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Displaying items by tag: Seaplane

Lough Erne Yacht Club on the Lower Lough is situated about six miles north of Enniskillen on Goblusk Bay and occupies a former WW2 RAF site built in 1941 for Catalina Flying Boats. It has the enviable facility of being able to use the former slipway, moorings and hangar for members' sailing boats, power boats and caravans. The hangar provides unique winter storage for boats of all sizes.

Seaplane on Lough Erne

The history surrounding the Sunderlands and Catalinas stationed at Castle Archdale on Lough Erne and particularly the tenders which serviced them during the war is understood to be part of BBC 1 NI Newsline at 1810 hrs tonight (2nd).

In a post on the BBC NI App Louise Cullen writes about two Fermanagh men who have made models of the seaplane tenders; Seamus Gormley, a retired builder and Fred Ternan of Lough Erne Heritage. She also talks to one of the last pilots of the tenders, Alan Henson who was stationed at Castle Archdale in the mid Fifties.

Published in Inland Waterways
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#Seaplane - Almost 80 years after Charles Lindbergh considered the idea of a seaplane base in Galway Harbour, a Clare-based company has held its first test flight out of the city for a proposed new seaplane service, as RTÉ News reports.

The Cessna 206 was flown to and from the harbour yesterday (5 September) by Mountshannon-based Harbour Flights, which hopes to establish a permanent pontoon in the docks to run scenic excursions around Lough Derg and further along the west coast region next year.

It's also hoped that the tourist flights would pave the way for an Aran Islands commuter service, and an eventual Galway to Dublin route.

The plans come three years after Ireland's first ever commercial seaplane service ran its first test flights out of Cork Harbour.

RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

Published in Galway Harbour
Tagged under
A test flight for Ireland's first seaplane service took place in Cork Harbour on Friday afternoon. Harbour Flights Ireland has applied for planning permission to set up a landing base in Cobh to run its service having already acquired flight rights at Mountshannon, Co Clare. Test flights ran on Harbour Flights' four-seater plane. The Irish Times has a full report HERE. The company website is HERE.
Published in Cork Harbour

The GP14 is a popular sailing dinghy, with well over 14,000 boats built.

The class is active in the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and parts of north-eastern USA, and the GP14 can be used for both racing and cruising. 

Designed by Jack Holt in 1949, with the assistance of the Dovey Yacht Club in Aberdyfi. The idea behind the design was to build a General Purpose (GP) 14-foot dinghy which could be sailed or rowed, capable of also being powered effectively by a small outboard motor, able to be towed behind a small family car and able to be launched and recovered reasonably easily, and stable enough to be able to lie to moorings or anchor when required. Racing soon followed, initially with some degree of opposition from Yachting World, who had commissioned the design, and the boat soon turned out to be an outstanding racing design also.

The boat was initially designed with a main and small jib as a comfortable family dinghy. In a design philosophy that is both practical and highly redolent of social attitudes of the day the intention was that she should accommodate a family comprising parents plus two children, and specifically that the jib should be modest enough for "Mum" or older children to handle, while she should perform well enough to give "Dad" some excitement when not taking the family out. While this rig is still available, and can be useful when using the boat to teach sailing, or for family sailing, and has some popularity for cruising, the boat is more commonly seen with the full modern rig of a mainsail, genoa and spinnaker. Australian boats also routinely use trapezes.

GP14 Ireland Event Dates 2023

  • O'Tiarnaigh (Apr 22-23) Blessington Sailing Club
  • Ulsters (May 20-21) East Antrim Boat Club
  • Munsters (Jun 17-18) Tralee Bay Sailing Club
  • Leinsters (Jul 7-9) Dun Laoghaire Regatta
  • SOYC (Aug 19-20) Rush Sailing Club
  • Nationals (Sep 1-3) Sutton Dinghy Club
  • Hot Toddy (Sep 30-Oct 1) Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club

 

At A Glance – GP14 Dinghy Specifications

Crew 2
Draft 1,200 mm (47 in)
Hull weight 132.9 kg
LOA 4.27 m (14 ft)
Beam 1.54 m
Spinnaker area 8.4 m2
Upwind sail area 12.85 m2

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