Marine Casualty Investigation Board report Investigation into the loss of the Sail Training Passenger Vessel STV Astrid on 24th July 2013 PDF here. Very long but, apart from the photos, the meat is in the first part. At the end you can read angry letters from Dutch authorities.
Direct link amended, but just in case here’s a link to the page on which you click to download. And in case that falls over, here’s the page listing all MCIB reports and here’s the MCIB home page.
Posted in Engineering and construction, Ireland, Operations, Safety, Sea, Water sports activities
On the morning of 2nd August 2012, Mr Patrick Danaher purchased fuel for his powerboat at New Line, Killaloe. That evening, the boat was seen floating partially submerged and overturned with the bow out of the water near Youghal Bay, Lough Derg. The boat had struck submerged rocks at high speed and suffered major damage to the outdrive allowing the free ingress of water into the boat. The boat was recovered that evening and Mr Danaher’s body was recovered from the lake the following day.
The Marine Casualty Investigation Board’s report is available here [PDF].
On 7 April 2010 two canoeists were drowned at a weir in Portlaw, on the River Clodiagh. The Marine Casualty Investigation Board report on the matter has just been published. It says inter alia:
The report does not say who designed and built this weir or when it
was done. I have asked Waterford County Council for information.
According to the Irish Independent, the families of the canoeists are considering legal action.
Some news stories about weirs at Portlaw here, here and here.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Industrial heritage, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Scenery, Suir, Water sports activities, Waterways management
Tagged boats, canal, canoe, Carrick-on-Suir, Clodiagh, drown, floods, flow, Frank Fahey, Ireland, kayak, lock, lost, Martin Cullen, MCIB, Operations, Paudie Coffey, Portlaw, Suir, vessels, Waterford, waterways, weir
Extract from the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Casualties) Act 2000:
Advances by Minister for marine or natural resources based tourism or heritage projects.
46.—The Minister may, from time to time, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, advance to a person, out of monies provided by the Oireachtas, for the purposes of marine or natural resource based tourism or heritage projects, such sums, by way of grant or loan, as the Minister may determine and upon such terms and conditions as he or she considers necessary.
That provision has nothing whatsoever to do with marine casualties. It seems to allow ministers to splash the (taxpayers’) cash to anyone they favour. The provision should be repealed immediately.
I presume that the minister, at the time when the act was introduced, did not notice the oddity of this inclusion.
Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Industrial heritage, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Tourism
Tagged Fianna Fail, Ireland, marine, marine casualties, MCIB
Irish waterways history