River Erne - Pleasure Boating

Pleasure Boating

The River Erne is suited to all types of pleasure craft. It is one of the most popular venues in Europe for rental boat vacations. Live aboard pleasure cruisers are available in many locations along the Erne waterway, including Belturbet, Knockniny, Carrybridge, Bellanaleck, Enniskillen, and Killadeas. In addition to the use of the Erne for live aboard boating holidays, sections of the river are ideal for water skiing, bank fishing, trolling, jet skiing and scuba diving. Boaters are cautioned, by the Original Official Site of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, that Upper Lough Erne is a maze of small islands needing careful navigation, and waves on Lower Lough Erne can reach "open-sea dimensions". It is believed that in 2009 Donald Attig, at 73 years of age, established benchmark records in both endurance challenge and adventure challenge categories, as the first person to complete a single-handed transit of the entire Erne Navigation in an engineless live-aboard pleasure boat. After an official launch by Her Excellency Priscilla Jenna, the ambassador from South Africa, Attig started his engineless transit at the end of navigation marker at Belturbet, County Cavan. He completed the engineless transit at the end of navigation marker Belleek. Previously, in 2007, Mr. Attig and Jack Donovan established similar records by being the first crew to complete a transit of the River Shannon Navigation and beyond in an engineless live-aboard pleasure boat. In 2008 Donald Attig repeated the 2007 feat single-handed.