The following photographs (and many others) were taken from the Watergate in Athlone on Sunday 5 August 2018. An IWAI Rally was in progress and the Lough Ree Yacht Club’s annual regatta was beginning, but there is of course no suggestion that the boats and boaters shown in these photos had any connection with either of those august institutions.
No doubt it is difficult to estimate speed
I do not know what is happening here
The jetski was relatively harmless
A large BRIG RIB, I think
Madarua goes upstream
Madarua goes downstream
Madarua alongside a cruiser
Madarua upstream again
Madarua upstream again
A busy boater: up …
… still going up …
Down
Up again
Down again
A red RIB
This one is almost sedate
Spotting the photographer
Three RIBs coming downstream (the nearest is not one of the three)
Three RIBs travelling more slowly below the railway bridge
The Watergate
There is, I believe, a 5 km/h [~2.7 knots] speed limit for boats passing through Athlone. The area covered includes the river at the Watergate and upstream for some distance above the railway bridge.
Irish waterways history 