Forum of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland - IWAI Waterways Discussion Forum

Re: Slipway needed around Celbridge area.

Mick Farrell — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:47:58 +0100

Slipway at Confey (Leixlip) on the Royal. Nearer than Robertstown but you will need a key for the barrier.

M(W&W)F

Re: Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

OceanFroggie — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:15:05 +0100

Classic. Brings back memories of the opening credits to BBCs Howard's Way back in the 80s.

Re: Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

Pas Vite / T 15 — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:02:30 +0100

MBM 25 years ago

[www.motorboatsmonthly.co.uk]

.

Re: Slipway needed around Celbridge area.

j doyle — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:01:34 +0100

Hi Richard .

There is a slip in Robertstown on the canal . Also check out the bridge in Straffen .

John

Slipway needed around Celbridge area.

Richard Ellis — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:42:37 +0100

Does anyone know of a open public slipway(freshwater) in or around Celbridge/Nass area. Just need to swap two small craft around between trailers. Can go into the GCD if necessary but easier if somewhere closer. Can be contacted offline at richardellis[at]eircom.net

Ta
R

Re: Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

Patrick Mackey — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:06:23 +0100

Thanks for posting that old PBO.
I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane (waterways!). That sort of mag was the stuff of our boyhood dreams in the 60's. I still have some of the yokes in the advertisements in my shed.The first boat I ever actually owned was a Metzler TS 280 powered (well that might be a slight exaggeration!) by a one and a quarter hp JAP outboard.
Paddy
ps. had a sandwich on a boat today!

Re: May I introduce you to...

Alt — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:36:26 +0100

Quote:
Richard Ellis
Well wear indeed Niall, great to be in a position to buy a boat you already know. Avoids a lot of nearvous sweating for the first few Months........
Looking forward to seeeing you and "The Lady Lornas' "(the boat and the Lady) down on Derg at some stage.......!

R

Thanks Rich.

Now you know why I wasnt spending all my money on beer last weekend (:D

Re: May I introduce you to...

Richard Ellis — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:33:04 +0100

Well wear indeed Niall, great to be in a position to buy a boat you already know. Avoids a lot of nearvous sweating for the first few Months........
Looking forward to seeeing you and "The Lady Lornas' "(the boat and the Lady) down on Derg at some stage.......!

R

Re: May I introduce you to...

Alt — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:20:31 +0100

Quote:
OceanFroggie
Quote:
Alt
That particular pier is on Inchagoill island... it takes only a few parallel parked boats to hog the whole place. Rather than give out, I try to set an example and always berth stern-to, meaning MANY more boats can tie up (I invite subsequent boats to tie along-side me)

Great idea. Rally style mooring. Are there multiple mooring buoys then parrallel to the pier or just the one as per the photo?

There are 3, all of which were laid there by volunteers of the IWAI Corrib Branch. Because the area is to sheltered, once 1-2 boats tie the bow to the bouy, all other boats can just tie alongside these boats - it works! Unfortunately you get the odd clown who will tie up their lake boat at the end (deep end) of the pier and hog the whole place making the pier un-usable for others.... all you can do is grind your teeth and laugh it off

Re: May I introduce you to...

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:18:11 +0100

Quote:
Alt
That particular pier is on Inchagoill island... it takes only a few parallel parked boats to hog the whole place. Rather than give out, I try to set an example and always berth stern-to, meaning MANY more boats can tie up (I invite subsequent boats to tie along-side me)

Great idea. Rally style mooring. Are there multiple mooring buoys then parrallel to the pier or just the one as per the photo?

Re: Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:15:36 +0100

PBO readers service their own boat engines and eat sandwiches
MBM readers pay to have their engines serviced and eat 1/2 pound BBQ'd steaks
MBY readers have never seen their engines and only cook on the crews night off

A bit like the old joke cliche comparing soccer, rugby and gaa folk :)

Re: May I introduce you to...

Alt — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:03:02 +0100

Quote:
OceanFroggie
Wishing you many happy years of cruising. :) Well done, looks a lovely vessel. I knew you would do it!!!
Now you will have to move to Lough Derg the "Jewel in the inland Crown" as described by Waterways Ireland, and I know the ideal marina for you driving from Galway - Cloondavaun on the NW coast of the lough.

PS: I like the med style "stern in" mooring on the Corrib in your photo. Our shannon brethern might have kittens if they had to moore like that.

I might be passing your way in July ;)

That particular pier is on Inchagoill island... it takes only a few parallel parked boats to hog the whole place. Rather than give out, I try to set an example and always berth stern-to, meaning MANY more boats can tie up (I invite subsequent boats to tie along-side me)

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:02:10 +0100

Lets not get into ideological misinterpretations or generalised diversions :) The thread was about possible viable wind energy due to pumped storage providing the "battery" that most wind schemes fall down on. More importantly the possibility that Ireland might avoid the pending economic woes that our current slavish dependancy on oil imports pose. ::o

Re: Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

ralf — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:54:08 +0100

You hardly have any earlier ones Austin,theres one ive seen but havent got my hands on yet?

Re: May I introduce you to...

