Bank Holiday Weekend News

Did you know that 50% of people still don’t know to call 999 and ask for the Coastguard in a coastal emergency - despite the phone service being launched half a century ago? The new research, commissioned by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) comes as a new video is launched in tribute to our old public information film which first broadcast the '999 Coastguard' message in 1968. Joe and Petunia are back, but this time in a dynamic present-day setting. Our new film showcases a modern version of the original 60s storyline, complete with dinghy (or dinjy!) sailor and contemporary Petunia. But of course, we couldn’t release a J&P film without the cartoon characters themselves, so they both have cameo roles.

Portland Port celebrated the launch of its 2015 cruise program receiving more than 4,000 passengers over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ Serenade of the Seas made her inaugural call on the Saturday and Holland America Lines’ Eurodam returned to the port for a second consecutive year on the Bank Holiday Monday. The port expects some 26,500 passengers to call at Portland throughout 2015. Another three cruise ships are due to call throughout May with return visits from the Serenissima, Prinsendam and Costa’s neoRomantica.

Marine electronics manufacturer, Raymarine announced its involvement with the all new annual sailing festival, GJW Direct SailFest. Taking place in Weymouth, Dorset on the August bank holiday weekend at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), SailFest has evolved to become a continuing legacy of the Olympic Games. Commencing Friday, August 23 and running until Monday, August 26, there will be two days of handicap racing on the Olympic waters, with fleet starts for any class set to attract a significant number of boats. On Bank Holiday Monday, the event will culminate in the Raymarine Long Distance Pursuit Race, the winner being the boat that crosses the line first after exactly 2.5 hours of racing.

Following the successful use of Swansea Dry Docks for the refit and refurbishment of Saga Pearl II, now successfully cruising; work on MV Julia, now plying the Fastnet Ferry Cork-Swansea overnight route; and emergency repair work on the 213.2 ft hopper dredger Heron, Harris Pye Group (HPG) has signed a longer lease on Swansea’s Duke of Edinburgh and Prince of Wales dry docks – a move that is attracting interest from a number of shipping lines. “We are very much ‘open for business’, indeed we dealt with the requirements of UKD Dredging’s Dolphin at the start of May” said the Group’s Managing Director, Mark Prendergast. “We invested heavily…