New Seatruck Ramp Floated into Situ

seanmacc

When I saw this yesterday berthed on the southbank of Dublin Port I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.



It looked like an aircraft carrier for model planes. There was no signal on marinetraffic.com for what it was. It transpired that its the new Seatruck shore ramp. The past few weeks the river has been a hive of activity from dredgers like the Shoalway (below) that have been making way for the new ro-ro ramp.



The ramp was pulled into position there today and may be operational in the coming weeks.



Seatruck (Part of the Clipper Group) seem to be pumping huge investment into their Irish Sea routes. They launched two new build ships this year and their business is heavily weighted towards unaccompanied roro freight. I wonder will they ever make a penny?

HeidiHeidi

Bugger, bugger, bugger - I love watching stuff like this happening but wouldn't ya know I'm the other end of the country at the moment.

Must go down for a look when I get back. Thanks for the heads-up!

zagmund

I saw it trundling across the bay there a few days ago I think, but didn't get a chance to have a good look at it. I did remember thinking it looked like an airfix aircraft carrier (both small *and* far away).

I also saw the dredger in action the other morning. It had me all confused. I could have sworn there was a ship making way backwards (what's the maritime term for that ?) out of the Liffey. Turns out it was - I presume that's normal for such a vessel.

z

HeidiHeidi

zagmund wrote: »

I saw it trundling across the bay there a few days ago I think, but didn't get a chance to have a good look at it. I did remember thinking it looked like an airfix aircraft carrier (both small *and* far away).

I also saw the dredger in action the other morning. It had me all confused. I could have sworn there was a ship making way backwards (what's the maritime term for that ?) out of the Liffey. Turns out it was - I presume that's normal for such a vessel.

z

Sounds unusual to me.... I've never seen a vessel reverse out the channel - they always reverse out of their berth and turn straight away.

zagmund

It was Sunday morning, so beer may still have been causing temporary sensory aberrations. However, I'm pretty sure it was going backwards. Now that I think about it, it was heading backwards in the direction of the port, not out of the port.

z

HeidiHeidi

zagmund wrote: »

It was Sunday morning, so beer may still have been causing temporary sensory aberrations. However, I'm pretty sure it was going backwards. Now that I think about it, it was heading backwards in the direction of the port, not out of the port.

z

Even more unlikely! Although I did once see one of the ferries reverse out of its berth and go into another one nearby - maybe that's a regular thing....

Love sitting down there watching all the port action, I could spend the day there! (Think I may need to get a life )

Tabnabs

We used to swing around and go stern first through locks in Holland on supply boats. As the bridge was right up forward, it is much easier to see how the ships heading compared to the space available to manoeuvre.

Rocky Bay

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Even more unlikely! Although I did once see one of the ferries reverse out of its berth and go into another one nearby - maybe that's a regular thing....

Love sitting down there watching all the port action, I could spend the day there! (Think I may need to get a life )

Is it easy to walk around and observe at the port? Last autumn I took the boat to Hollyhead and noticed on the southside a long breakwater that seems to be walkable, if I can figure out how to get there.

HeidiHeidi

Rocky Bay wrote: »

Is it easy to walk around and observe at the port? Last autumn I took the boat to Hollyhead and noticed on the southside a long breakwater that seems to be walkable, if I can figure out how to get there.

It's a long way to walk, but if you take the right-hand turn off Seán Moore Road at the East Link roundabout, then first left, and follow that road all the way down - it's about two or three miles I'd say - you get to the Great South Wall, which I reckon is that granite-block breakwater you saw. It's my favourite walk in Dublin, and really great in windy weather! There's a great view back into the port and all the ships and pilot boat coming and going.

You can also get to it from the city end of Sandymount strand - walk through the nature reserve/park, and you come out on the road by the ESB works/pumping station, and follow that road on down to the GSW. When the tide is out you can cut the corners on the beach. That's a nicer way of getting there, acutally. I seem to recall measuring it - it's three miles from Beach Road in Sandymount to the end of the wall at the lighthouse.

Rocky Bay

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

It's a long way to walk, but if you take the right-hand turn off Seán Moore Road at the East Link roundabout, then first left, and follow that road all the way down - it's about two or three miles I'd say - you get to the Great South Wall, which I reckon is that granite-block breakwater you saw. It's my favourite walk in Dublin, and really great in windy weather! There's a great view back into the port and all the ships and pilot boat coming and going.

You can also get to it from the city end of Sandymount strand - walk through the nature reserve/park, and you come out on the road by the ESB works/pumping station, and follow that road on down to the GSW. When the tide is out you can cut the corners on the beach. That's a nicer way of getting there, acutally. I seem to recall measuring it - it's three miles from Beach Road in Sandymount to the end of the wall at the lighthouse.

I am not from or familair with Dublin although I do know where Busaras is. Is it easy to walk from Busaras to Sean Moore Road? Thanks for answering my initial question.

zagmund

It's not a short walk by any means. Your best bet would be a 3 to Sandymount and walk from there. If you've been in Dublin before, you might remember the ESB chimneys out in the bay - big red & white yokes. These are the *start* of the walkable part of the wall.

