Greetings,

The attached just in from WI

Best Wishes,

Colin Becker
GMY Chang Sha
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Largest Rally to Arrive in Limerick this Weekend

The Largest Boat Rally to ever travel to Limerick will arrive at the Hunt
Museum this weekend the 30th-1st July as part of an organised tour to
Kilrush for boaters from all over the inland waterway system.

Over 80 boats are expected to take part in this momentous event as they
depart in groups from 5.30am on Saturday and Sunday morning leaving
Killaloe & Ballina and heading to Parteen Weir, Ardnacrusha and down into
Limerick City itself.

This rally is extremely special in that many of the boaters have never made
the journey through the lock and into Limerick before. This 'newbies' rally
where boats travel 'in company' is designed to show inland waterway boaters
the joys of travelling through Ardnascrusha and into the city and as they
travel under the guidance of highly experienced boaters from the Inland
Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) , any 'fear of the unknown' is
greatly reduced.

Éanna Rowe Head of Marketing & Communications, Waterways Ireland confirmed
"Waterways Ireland is delighted that the moorings in Limerick City are ready
to receive such a large flotilla, as all the works have been completed over
the winter in preparation for more boat traffic through Limerick. That fact
that these boaters are mostly new visitors to Limerick is to be greatly
welcomed. I hope their experience is highly enjoyable and that they stay
longer on their next journey."

Dave Mc Cade and Noel Griffin Organisers of the Rally stated "The IWAI is
delighted to be bringing this rally into Limerick, and the Open Day on
Sunday 1st July is a great opportunity for local people to come down and
visit us on Arthurs Quay and behind the Hunt Museum."
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Best of luck Dave & Noel & all participants in the rally. It will be a fantastic sight to see the Abbey river & it's jeties full of boats of all shapes & sizes.

Regards
John.

I hope the water flow is more favourable to you that is was with us on the Erne Branch event. Please keep us posted on your progress through the Lock. At an average of 2 boats per lock and a cycle time of 1hour 15 minutes it will take some time to get 80 boats to Limerick. I am sorry that we could not get to Limerick and beyond this year but God willing We will try again next year. Robert of the Lazy Witch

All ready for the Gang, today at Limerick

All the best to Noel G, Dave Mc C et al.

I was walking round Limerick this afternoon. Maybe six boats (incl Noel's) in the "Tax office" marina and another four on the Athlunkard waiting jetty.

Spoke to a lady in Tax marina (:-) ).
She said more boats coming down tonight (after HW) and tomorrow.

I was on the way home from Portumna yesterday evening - twenty boats or more were berthed upstream and downstream of the bridge in Killaloe.

Eighty boats would be some achievement.

Good luck to all involved.

John
Yacht Halophile



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 30/06/2012 19:55 by John.Kinsella1.

Happy to report the IWAI Limerick Shannon Estuary Rally is now in Limerick. The last vessel arrived this evening to cheers and whooping horns, sirens and whistles. Well done all our crews.

OceanFroggie

That's great Noel.

How many?

John

Quote:

donaboland1
All ready for the Gang, today at Limerick
[attachment 3524 WaitingfortheGang.jpg]

All ready for Galway.....last night in Kilrush!



Paul,
"Arthur"

P.S.
I gather that they arrived at Galway sometime this evening!

Well done everyone. The Irish Multihull Association had our Nationals in Galway Bay SC this weekend. We were in the Volvo Village last night and raced our catamarans (not Cheetah) off the docks today.

Dermot
Cheetah 304.

IWAI LSER fleet in Limerick





OceanFroggie

There are 40 odd boat crews here in Limerick who want to say one huge thank you to Pat Lysaght for helping guide the fleet into Limerick over two days.

Pat preparing to move this group of boats from Athlunkard holding jetty down to Limerick.



Thank you Pat for you expertise, help and kindness. There are 40 very happy crews settled into Limerick city to enjoy all it's attractions and hospitality. Limerick is firmly back on the inland boating map.

OceanFroggie

Fantastic to see Limerick jetties full of boats - looking forward to more photos

Beth
Aqualegia



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2012 10:56 by Beth.

Who has come to Galway? I watched 3 or 4 (what looked like) Shannon boats arrive into the harbour about 2 - 3am this morning.

There was a blue hulled Broom, can't remember the rest!

I suspect that the boats were:

Hakunah Matata
Twilight Ours
Playtime

as featured in photos above in Limerick and Kilrush

and the fourth boat is probably Hostia.

Paul,
"Arthur"

Quote:

Alt
Who has come to Galway? I watched 3 or 4 (what looked like) Shannon boats arrive into the harbour about 2 - 3am this morning.
There was a blue hulled Broom, can't remember the rest!

Noel and crew,

heartfelt congratulations on moving this project to this point, lots of advance planning I am sure. The main benifit of course is to those crews who are new to the area and conditions, and hopefully the complete trip will be a good one. Great to see the boats used to their full potential.
Have fun - the waters are beautiful down there,

Joe.

All vessels tucked up safe and sound in kilrush creek marina presently,absolutely fantastic trip so far.Will try to get a picture post up tomorrow ,cocktails to be consumed shortly!

The Rally arrived in Kilrush this afternoon after a wonderful passage down the mighty Shannon Estuary. Congrats and well done to all the crews. It has been a wonderful adventure and we are all in it together, helping each other explore and enjoy new facits of the awesome Shannon Estuary. Tonight we are moored on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean after a day of adventure. 'De Band' are just about to start playing in the club house. Congrats crews, you did it.

Irish Times [www.irishtimes.com]

OceanFroggie

The LSER arrived in Kilrush this afternoon.

See following link for a PhotoGallery of 66 photos of the boats:

[www.paulscannell.net]

Well done to all concerned but in particular to the organisers, Noel Griffin and Dave McCabe, and not forgetting the crew sof the participating boats.

Enjoy!

Paul,
"Arthur"...currently in Kilrush but hoping to get to Bantry Bay!

Well done to the crews and organisers on your successful rally so far and safe travels back.

I hope that the presence of so many boats will encourage the powers that be in Limerick to consider future (maybe a while but would be worth the wait ) investment to manage the flow through Limerick and make Limerick and points on the estuary more accessible in all flow states .

Safe passage to Bantry Bay Paul and thanks for the pictures as always.

Dave

Thanks Paul for those nice shots. The crews will enjoy them. The LSER had a wonderful night in Kilrush Marina club house with singing and dancing thanks to the amazing 'De Band' musicians, guest performers, our crews and the hospitality of John Hehir the marina manager. A new rally family has been born this week, adventurers, explorers and friends. Ambassadors for the Limerick navigation, Ardnacrusha, Limerick city as an amazing destination and now also Kilrush Creek as the starting point of the Shannon navigation for inland vessels. Well done all.

Colin Becker our esteemed editor helped crew Ocean Froggie from Limerick to Kilrush. Most of the trip was at 5.2kt water speed with the ebb tide pushing us downstream gave us about 7kt speed over the ground.

OceanFroggie