Podcast Ep 242: We talk to Eugene Garrihy, owner of Dublin Bay Cruises, on converting the St Bridget from diesel to hydrogenated vegetable oil in a move that dramatically reduce emissions.
Eugene Garrihy’s strong connection with the sea can best be described as a kind of bond. The Doolin native grew up in a maritime household, trained as a carpenter and worked in construction, but the sea always had a hold on his heart. And now, operating a business that plies its trade on the sea, protecting this natural gem at all costs is foremost in his mind.
The owner of Dublin Bay Cruises recently converted its vessel the St Bridget from fossil fuels to hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) to reduce its environmental impact and enhance the marine experience for visitors.
“While we would have carried more people, we had to reflect on the pressures that would have put on the environment and nature and the Dublin Bay biosphere”
This will reduce emissions by up to 90% and underscores Garrihy’s commitment to stewarding a more sustainable future for the Dublin Bay ecosystem.
Cruising into the future
Speaking on the ThinkBusiness Podcast, Garrihy said he was faced with a choice of investing in buying a new vessel capable of handing greater numbers of passengers or embarking on the HVO voyage.
This choice was not just a business decision, but was informed by a sense of responsibility to the environment and the welfare of coastal communities.
The maritime world is in his blood. “We come from a fishing background and later a tourism background. My brothers Peter and Joe started the Cliffs of Moher cruises from Doolin and the Aran Islands. My father had a strong relationship with the Aran Islands. He was the main shipwright for the islands. I’m a carpenter myself and went to Dublin and started a construction company that I ran up until 2011. Before that my trade was in the ferries between Clare and the islands.”
After leaving construction Garrihy decided to go back to what he knew best and along with his wife Claire returned to Claire and ran the Doolin2Aran Ferries business, which they sold in 2022. Simultaneously they started Dublin Bay Cruises in 2011.
“Because of its success there was pressure on to go bigger and faster and we almost signed a contract for a 200-seat, much faster boat that would whisk people much faster in 20 minutes rather than the much more leisurely hourly cruise from Dun Laoghaire to the city.
“While we would have carried more people, we had to reflect on the pressures that would have put on the environment and nature and the Dublin Bay biosphere. It wasn’t just going to be a business model, it would have an environmental impact.
“We decided instead to adopt the circular economy’s methods and practices. Down through the years as we practiced fishing and then bringing tourists under the Cliffs of Moher we were aware of the benefits of protecting the environment.”
Rather than taking on a bigger, faster vessel, Dublin Bay Cruises instead decided to rebuild the engines of the St Bridget, converting the vessel to HVO and adding new gear boxes and a new propulsion system which will reduce emissions by 90%.
“The Irish Government has committed to reducing emissions by 50% so we will be way ahead of that. We will be carbon neutral this year.”
With a sensibility that was honed during his membership of the Moher and Burren Geopark and the importance protecting the UNESCO status of the Dublin Bay Biosphere, Garrihy says the decision to move away from biofuels wasn’t just the right thing to do, it actually makes business sense.
Many of Dublin Bay Cruises’ customers come from the corporate world and more and more queries were being made about emissions. “Last year we had 120 corporate outings and as we went through he year we found that more and more requests were coming in about environmental policy. At the time we were still burning diesel.
“We have to be able to respond to those corporates and reassure them that when they travel with us they are helping to sustain the environment and that community. So yes, it is something that is going to be attractive to corporates and will be a very positive marketing too.”
Retrofitting the St Bridget was no small task. The ship has a steel hull and ran on diesel engines. “We worked with a company in Naas called South Coast Diesels who were professionals in Detroit Diesel engines and they completely stripped them down and fitted the new parts.
“It was lovely to see the skills at play with those engineers working on the engines.”
Dublin Bay Cruises’ season operates from the start of March until the end of October, so the business was able to use the intervening autumn and winter months last year to get the St Bridget retrofitted.
Garrihy said that despite lobbying the State, there was no grant aid for retrofitting the vessel and so the investment was entirely funded by the business.
“We’re hopeful that this will help tick a lot of boxes for corporate outings, for example. We whisk parties from the docklands to the Poolbeg lighthouse, around Dalkey and Killiney Bay and I have to say Dublin Bay, with the river, the sea and the mountains, has everything.”
Coming from a native of Doolin, Co Clare, one of the most beautiful places in the world, he knows what he’s talking about.
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