According to mapmyrun.com it's just over 5km from Busaras to the start of the wall, and then another 2km to the end of the wall. And then you have to come back.

It's worth doing on a good day, but I wouldn't come up to Dublin specifically for it.

z

Dub13

Rocky Bay wrote: »

I am not from or familair with Dublin although I do know where Busaras is. Is it easy to walk from Busaras to Sean Moore Road? Thanks for answering my initial question.

You could get the Luas to the point and walk from there.

Cookie_Monster

Dub13 wrote: »

You could get the Luas to the point and walk from there.

http://g.co/maps/xejuh
is the route from the Luas. There used to be a bus that went there in the mornings but it's been axed with Network Dirrect afaik
EDIT: watchout for the foul smell as ou pass the treatment plant

Rocky Bay

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

http://g.co/maps/xejuh
is the route from the Luas. There used to be a bus that went there in the mornings but it's been axed with Network Dirrect afaik
EDIT: watchout for the foul smell as ou pass the treatment plant

Cookie, many thanks for the map and thanks to all for the replies. I am actually thinking of spending a day on my holidays to do this walk in the autumn.

zagmund

Seriously, I would suggest not setting aside a specific day until you are in the area. You could find it's a terrible day for one reason or another. Maybe low visibility, maybe a major rain storm, or something else.

For sure it's a great walk on a lovely bright day, or alternatively on a stormy day (with good visibility), but on other days it could just as well be regarded as being as much fun as getting frozen, and soaked, and blown to bits, and getting the joy of the sights & smells of the outflow from various smelly processes in your face. While I understand that the sewage pumping station now sends most of the unpleasantness off to Howth (or somewhere far, far away from me at any rate), there can still be a residual element around in my experience.

This sounds like I'm coming up with reasons not to visit, but I'm actually not. I love that walk. You just need to pick a good day. Also check out the Dublin Port website (which I can't find details of at the moment) which provides details of expected movements - you can time your visit with a particular arrival or departure that way.

z

HeidiHeidi

zagmund wrote: »

Seriously, I would suggest not setting aside a specific day until you are in the area. You could find it's a terrible day for one reason or another. Maybe low visibility, maybe a major rain storm, or something else.

For sure it's a great walk on a lovely bright day, or alternatively on a stormy day (with good visibility), but on other days it could just as well be regarded as being as much fun as getting frozen, and soaked, and blown to bits, and getting the joy of the sights & smells of the outflow from various smelly processes in your face. While I understand that the sewage pumping station now sends most of the unpleasantness off to Howth (or somewhere far, far away from me at any rate), there can still be a residual element around in my experience.

This sounds like I'm coming up with reasons not to visit, but I'm actually not. I love that walk. You just need to pick a good day. Also check out the Dublin Port website (which I can't find details of at the moment) which provides details of expected movements - you can time your visit with a particular arrival or departure that way.

z

I'd agree with most of this - or rather, with this mostly. The nice bit of the walk is the shortest bit, along the actual wall itself. I love this on a good day or bad.

The route from the East Link is not at all scenic, and I'd nearly recommend you don't do that at all. If you had a car or a bike to get you down to the wall, that would be different, but for a walk I couldn't recommend it - unless endless container yards / metal scrapyards / sewage pumping stations are particularly your thing.

A bus from town to the start of Sandymound Strand, and a walk through the nature reserve would be the way to go.

But as the previous poster said, check the forecast

Rocky Bay

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I'd agree with most of this - or rather, with this mostly. The nice bit of the walk is the shortest bit, along the actual wall itself. I love this on a good day or bad.

The route from the East Link is not at all scenic, and I'd nearly recommend you don't do that at all. If you had a car or a bike to get you down to the wall, that would be different, but for a walk I couldn't recommend it - unless endless container yards / metal scrapyards / sewage pumping stations are particularly your thing.

A bus from town to the start of Sandymound Strand, and a walk through the nature reserve would be the way to go.

But as the previous poster said, check the forecast

Thank you for the advice, I will take it in consideration. As for the endless container yards and scrap yards that can only mean one thing for a "big boy" like me...lorries, lorries and more lorries. (Hopefully they are all artic's!!!) Thanks.

HeidiHeidi

Rocky Bay wrote: »

Thank you for the advice, I will take it in consideration. As for the endless container yards and scrap yards that can only mean one thing for a "big boy" like me...lorries, lorries and more lorries. (Hopefully they are all artic's!!!) Thanks.

Oh there's no shortage of those, believe me!!! One time I was driving back from the wall, there was a queue of artics all the way back to the East Link roundabout waiting to pick up their containers. No idea how you'd find out what time/day that happens (ring the Dublin Port Authority?), but if that's your thing then you'd be well pleased!

iopener

that ramp came from holland it's built by ravenstein bv,there's now 2 of these in the port,that new one is NO.8 and the other is NO.2 ramp it's so high out of the water becasuse the ballast tank is empty,these things are pretty big about 30 metres wide metres long.if you want to watch container ship,bulkers oil tankers etc entering/leaving the port check out the port website there's a scheduled arrival/departure list