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:50:04 +0100

Wishing you many happy years of cruising. :) Well done, looks a lovely vessel. I knew you would do it!!!

Now you will have to move to Lough Derg the "Jewel in the inland Crown" as described by Waterways Ireland, and I know the ideal marina for you driving from Galway - Cloondavaun on the NW coast of the lough.

PS: I like the med style "stern in" mooring on the Corrib in your photo. Our shannon brethern might have kittens if they had to moore like that.

Re: May I introduce you to...

Alt — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:47:22 +0100

Quote:
ralf
No name on the bow.....i like lady Lorna :?

Don't mention the war!!

Re: May I introduce you to...

ralf — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:37:47 +0100

No name on the bow.....i like lady Lorna :?

May I introduce you to...

Alt — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:28:47 +0100

So after months of faffing about, negotiating, "will I, won't I" ..... today I finally shook hands and signed the paperwork.

So with that, may I introduce you to the new member of the alty family:

Cranchi2.jpg

cranchi1.jpg

The only problem now is that I think i'm going to need a bigger lake!

She's a minter; I know this boat well and have used her casually for the past 2 seasons. I guess the only difference now is i'll have to pay all the bills myself!

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

Kieran Kearns — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:12:13 +0100

Noel,

Your visionaries trampled all over the little people.

The same thing has been going on in the West of Ireland recently as the gas gets brought ashore.

Farmers, Fishermen, Forestry owners, peoples homes too close to the damned gas line........All not relevant as we give away our natural resources.

And now, wait for it...................................Fracking.

Little People of Ireland..............................................Get out of the way.

Visionaries my hat!

Regards

Kieran

Jan 1967 Practical Boat Owner

Pas Vite / T 15 — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:11:33 +0100

within here

[www.pbo.co.uk]

.

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:35:06 +0100

Hi Kieran
It didn't just effect Salmon stocks, it totally eliminated Salmon and Trout stocks on the Shannon, but that was easily a small price to pay for the national interest. Also a village was displaced, but moving a few hundred folk was justifiable to benefit 4 million citizens and stimulate the economic development of an entire nation. Thankfully our early leaders were men of conviction, vision and action. They had the courage to push on and try, and they backed the right team to make it happen on time and in budget.

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

Kieran Kearns — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:01:18 +0100

Quote:
OceanFroggie
Well Harry it was NOT ff'ers who took the brave decision to build Ardnacrusha in 1924. They decided and acted with immediacy. No fluffy consultation or impact studies, they just did it because it was the right thing to do for Ireland inc. :) And they were proved visionary and right.

Noel et al,

In all these things there are winners & losers.

At the time it was being built, it will have created employment - winners.

After it was completed, the Irish National Grid, which - lets face it, was tiny at the time, was fed completely from the turbine hall there - winners.

But, did it affect fish stocks of Salmon? I have heard it said that there is now not enough water going down the original route to allow the fish to migrate naturally. By the way, fish passes are not always successful to the extent that they need to be.

Should I mention flooding? Here goes - once a decision was made to build a dam, it is a decision intentionally flood a given area. Losers.

It's what happens outside of mans control, that ends up with flooding at these new higher levels, particularly when it is not possible to spill water fast enough to "Empty the bowl" to take the run off from the land after long rain spells.

We probably all know about the village that exists submerged underwater in Blessington Lakes, which themselves, were created to provide a torrent of water for the Poulaphuca Hydro Electric scheme. I understand that not everyone who lived in the area was happy to be relocated. But sure thats progress for you.

Regards

Kieran

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:06:52 +0100

Well Harry it was NOT ff'ers who took the brave decision to build Ardnacrusha in 1924. They decided and acted with immediacy. No fluffy consultation or impact studies, they just did it because it was the right thing to do for Ireland inc. :) And they were proved visionary and right.

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

Harry Bond — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:33:53 +0100

Sounds like more developer-led stuff. Indeed 'no brainer' and 'going forward' ring alarm bells. Brian Cowen era stuff.

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

John.Kinsella1 — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:22:32 +0100

There is a lot of scepticism about Spirit of Ireland.

As I understand it it is based on the idea of damming (damning?) one or more sea loughs and using them as reservoirs for pumped storage - ie using wind generated leccy to pump sea water up into the reservoir and thereby store the energy for leccy generation by spinning turbines.

In principle this is just a huge version of Turlough Hill which works fine.

The difficulties as I understand them are:
the vast areas that would be flooded with salt water, toxic to crops and potentially contaminating the water table,..
and
the lack of clarity about the cost/benefit ratio.

If it made sense economically & ecologically I'd be all for it... it gets around the major problem with wind power, intermittency.

John
Yacht Breakaway

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

Ciaran Clinton — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:10:59 +0100

The 'spirit of Ireland' project was rebranded as 'Natural Hydro Energy' some time ago it makes more sense to rebrand the company to a name specific to its business going forward..
www.naturalhydroenergy.com

There really should be much more support for renewable energies here especially given the resources we have on our door step, wind, wave and tidal. The stored water idea is simple and clever, but as often is the case good ideas tend to get bogged down in the long grass of bureaucracy for needless lengths of time.

