Mooney Boats Secure Massive Contract
Mooney Boats started work on their latest €20 million project build in Killybegs this week. The Eilean Croine arrived in Killybegs harbour last week to join her sister ship, the Sparkling Star. Both Marine Fishing Vessels (MFV) are docked at the Blackrock pier for a full fit-out by Mooney Boats and many local businesses over the coming months.
The hull arrived for construction from a yard in Poland, and the design team at Mooney Boats is now tasked with ensuring that the new vessels are tailor made to suit the owners exact specifications. These boats when finsihed in early 2022 will fish from Castletownbere in County Cork, Ireland. Speaking to the Donegal News yesterday Michael Mitchell, a Design System Engineer at Mooney Boats, said that everything onboard the new vessels will be supplied by Donegal based companies. Barry Electronics, SeaQuest Systems, GCM Painting and the KER Group, all Killybegs based companies are involved in these project builds. Other Donegal based companies in Milford and Letterkenny will also make up part of the supply chain. “This is an €8 to €10 million Euro contract for each vessel build which will provide a huge boost to the local economy and is testament to the amazing craftsmanship in Killybegs and across Donegal,” he said. Mooney Boats worked with naval architects based in Denmark and their clients to come up with a design for the new boats before finding a yard in Europe. “We tend to choose Latvia or Poland as they have massive yards out there and they are purpose built for this type of work. The hull is built so she is seaworthy and then she’s towed here to Killybegs where she’s fitted out with detailed, specialised parts.
Largest Vessels Built to Date
“The two at the pier (Eilean Croine and the Sparkling Star) are sister ships. They’re the biggest boats Mooney’s have complete to date and they’re 31 metres in length over all (LOA).
