IBRA and IMF
In the original version of this post, I wrote:
I don’t know whether the Irish Boat Rental Association [IBRA] still exists. I can’t find a website for it, although there are references to it, and information about it, on other websites. The online Eircom phone book doesn’t have an entry for it, although the Yelp directory has an address in Bray. This site may be IBRA’s, although I can’t find anything saying so. If you know the true position, do please let me know and I’ll amend this.
In a Comment, Steve Conlon said:
IBRA is most certainly alive and well. http://www.boatholidaysireland.com is IBRA’s portal site and the IBRA logo is prominently displayed on the top right hand corner of the page in question. IBRA members were also members of the Irish Marine Federation which explains the listing on their website. With regards to membership, this stands at 7 despite the current difficulties of Shannon Castle Line. Barrow Line Cruisers have recently joined as a full member of IBRA. The IBRA website and group brochure are currently being up dated and a new industry led study into the market for hire boats is being undertaken. IBRA is a member of ITIC, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation. I hope that this clarifies.
And Sven Neubert said:
IBRA is still “alive and kickin’ ” and we do have regular meetings (next one in June). The webpage is indeed http://www.boatholidaysireland.com and the IBRA-logo can be clearly seen on it, in the top left corner.
But everything else you are saying on this subject is correct and the hire boat industry has suffered big time over the last number of years.
From my point of view this has been widely ignored by the powers to be. The industry may be too small, but some important people seem to forget, that we bring in many tourist every year, and a good share of them spend another while in the country. But that fact doesn’t appear in the statistics…
It is very sad to see the company of a colleague go, with Shannon Castle Line being one of the oldest IBRA members.
You can see my responses in the Comments.
Shannon Castle Line and Waveline
CarrickCraft and Waveline have announced today that they will be merging after the 2014 season [the same press release is on the two websites]. The combined fleet of 125 boats is to be based at the CarrickCraft bases.
And, according to InsolvencyJournal.ie, receivers have been appointed to Skyline Entertainment Ltd and to Twinross Holdings Ltd, two of the companies that have registered the business name Shannon Castle Line. On 11 April 2014 that business name was registered by DDL Marine Limited, a company whose application to register with the Companies Registration Office was lodged on 7 March 2014. For both Skyline and Twinross,
Brian McEnery of BDO was appointed Receiver and Manager by Bank of Scotland Plc on 30th April 2014.
[Update] The 7 May 2014 issue of Iris Oifigiúil covers the matter.
The shrinking of the Shannon hire business, to which I have often drawn attention on this site, seems to be continuing.
Irish waterways history 