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Displaying items by tag: BREXIT George Osborne

#BREXITport? - The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne reports MultiModal, met senior executives from Warrenpoint Harbour Authority (WHA) and local MP's during a visit to the Co Down port yesterday.

The Chancellor met MP Margaret Ritchie, along with Nicola Walker and managing director of Cronus Logistics, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, new operator of Irish Sea container feeder services. This includes the only Ireland-Wales service connecting Dublin and Cardiff along with Belfast and Bristol. 

The Chancellor was shown round the docks and observed ro/ro and containerised operations along with the discharge of bulk grain ships. He was also shown timber that is imported through Warrenpoint but ultimately is transported across the land frontiers into the south of Ireland.

“We are pleased that the Chancellor recognises the importance of Warrenpoint as a strategic port for imports and exports in Ireland,” says Nicola.

Speaking to the media during his tour he said, “I’m here at Warrenpoint and it’s a very practical demonstration of the fact that Northern Ireland has the only land border with an EU country… If we quit the EU, this is going to be the border with the EU.”

He later crossed the border on a lorry delivering timber into Dublin.

Published in Warrenpoint Port

Irish Sailing Classes and Association – There’s no shortage of one-design classes from which to choose and each gives its enthusiasts great competition, fun and camaraderie, writes Graham Smith in this review of the classes. 

One-design racing is where it all starts. It is, after all, where all the top sailors earned their stripes, battling away for line honours without a thought for a handicapper’s calculator wiping away a hard-fought victory!

Indeed, you could count on less than one hand the number of top Irish sailors who didn’t cut their teeth in a one-design dinghy! Just think of Cudmore, Barrington, Watson, Wilkins, Hennessy and Dix to name a few and you realise that they honed their skills in everything from Enterprises to Lasers and a lot in between.

At present count, there are a little over 30 one-design classes in Ireland, split almost evenly between dinghies and keelboats, a statistic which might raise a few eyebrows. They range from the long-established Mermaids, IDRA14s and Dragons to the newer additions like Fevas, Topaz and RS Elite. They all fill a particular need and give their owners and crews considerable enjoyment.

Many have attracted their World or European Championships to Irish waters over the years and while 2009 is notable for a lack of such events here, the following year will see the Etchells Worlds at Howth and perhaps a few other international regattas too.

In addition to the review, we asked each class to complete a questionnaire giving details of their fleet numbers, whether they were on a growth pattern or holding their own, so we could highlight those ‘on the up’ and those remaining static in terms of numbers. The older traditional designs, as you might imagine, fall into the latter category, although that’s not a negative!

CLASS REVIEW  The State of the Classes – League Table (as at February 2009)

S = Static; U = Up/growing

275     Optimist   U

200+   Laser   S

189     Mermaid   S

160     Flying Fifteen   S

130     RS Feva   U

115     Shannon One Design    U

100+   Mirror   S

100+   Topper   U

99       Topaz   U

94       Laser SB3   U

87       GP14   U

85       Squib   S

70       Fireball   S

70       Ruffian   S

60       J24   S

60       Shipman   S

52       Dragon   S

50       RS400/200   S

50       420    U

43       Multihulls    U

42       Dragon    S

40       Water Wags    U

40       Wayfarer    S

34       IDRA14    U

33       Puppeteer    U

28       Etchells    S

27       E-Boat    U

26       Glen    S

25       Enterprise    S

18       Sigma 33    S

18       Howth 17    U

13       RS Elite    U