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News Summaries: EASTER ON THE LEEUW04/11/2011 The celebrated Dutch class A Tall Ship Gulden Leeuw is returning to Orkney over Easter 2012 and is offering six, 3 hour day and evening sails... Ready to sail a Tall Ship - Now You Can.25/10/2011 Have you ever dreamed of sailing on a Tall Ship?No experience needed.The Gulden Leeuw will be sailing from the beautiful port of Amsterdam. Where you can... Vessel Traffic Services network to increase its coverage24/08/2011 As a result from initial enquires from the marine renewable industry for the VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) network to increase its coverage areas outside its current... |
Orkney Marine Services
When Marine Services launched its Annual Report and Business Development Strategy for 2011-13 last year, there was a very poignant statement on the document's front cover which read, "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads to fortune, we must take the current when it serves or loose our ventures." Nothing is more appropriate and relevant today than those words, written over 400 years ago, to the activities and strategies that encompass Orkney Islands Council Marine Services today.
The tides and currents that surround Orkney are now the global focus for marine renewable energy. Harnessing this magnificent natural resource as a sunrise industry in these tough economic times is both a challenge that technology developers and stakeholders embrace, and an opportunity for us to redevelop and extend our piers and harbours infrastructure to support this potentially massive industry.
We are diverse in the types of piers and harbours that we own and manage; from small slipways that provide refuge for family pleasure craft to piers that provide safe and deep water berthing for some of the worlds largest cruise ships.
In all, Marine Services has 31 piers and harbours and 3 marinas (www.orkneymarinas.co.uk) under its jurisdiction, hosting ferries and fishing vessels, tankers and tugs, cruise liners and creel boats, destroyers and dive boats. As with any island community, its harbours play a vital role in the daily lives of its people. Because of its long seafaring tradition, Orkneys piers have become the hub of island activity; towns and villages grew up around them, hotels and restaurants overlook them and the majority of the 180,000 tourists who visit annually arrive upon them.
We are immensely proud to have celebrate this year the 200th Anniversary of the design of Kirkwall Pier by Thomas Telford, and also in July welcomed 31 Tall Ships as part of The Tall Ships Races 2011 Cruise in Company. In August we witnessed the completion of the redevelopment of the Lyness former naval base as a hub for the assembly and maintenance of renewable energy devices and in February 2012 we will commence the construction of the new 160 meter extension to the pier at Hatston outside Kirkwall which will give us a new berth in early 2013 of 385 metres.
The British Port Association held its annual conference in Orkney in September, and we relished that opportunity to present Orkney Islands Council Marine Services to the major port representatives in the United Kingdom.
We hope that the flood tides in 2011 will lead to good fortune for Orkney in 2012.
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