Waterways Ireland (whom God preserve) tell me that, at end December 2013, there were
- 8816 boats registered on the Shannon
- 5570 boats registered on the Erne.
There are different requirements for registration on the two waterways. But the main problem with the figures is that there is no incentive to deregister if a boat is sold off the system. As there is no annual charge for registration (or anything else), an owner whose boat is sold to an owner overseas or indeed on the sea loses nothing by failing to deregister. it is therefore possible that the figures overstate the numbers of registrable boats on the two systems [on the Shannon–Erne Waterway, which registration on either of the other two is required]. And then there are the boats that are not required to be registered ….
But, for what they’re worth, there the figures are.
Irish waterways history 
devide by 50% and there may be a truthful overview. WI registration is a record of historical and noted fact and currently floundering in missed record keeping. They kapt issuing new registration numbers without assertining factual numbers of boats on the navigation.
This would be a good time of the year for aerial photography to establish a better (though not of course absolutely accurate) figure, with most boats not moving. bjg
Thanks for the feedback. Yes a sizeable percentage have left both systems during the recession. Until WI bring in an annual permit there is no way of tracking vessels nor strategic planning based on factual vessel traffic. Also a portion of registered vessels are trailor launched.
Well, apart from the Shannon lock passage figures [enter all the usual caveats here]. Incidentally, I now have the figures for the final few months of 2013 but I have yet to add them to my spreadsheets. When I do, we’ll be able to see [caveats again] how traffic for the year as a whole measured up to that for earlier years. bjg
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