Galway Bay Fast Ferry linking the Burren to Galway City

biko

NOFlaherty wrote: »

Incorrect

Elaborate

Rob A. Bank

JohnCleary wrote: »

Neither of the piers dry out completely, you'll get a RIB in there in any tide, with the legs up they only draw 2.5'

To quote yourself in an earlier post :

You also have the problem that Ballyvaughan bay is very shallow (there is an un-official channel but it's still very shallow at low tide, i'm talking as little as 2ft at times)

That .5' could be very expensive if you hit it at speed, and it turned out to be a rock... not sand !

JohnCleary

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

To quote yourself in an earlier post :



That .5' could be very expensive if you hit it at speed, and it turned out to be a rock... not sand !

Are you familiar with planing hull boats? I'm going to guess not....
A planing hull boat draws a LOT less when at speed as the hull rides on the water's surface. When going slow, the boat is at displacement speeds (as the boat is displacing all its weight hence lower in the water), which is where my 2.5' measurement came from.

When we enter Ballyvaughan on low tides, we give the boat hockey.... ie. we drive over the sand bank at full throttle so as to displace less water

At the pier you're obviously going to be crawling in, hence you can have the leg's trimmed right up

Iwannahurl

I recall getting stuck on that sandbank a good few years ago. Was serving as ballast on a gleoiteog -- couldn't call it crewing -- and we had to bump up and down painfully on the sandbank until the tide lifted us off. Best avoided, if you have a skipper who knows where it is and how not to get stuck...

JohnCleary

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I recall getting stuck on that sandbank a good few years ago. Was serving as ballast on a gleoiteog -- couldn't call it crewing -- and we had to bump up and down painfully on the sandbank until the tide lifted us off. Best avoided, if you have a skipper who knows where it is and how not to get stuck...

Aah memories On the bright side, at least the water there is clean, and on a sunny day the bay is an amazing place to go for a swim if you're stuck waiting on a tide.

Iwannahurl

JohnCleary wrote: »

Aah memories On the bright side, at least the water there is clean, and on a sunny day the bay is an amazing place to go for a swim if you're stuck waiting on a tide.

We got caught on a lee shore in that area as well, without a mainsail! It's even possible it happened on the same day we got stuck on the sandbank, but I can't really remember. We were always getting into scrapes I think...

So true about it being an amazing place. There are so many stunning corners of Galway Bay to be explored and enjoyed.

I've always felt our waterways are relatively under-utilised. I recall that when I lived in the UK back in the 90s their lakes, rivers, canals and seas were all well used. Perhaps it has to do with population levels, as well as relative prosperity.

Which is why it's good to see this ferry initiative, IMO. It seems such an obvious thing to do.

I like the idea of a seaplane service as well, whether as an air link or just for sightseeing. Maybe I'm just romantic about such things, seaplanes being things of beauty IMO, and perhaps there are reasons why such a development would not be advisable.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056238143

http://www.galwaynews.ie/10539-seaplane-plan-galway-meets-fierce-opposition

Storm 10

Anyone hear how the service went today, were there many on the 1st boat????

interl00per

Storm 10 wrote: »

Anyone hear how the service went today, were there many on the 1st boat????

I was there for the second run from Ballyvaughan, at 12:30. The boat was full . Lots of excited passengers. There's loads of dolphins out in the bay today, nice company for the first day. Seems to be going well. Tide is quite low. Seemed to take it handy heading out. I hope this takes off!

Storm 10

interl00per wrote: »

I was there for the second run from Ballyvaughan, at 12:30. The boat was full . Lots of excited passengers. There's loads of dolphins out in the bay today, nice company for the first day. Seems to be going well. Tide is quite low. Seemed to take it handy heading out. I hope this takes off!

Fantastic great to hear that, I wish them all the best in the new venture and hope it becomes a long term service, Imagne if you had a hovercraft doing that trip and not depending on tides.

JohnCleary

I mentioned this to a few people today, and they said that for under €10 each way, they'd buy a return ticket purely for the fun of it

dasium

[IMG][/img]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=334280513319346&set=a.247536618660403.60533.104472672966799&type=1&theater&notif_t=like

Great photograph of the first sailing....

Ficheall

What are the chances of getting a seat if one just wanders down in the morning?

dasium

Ficheall wrote: »

What are the chances of getting a seat if one just wanders down in the morning?

I imagine pretty good, to the best of my knowledge the only full day bookings wise is Sat. But I'd say email them to be certain....

Ficheall

I tried ringing, but no luck. Though it is late.
Will shoot off an email now.

dasium

Ficheall wrote: »

I tried ringing, but no luck. Though it is late.
Will shoot off an email now.

I've a feeling the girl who's no. you were ringing was also working as an extra crew person today, making sure everything was ironed out for the maiden voyage... which probably explains why you couldn't get through...

Ficheall

She just rang me back there and reckons that if I take a daundereen (I am, of course, paraphrasing here) down tomorrow morn I should be grand.

Ficheall

Poxy Irish weather. There'd be no point venturing out in yon.

wonder88

Think this is a great idea and I hope it goes well for them. Pity the good weather only lasted a day, and I can see this being the big problem. However there seems to me anyway to be more leisure activity going out in Galway bay in recent years.

Rob A. Bank

Ficheall wrote: »

Poxy Irish weather. There'd be no point venturing out in yon.

Even if it was a fine day you might get wet in a rig skimming across the bay.

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." -- Sir Rannulph Fiennes

Ficheall

I've no problem getting wet, but the visibility was ****e.

Iwannahurl

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." -- Sir Rannulph Fiennes

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing," he said, trimming off the dead stumps of his frost-bitten fingers with a fret-saw.

dasium

Todays Sailing is cancelled


Per earlier SMS, all sailings cancelled today due to small craft warning. Everbody will be refunded. Sincerest apologies to all our passengers.

Ficheall

Well, I suppose that explains why there was no boat this morning. It might be time to change to a phone that has the internet.
The weather looked lovely over in Clare though, unlike Galway.

I see the service is running again in July though - hopefully the weather will be better for that week

interl00per

Ficheall wrote: »

Well, I suppose that explains why there was no boat this morning. It might be time to change to a phone that has the internet.
The weather looked lovely over in Clare though, unlike Galway.

I see the service is running again in July though - hopefully the weather will be better for that week

Where did you hear that???

interl00per

Looks like the service has been suddenly discontinued....
https://www.facebook.com/BallyvaughanBayHop

Shame.

Ficheall

Shame, indeed

interl00per wrote: »

Where did you hear that???

http://www.ballyvaughanbayhop.com/images/RibWestVORtimes.JPG

I hope that one goes ahead. There's a Drew de Four gig in Tully's on the 6th I want to go to - it'd be pretty cool to be able to get the boat over for it.

interl00per

Ficheall wrote: »

Shame, indeed


http://www.ballyvaughanbayhop.com/images/RibWestVORtimes.JPG

I hope that one goes ahead. There's a Drew de Four gig in Tully's on the 6th I want to go to - it'd be pretty cool to be able to get the boat over for it.

Hmm.That link seems to be gone.
The http://www.ballyvaughanbayhop.com/plan.html page has a link to the obrienline trips for the Volvo Ocean Race.
http://www.obrienline.com/products/volvo-ocean-race-ferry.html

Ficheall

Bollocks. It was another ten days or so of trips, one out and back a day, to Kinvara.
It's a shame things didn't work out - I'd have loved to have seen it continue. One lad I mentioned it to mentioned that if it became a regular thing he would use it to get home to Waterford as it would knock an hour or two off his trip with CIE.

squonk

Anyone know why they stopped so suddenly? Seems like a real shame. I don't see anything on their site about coming back again. I hope they give it another go.

Rob A. Bank

Sorry to see the service had such a short life. This is what they posted on their Facebook page...

Hi everyone. Sorry to inform you all that the trial service has been discontinued due to unforseen circumstances with our chartered boat operator. Unfortunately this issue is out of our hands.

All of our passengers gave excellent feedback, were thrilled with the service and we had booked out sailings for the remainder of the trial.

We would like to say a special thanks to Gerry Canavan, our skip...per for the trial, who was brilliant.

Refunds will be issued to all passengers. Sorry to everyone who missed the chance to use the service. The feasibility study and trial were both successful and show the potential for a permanent service in the future. We intend to progress this project using the data and experience we have gathered. Hopefully we'll see you onboard in the future.

FYI, quickest crossing was about 27 minutes. Beat that road!

Thanks eveybody and please keep an eye on us.