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Displaying items by tag: Anna Livia

#ferries  - Dublin city had for the first time in 35 years, a new ferry service writes The Irish Times. 

It was a cold, bright pre-dawn morning when the Dublin No 11 Liffey Ferry left its berth beside the MV Cill Airne at 7am for its maiden voyage as a passenger ferry.

The Liffey was like glass and as the boat turned east in the direction of the Tom Clarke (East-Link) Bridge, a beautiful red sunrise framed the Poolbeg Towers.

It was a perfect start. The only thing that was missing was passengers. There were none.

“It’s a bit early,” confessed Charles Sheridan, one of the three members crew on the No 11 for its first three minute trip across the Liffey to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. “From a commuter point of view, the 7am start will take some time to generate traction.”

He was not fazed by the no-shows saying that the service will take some time to establish itself and they already have a group booked in from one of the many companies headquartered in Dublin’s Docklands.

For more on the relaunch of the ferry service and the related role of the East-Link bridge, click here.

Published in Ferry

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.