Scilly, 24 nautical miles off Cornwall in south-west England.

The shipbuilding group which has facilities on both sides of the Irish Sea, is reaching the conclusion of a full technical, operational and financial business case on the newbuild ferries on the Penzance Harbour-Hugh Town, St. Mary’s route.

According to The Irish News, H&W will join partners, including local councils, to make an application for the UK government's levelling up funding. In addition, to seeking a licence to operate the two vessels on the 37 nautical mile route and be based initially over a five-year period.

Harland & Wolff however, warns that "there is no certainty at this point that this opportunity will proceed to financial close".

In the event that if H&W’s project proceeds, it is not known whether any of the workload for the newbuilds, would be carried out at the shipbuilder group’s main Belfast shipyard.

More on the story here and as BBC News reported, H&W's proposal would put it in competition with the established Isles of Scilly Steamship Company which celebrated its centenary in 2020.

The shipyard at Queens Island, Afloat adds is one of Harland & Wolff’s four facilities. Two are located in Scotland and the fourth in England, at Appledore, Devon is where the current Scilly ferry, Scillonian III was built in 1977.

In recent years, the shipyard in 2019 was acquired by Infrastrata, owners of H&W and the facility with 300 years of shipbuilding was renamed Harland & Wolff (Appledore).

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour