Marine Services News
6/6/2014
Delegates To Innovation Conference Visit Gills Harbour
GILLS BAY/PENTLAND FIRTH'S INNER SOUND VISIT BY DELEGATES TO TOP-LEVEL INNOVATION CONFERENCE HOSTED BY THURSO'S ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS. A top team of Scottish-based scientists, engineers and academics sailed out to the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound from Gills Bay on a fact-finding mission to see at first hand the fast-flowing waters above the seabed site of the UK's first planned 'marine electricity' power-station.
30/4/2014
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing MSP to visit Gills Harbour
Scotland's Energy Minister Mr Fergus Ewing, MSP, has promised to pay a visit to Gills Harbour, on the shores of the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound. The Minister made the pledge to harbour company chairman Mr Bill Mowat, prior to Mr Ewing providing a keynote speech to the annual Scottish Highland Renewable Energy Conference in Inverness on April 24th.11/4/2014
Sea Survival Trainng Course - RYA FIRST AID
First course being run in Wick Wednesday 30th April 2014 This is a one day course and it covers all the usual first aid subjects, but from a boating perspective. It is aimed at anyone who goes afloat, whether on inland waters, rivers or at sea.
9/4/2014
FloWave Test Tank Facility Can Simulate Pentland Firth Conditions
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY'S MULTI-MILLION POUND BRAND-NEW 'FloWave TT' FACILITY IS A WORLD-LEADER THAT CAN SIMULATE ACTUAL PENTLAND FIRTH WAVE AND TIDAL SEA-CONDITIONS. One of the biggest and most complex scientific instruments ever devised and built in Scotland will be 'in commercial action' for the first time this Spring (2014) at its site near Blackford Hill in Edinburgh.
30/3/2014
Gills Harbour Works Repair Storm Damage
Works have been going on at the Inner Basin of Gills Harbour, on the North coast of Caithness, during the past few weeks. The project, which is being undertaken mostly using large back-hoe excavators, is mainly aimed at removing boulders and loose jagged rocks from the Basin's sea-floor.
14/3/2014
Heavy Lift Pad Construction Underway At Wick Harbour
Wick Harbour Authority is making progress with its plans to create a heavy-lift facility on the commercial quay at Wick harbour, with contractors Gunns Lybster Ltd having now begun the work. The project, and its associated dredging works, was supported by CNSRP partners HIE and NDA respectively and is the first of several proposed phases of work to position the harbour as a key player in the energy sector, with the current focus being on potential to benefit from the development of Offshore Wind in the Moray Firth.
9/2/2014
C-Odyssey at Gills Harbour 
Report - Bill Mowatt The flagship of the largest fleet of 'marine renewables support vessels' in Pentland Firth & Orkney Waters has been on a two-day operational working visit to Gills Harbour in Caithness. The versatile C-Odyssey has been specifically designed to service the fledgling industry and was delivered new to owners/operators Leask Marine Ltd, of Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, from a shipyard in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2011, at a reported cost of over £3 million.
24/1/2014
Impromptu Meeting With A Top UK Cabinet Minister At Gills
The three officer-bearers of the community company which owns and operates Gills Harbour, the Scottish mainland’s most Northerly port in Caithness, held a surprise impromptu meeting with a top UK Cabinet Minister on Friday 24th January, 2014. The Rt.21/1/2014
A New Class Of Ship Will Match Pentland Firth Conditions
Mojo Maritime reaches a major milestone in building the Hi Flo 4 offshore construction vessel. Mojo Maritime has signed, on 16 January, a Memorandum of Understanding with Hammonia Reederei GmbH & Co.
6/12/2013
TOP-LEVEL TEAM FROM THE CROWN ESTATE VISITS GILLS HARBOUR.
A high-powered team from the Crown Estate visited Gills Harbour this week where it met directors of its Canisbay community-owned port and its (partial) lessee Mr Andrew Banks, managing director of Pentland Ferries Ltd. 'Preliminary discussions' on several matters of mutual interest took place, including a brief introduction to and description of the present 'Coastal Community Fund'.
24/10/2013
HIE Team Visits Gills Harbour
TOP-LEVEL HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS ENTERPRISE TEAM VISITS GILLS HARBOUR IN LATE OCTOBER, 2013. A top-level team from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government's North of Scotland jobs agency, visited Gills Harbour and were given a tour of its facilities this week (21.10.13) by the office-bearers of its Canisbay community owners, Gills Harbour Ltd (GHL).24/10/2013
MeyGen Surveys Underway
In recent weeks members of the Caithness public may have noticed some activity by MeyGen Ltd. around the Pentland Firth Inner Sound and at Ness of Quoys.
12/10/2013
Atlantis 'partners with plane and missile maker Lockheed Martim
Report By Bill Mowat Atlantis Resources Corporation is 10% shareholder in MeyGen Ltd's Inner Sound seabed lease Crown Estate concession, which lies between 1 and 1.5 miles off Gills Bay/Harbour, between the mainland of Canisbay parish and Stroma Island. As GHL chairman, I'm quite happy to be quoted as stating that the move upwards to 1.5 MW output per individual tidal stream electricity-generating is being considered and indeed is in the early stages of being acted upon by several other tidal turbine developers.23/9/2013
Meygen Set To Go On Pentland Firth Tidal Project
Up to six turbines will be initially placed in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth off the north coast of Caithness, Scotland, the first phase of what developers hope will be a much larger project. MeyGen Ltd.
8/9/2013
1,000 new jobs planned by Pentland Firth stakeholder .. but 1,000 miles away
The parent firm of a major shareholder in a seabed lease from the Crown Estate in the Pentland Firth is vowing to establish a 'European industrial nerve-centre fore tidal turbines' ... but almost 1,000 miles away from the North of Scotland.13/8/2013
Energy first for revamped Scrabster Harbour
A new multi-million pound redevelopment at mainland Scotland's most northerly port, Scrabster Harbour, is already reaping the benefits, only two months after coming into operation. Scotrenewables Tidal Power Ltd, based in Orkney, has chosen Scrabster as the location for their most recent operations and maintenance work on their prototype tidal turbine, the SR250.
6/8/2013
Pentland Survey Work Now Underway
Detailed sea-survey work for a tidal stream electricity 'array' in the Pentland Firth is in full swing just now with specialist vessel Lia. The officers and crew of a specialist vessel, owned by a venerable British family business with a history dating back over 200 years, have been busy this week (starting 04.08.13) in the Pentland Firth conducting detailed surveys in connection with a planned sub-sea 'tidal stream electricity' power station.
3/8/2013
Big 'push' by France into tidal-stream electricity developments
Reporter - Bill Mowat Big 'push' by France into tidal-stream electricity developments, spearheaded by a major Pentland Firth participant, is welcomed by the chairman of Scotland's most Northerly mainland port. Community-owned Gills Harbour Ltd lies adjacent to the Firth's 'tide-fields', while upgrade works at the Gills Bay site continue throughout this summer (2013).14/7/2013
Energy North Sets Out New Strategy to Help Region Realise its Potential
Influential energy trade body Energy North has unveiled an ambitious new two-year business strategy which will see the organisation grow its physical presence and increase its support for member businesses and industry development across the North of Scotland. Over the coming months Energy North is to recruit three regionally-based area developers covering Caithness, Ross-shire and Inverness, Moray, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, and Argyll and Lochaber, with chief executive, Ian Couper leading on Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides.
7/7/2013