Another such Irish venture is the Dublin-Louth based company Openhydro, an invisible turbine mounted to the sea floor in strategic places where tidal currents are at their strongest, thus giving a predicable energy generation peaking twice a day, which is predictable months/years in advance unlike wind energy. Openhydro are currently testing their turbines off the Scottish coast.
www.openhydro.com

Wavebob is another Irish renewable energy company making a name for themselves.
www.wavebob.com

Reading through all the news snippets of these companies it such a shame to see other countries so keen to enquire and order these technologies while here at home where they were developed we the Irish people are less enthusiastic to invest in our own..

Re: Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

Paul J — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:46:38 +0100

Quote:
OceanFroggie

When Ardnacrusha was built, it was the biggest civil engineering project in Europe after WW1, also the reason ROI uses 220v instead of 240v. The architecture is classic German of the period, very reminiscent of the Nazi heavy water plant in the classic old war movie "The Heros of Telemark" starring Kirk Douglas.

[pedant] The 60-MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall was the world’s largest power plant when it opened in 1911, after six years of construction. Long before the German's arrived I'm afraid. [/pedant]

Vemork.jpg

Quote:
OceanFroggie

A no brainer, now politicians with the same vision and courage as the 1924 Dail is all that needed.

Why do alarm bells ring when someone refers to something as a "no brainer"... :S

Recent Rescues

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:35:31 +0100

Some recent rescues on Lough Derg reported by the media

Grounding yesterday: [www.irishtimes.com]

Dinghy Sailors last month: [afloat.ie]

All safe

Spirit of Ireland - the new Ardnacrusha?

OceanFroggie — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:36:54 +0100

Hi Folks
Waterway related as the "Spirit of Ireland" project has the potential to be the modern day equivalent of the Ardnacrusha scheme and it could create three vast new inland waterways on our west coast.

Spirit of Ireland: [www.spiritofireland.org]

Here's what the Americans think: [newscenter.lbl.gov]

The video is long, but worth watching some evening

When Ardnacrusha was built, it was the biggest civil engineering project in Europe after WW1, also the reason ROI uses 220v instead of 240v. The architecture is classic German of the period, very reminiscent of the Nazi heavy water plant in the classic old war movie "The Heros of Telemark" starring Kirk Douglas. The massive near 1/4 mile long dam at the start of the headrace that is Parteen Wier is equally impressive as it divides the mighty Shannon into two channels, the old river channel that runs down to O'Briens bridge and the newer head race canal. 5000 men 4 years to construct, ground opened only 4 weeks after the Dail voted to proceed as ships arrived in Limerick from Germany. They even built a railway to move the spoil and concrete. It cost 20% of GDP, that was a serious judgement call but it triggered the economic development of the young state, generating 100% of the grid needs from renewalble energy till the late 30s when it handled 83% of the grid. Today it varies between 1% and 2%. But think about it, the entire national grid in the early 30s from renewable energy, no imported oil or coal for electricity.

The "Spirit of Ireland" project could be the modern day equivelant. [www.spiritofireland.org]

100% of the entire national grid from only one single scheme costing only 5% of GDP, but reducing our imported oil and fossel fuels to ZERO in only 5 years from start. Build 3 schemes and ROI becomes an EU "Gulf State" our biggest export being electricity to EU. We could also become a world leader in exporting the skills and technology related to hydro pumped storage from wind with the best wind map on our west coast than anywhere in the entire EU continant.

A no brainer, now politicians with the same vision and courage as the 1924 Dail is all that needed.

Since the recession this project has dimmed on the public and political radars. Lots of debate about the numbers stacking up but, the same was true in 1924 when the fledling state took a calculated leap of faith with Ardnacrusha.

Ironically some renewable energy projects have split the environmental lobby. The primary argument for this project is "economic" self interest, and independance from oil imports, but a secondary byproduct is a hugh environmental and CO2 gain for ROI. ROI is economically a slave to oil imported supply. This is the only "wind" scheme combined with pumped storage that solves the "battery" problem needed to buffer the difference between when wind blows and when electricity is used.

A micro side effect could be three wonderful new inland loughs for leisure use on the west coast. I know SOI is not new, it was flying high in 2007/2008 with extensive media interest, but the possibility hasn't gone away.

Re: Boatbuilding

Thomas Kirby — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:36:20 +0100

Fabulous photos and a ferocious beast, by the look of that 'lump', Fergal. I suppose you've done all the calculations for vectorised thrust from those twin exhaust pipes . Had you thought about installing an in-flight refuelling pod?
A set of astronaut-type G-suits might also come in handy. Their floatation characteristics wouldn't be an issue at altitude, of course.

While I was based in North Germany a friend-of-a-friend once gave me a spin in his bird-pulling 'Flitzer' on the mouth of the Weser near Bremerhaven. The thing had a 6.9 liter Merc. V8 petrol burner somewhere ahead of the transom and you needed pretty flat water if you wanted to hang on to your lumbar vertebrae! That's where the G-suits would come in handy.

Tom K.