Public Slipway Use

Any slipway in Ireland i've seen* you just land up and horse your boat in. In England it's all different, some fella with a squeaky clean hi-vis jacket comes out and checks that you're not a terrorist, illegal immigrant or any of the other boogeymen the Daily Mail has been making them paranoid about, checks your third party insurance, boat license, boat tax, boat NCT and charges you 20 quid before you can launch your boat. Thankfully things are still easy going over here

*No guarantee your particular slipway is like that

fergal.b wrote: »

Here is a map of all the public slipways. https://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/


That looks very hndy but the one for Howth seems to be majorly inland on a green and could arguably either be the one fenced off for use by the marina fishing boats only, or the private slip to HYC or the ine that the old highly unpopular harbourmaster fenced off entirely due to commercial boats using it - a terribly pity.


OP - if you ‘just’ wanted to launch a canoe nobody is likely to challenge you but once you go down the road of a ya ht and tying up I forsee that there might be interest from the public. Where is your local slip and people might be able to help you more? Some are managed and maintained by waterways ireland ( or whatever its called now), some are under the OPW remit, some are harbourmaster remit etc. there used be voluntary bodies that undertook to ‘rescue’ and maintain them such as Royal Canal Amenity Group etc - for use by the common masses - so it would really depend!

coL wrote: »

For the moment its just an SUP/Kayak but I didn't want to get into a habit of doing something I wasn't supposed to and find out when I rock up with a boat someday that I was doing something wrong all along.

As before - people would need to know the location to say as different rules and bodies regulate different locations. As for migrating from a kayak to boat - again - this raises a lot of issues - there is no omni-kit answer, least of all the physical practicalities of it.

many slips also have prohibitions of jetskis because of past antisocial behaviour on the water - and there is the issue of the waters you are entering into or using - from a ‘proper’ boat - again - different rules /permissions or byelaws could apply.

Most people will ignore a canoe.

Then there are the new loons that rock up towing trailers containing multiple canoes and hiring commercially out, trample over peoples land, block the road and cause a hazzard loading & unloading, and make a nuisance of themselves or distrub nesting birds in protected areas or disrupt SAC ‘s -( special areas of conservation) - again - there is no one reply for all possibilities - the devil is in the detail. Some areas are covered by the wildlife act where there are hefty fines (2k+) and criminal convictions, some are mostly hidden and ignored so long as there is no ‘trouble’ - some might have regular licenses use by fishermen or local angling clubs it all just depends. Mostly if you don’t bother anyone they won’t bother you. Planning long term to bring a boat along either sailing or engine piwered is an entirely different matter and I could forsee a lot of hassle with that for obvious reasons.

coL wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses. I reckon I am overthinking it alright. I know enough now that I am not too worried about rocking up with my SUP and using the wrong slipway. If I ever do get a boat it will be a long way down the line and by that stage I will be a lot more familiar with the local slipways and the etiquette for using them.

You be grand. It's good to get to know the slipway before you use it, see how busy it gets at the weekend (probably nobody there in most cases), how clean it is, what it's like at low tide. Most slipways are unstaffed so there will be nobody to give out to you. It isn't like the States where you could see a massive queue of Ford F-150s towing shiny white boats with 4 verados on the back and if you take more than 2 seconds to lob your tub into the water they're drawing their revolvers.

Regarding private slipways :

How can these exist? As I understand it, the foreshore cannot be privately owned. How can you build a slip and maintain it for personal use if you cannot own the land?