Isle of Man

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brian f
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Isle of Man

Post by brian f »

During the last week or two-i have watched tv programmes regarding the iom . Did any members visit on holiday. The reason i ask is i remember hearing boats used to go from Ardrossan and was it a night boat and how long was the journey. It looked a nice place , did the Costa's prove fatal...
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bonzo
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by bonzo »

Never been brian, but always fancied it. I think package holidays tae the sun murdered aw the holiday resorts on this island.
Those wimin were in the nip.
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Meg
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by Meg »

The midnight boat on Glasgow Fair Friday was notorious Brian. It was what we now call, a booze cruise, and we went to the IOM on that very boat. The ferry still came into Ardrossan in the early 80s - it was run by the Isle Of Man Steam Packet Company who were in the main old sailors - so it followed all the rules (Grattan could maybe be a bit more informative here) for instance they hoisted the Blue Peter showing that they were about to leave harbour etc.

There were daytime ferries too, I think it took about 5 hours.
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Hughie
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by Hughie »

As Meg said, Fair Friday night mid-night sailings to IOM from Ardrossan were something not to be missed. From what I recall there were extra sailings to Belfast at the same time.

I remember going to Belfast from Ayr on a day trip on the IOM ship probably the King Orry around 1963 with girlfriend and future in-laws. Cost was 30/- each. Four hours on, four hours off, and four hours back.
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MANBEAR
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by MANBEAR »

Spent a week on holiday in Douglas at a b+b run by a very strict Argentinian woman. No messing with her my 2 daughters were very young about 4 and 6 years old and very messy so was told in stern voice that it would be plastic table cloth we would be getting as she was not prepared to change tables clothes everyday also if you wanted to bring chips in at night you had to hide them as it was a no no remember she caught some teenagers from Dublin with drink and informed them to leave the next day,changed times now ferry from Belfast was 4hrs.
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by michaelm »

The chap I worked for in the early 80's was a very keen Motorcycle enthusiast who owned a couple of Bikes at the time. I think they were a Norton Commando 750cc, with the other being either a Triumph or a BSA.
No Japanese imports for him back in those days.

He used to attend the Isle of Man TT bike races every year, which are held over a couple of weeks between late May - early June. Can't recall if he travelled on the ferry from Ardrossan or not, but he absolutely loved the place. I do though remember him speaking about something called 'Mad Sunday' which was when bikers who were simply there on holiday were allowed to rattle round the TT course a day or so before the actual competitive racing began.
Unfortunately though, there were always some tales of folk who maybe thought they were as competent at bike handling as the Pro's - and lost their lives as a result. :(

Also, one year he came back from there and excitedly told us he'd seen Suzi Quatro play live in fairly small venue and that from where he was standing he could almost touch her.
I was jealous. :lol:

Apart from various Sailings and Coach/Sail packages to the Island, I believe you can also fly there from Glasgow, London, Bristol and Dublin.
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brian f
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by brian f »

Thanks for the replys, I discovered this evening that Mitchy gave a good account of that sailing a few years back :D

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=9538
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by Retsum »

I remember in the late 40's we (Goerdie Fleming's gang) would be there for the 10 pm boat train to carry cases to the IOM boat. We would have been there too for the earlier sailing of the Arran boat. We always had to dodge around the porters (yes in those days there were porters) but it was a lucrative source of pocket money.
I had special permission from the parents to stay out on those occasions. The outward journeys were the good ones: on return everyone was skint!
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by Alexmac442 »

I remember going on them a few times, in particular the King Orry and Lady of Man (not sure if that name had 2 n's) also there was the Manx Maid and the Snaefell but sure there was more. If I remember right the sailing was about 6 hours at around 20 knots. Beautiful ships all of them.
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Re: Isle of Man

Post by glenshena »

We went on holiday to Douglas in the early 60's, I saved hard all my pocket money all summer . I went with my parents and two brothers. On our first day we hired a little boat to go round the bay, and just after we had landed back I realised that my purse with all my money was missing. I went straight back to the boat hirer but he denied having seen it, so I was left without a penny for the whole weeks Holiday. My Holiday turned sour after that, and I cant really remember much about the Isle of Man, except that the food in the boarding house was awful! We had a terrible green pea soup two nights in a row.
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