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Displaying items by tag: 6,800dwat range

Arklow Ranger following a christening ceremony at Royal Bodowes main shipyard in the Netherlands was launched yesterday having slide off the stocks into the water, writes Jehan Ashmore.

This is the 4th general cargo vessel out of the seven Eco-Trader 6,885 deadweight tonnes (dwt) series on order from Arklow Shipping Ltd.

The 104m Arklow Ranger was launched during the afternoon from the Royal Bodewes shipyard at Hoogazand near Groningen.

As for the other three completed newbuilds, leadship, Arklow Racer was delivered to ASL in February, followed by the series second ship, Arklow Rally which made its maiden sailing on the Summer solstice.

The newest Eco-Trader or ‘R’ class, Arklow Rambler last month departed the inland shipyard along the canal system while under tow to Delfzijl on the Ems estuary.

It is from the nearby port of Emshaven that this third newbuild has been carrying out ship-builders sea trials in the North Sea.

Published in Shipyards

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago