#SailStavros – A French Navy fleet tanker replenishment vessel this morning departed Dublin Port and where a UK youth sail training ship arrived this afternoon, writes Jehan Ashmore.

BCR Somme (A631) is a Durance class command and replenishment ship which Afloat reported on during a another visit, click here. On this occasion,the 157m tanker had spent her Irish call having arrived on Friday to the port providing crew rest leave over the weekend.

As for the sail-trainee, Stavros S Niarchos of the Tall Ships Youth Trust, she is on a visit to the capital where some of the ferries that serve the Holyhead route share a connection with the brig, that been Stena Line. The 60m brig is managed by Northern Marine Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stena AB Gothenburg. The subsidiary formed in 1983 is headquartered in Clydebank, Scotland.

Trainees of the Portsmouth based brig are given duties which involves one of the three watches to operate the vessel. It's a 24 hour job and this is where they learn how to set sails of the two square-rigged masts, man the ropes, take the helm, keep a proper look-out. All these varied tasks that are involved to keep a Tall Ship sailing.

A typical cruising programme has voyages of between 2 and 12 days. This sees Stavros S Niarchos sail along the English south coast, to the Canary Islands, Azores and as far as the Caribbean.

On this Irish visit, Stavros S Niarchos headed upriver this afternoon and passed Alexandra Basin, where BCR Somme had been allocated a berth.

The final stretch of the voyage from Merseyside involved a transit of the Tom Clarke Bridge at Ringsend. The toll-lift bascule designed structure saw the lifting span (45m wide) rise, permitting the brig’s passage upriver on the Liffey.

Dublin Port has announced new figures showing a 6.8% increase in trade volumes for the first nine months of the year. The current pace of growth puts Dublin Port on course for a record year for the third year in a row.

Total throughput (imports and exports) for the nine months to the end of September was 26.0 million gross tonnes.

Exports moved ahead by 7.0% to 10.6 million gross tonnes in the first nine months, while imports climbed by 6.7% to 15.4 million gross tonnes, reflecting ongoing improvement in the domestic economy.

Ro-Ro freight trailers and Lo-Lo containers are the mainstay of Dublin Port’s business and they continue to show very strong growth.

Ro-Ro cargo arriving on trailer-trucks and lorries increased by 7.6% to 699,361 units, while Lo-Lo containers moved ahead by 9.3% to 495,304 TEU.

More than 77,000 new vehicles were imported through Dublin Port in the first nine months, up 9.8% on the same period last year as demand for new cars and commercial vehicles showed little sign of abating. Meanwhile ferry passenger traffic experienced a slight uplift by 0.5% as 1.4m ferry passengers and over 400,000 tourist vehicles passed through the port, as holidaymakers and Ireland soccer fans took advantage of direct routes to France and Britain.

Dublin Port’s cruise business grew with 103 cruise calls in the first nine months bringing 152,000 cruise visitors to the capital.

Eamonn O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Dublin Port Company, said:

“At 6.8% growth in the first nine months of the year, we are now certain that 2016 will be the third record year in a row for trade at Dublin Port. We are seeing the re-emergence of exponential compounding growth which has characterised the business of Dublin Port for many decades.

“In the period to September this year, we handled the same volume as we did in the whole of 2009, our lowest point after the economic collapse.

“The pace of growth is so strong that if current growth levels were to continue into the future, Dublin Port’s volumes would double over the 12 years to 2025. Our challenge now is how best to create additional port capacity in sufficient time to stay ahead of this growth.

“As part of our plans to maximise capacity at Dublin Port, we have purchased 44 hectares of motorway connected lands 14 km from the Port and we will develop these as an External
Port Logistics Zone over the next five years to increase the capacity of the Port to cater for future growth.

“We are also preparing plans for the development of over 50 hectares of port lands on the Poolbeg Peninsula both within the area of the West Poolbeg SDZ and elsewhere on the peninsula. These plans are an integral part of our Masterplan 2012 to 2040 which shows how we will develop the Port to accommodate a doubling in throughput”.

#Lamentable – The decision to close the largest graving dock in the state in Dublin Port has been described as ‘lamentable’ by the Maritime Institute of Ireland, writes Jehan Ashmore.

According to the M.I.I.’s latest biannual newsletter, the Institute expresses concern that the closure could result in work being lost to Ireland “with the lamentable decision to close and in-fill the big Dublin Graving Dock No.2 which was in constant use by Arklow Shipping”.

It is almost exactly six months ago that Afloat.ie reported the closure of the country’s largest drydock, at 220m long. The ship-repairer and conversion firm, Dublin Graving Docks ceased operations officially on 29 April with the loss of a skilled labourforce of 26 marine engineering personnel. The business had been operated by DGD under license from the Dublin Port Company.

The Institute added “this valuable overhaul and survey work would be lost to the State. It is the biggest such facility in the Republic and was opened in 1957 in style by the then President Sean T.O’Kelly as befitted such an iconic State-funded enterprise”.

Furthermore, in the Autumn newsletter article, the Institute said hopefully, wise counsel will prevail and this valuable maritime facility will be retained on the east coast in the country’s major port.

The last ship, however to use the facility, was aptly an Irish flagged cargoship, Arklow Fame (pictured above) that occupied the graving dock before floated-out on 27 April.

Dublin Port Company are to incorporate the graving dock by infilling to make additional quay frontage and cargo space for the €227m Alexandra Basin Redevelopment.

The ABR project is to enable considerably larger deep drafted cargoships to enter the port. In addition to accommodate giant cruiseships by berthing much closer to the city-centre.

The newsletter also commented that Arklow Shipping has since seemed to be trying out Cork Dockyard. It the next largest such facility in this state which received former business of DGD through the Arklow Rose, which Afloat first highlighted in July.

This former Dutch flagged member of the ASL fleet however upon completion of drydocking emerged as Celtic Venture having been sold to UK based owners. 

#DublinPort - Dublin Port achieved a 97% recycling rate in 2015, according to its latest sustainability report.

Published over the summer, the report also highlights a 97% reduction in water consumption and a successful surveillance audit for the ISO 14001 environmental management standards among its achievements in a year that saw significant increases in imports and exports, trade vehicles and passenger numbers.

Trade volumes have continued to rise into 2016, with an 8% increase in the first six months of this year, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

This is the third sustainability report released by the Dublin Port Company since statistics were first compiled for 2013.

East Wall Water Sports Club will launch two new clinker–built rowing boats next month. The hand–crafted punts were built with the support of Dublin Port Company and Dublin City Council. 

East Wall Water Sport’s was founded in 1981 provides a wide variety of water sports activities to the local community. The new rowing boats will add to their growing fleet of vessels, which promotes coastal rowing on Dublin’s north side, according to the club's Martin Whelan.

'With the help of many other volunteers from the East Wall skiff rowing club the project has finally coming to an end. It’s wonderful to see at first hand the boatbuilding skills which our Viking ancestors handed down to us, still in use today', said Whelan.

The project began in October 2015 and the two clinker built boats, are to be blessed and launched on Sat 1st Oct at 12 noon.

With the growing popularity of rowing within the club, the skiff rowing section saw the need for these new vessels. These boats will primarily be to teach younger children the skills of rowing.

The current project is just one of numerous projects completed by this partnership over recent years that keeps alive an age old tradition of wooden boat building.

To date the club has refurbished two 26 ft rowing skiffs and built currachs and naomhogs in their workshop. Dublin Port Company provided free of charge the services of their resident shipwright Patsy Whelan and his apprentice Stephen, on a weekly basis to supervise the project.

East Wall Water Sports Club through their skiff rowing section and currach section now provide great rowing experiences for all ages at a very minimal cost. The club is open to all, young and old, and a friendly atmosphere is always maintained.

The Cruising Association of Ireland’s annual rally in Dublin’s River Liffey over the weekend brought a whiff of the open sea and a fleet of 32 boats into the heart of the busy city past the visiting “ten storey” cruise liner Nautica writes W M Nixon. And as one of the themes of the rally is the fleet’s negotiation of all the opening bridges upriver as far as the Customs House before returning eastward again in formation to berth at Dublin Port’s long pontoon immediately west of the Eastlink Bridge, inevitably there was interruption to shoreside traffic.

The Cruise Liner Nautica in Dublin at the weekend will probably have voyaged round the world, as her home port of Majuro is in the Marshall Islands in mid-Pacific. And the CAI’s Pat Murphy’s Aldebaran (extreme right) has certainly sailed round the world. Photo: W M Nixon

It’s a Boat Show afloat…..the CAI fleet waiting for the eastlink to open. Photo: W M Nixon
It’s astonishing how quickly the long vehicle queues can build up, and reactions to this brief stopping of the city’s bustling traffic were predictable. Tourists and locals just out for the day and ambling along the quays were delighted by it all. It isn’t until it happens that you realise just how rare are boat displays in the river with which people can identify, for they see themselves in the crews on the many boats which as ever – boats and people alike – were remarkable in their variety.

How’s this for two very different styles in cruising boats? Dave Hopkin’s recently-acquired Nauticat 33 ketch is in the foreground, while Wally McGuirk’s own-built steel 40-footer Swallow – O’Brien Kennedy’s last design – is beyond in close formation as they transit the Eastlink. Photo: W M Nixon

“A bonny fleet comes into town” Photo: W M Nixon
But people on errands in cars or vans tended towards irritation until they saw the span on the Eastlink rising sky-wards, or the always fascinating Calatrava-designed Samuel Beckett bridge rotating to let the vessels through. Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part, but I though that the realisation of the co-ordinated project which was taking place had a soothing effect even on courier van drivers, while being a timely reminder that Dublin is Ireland’s largest port.

And as far as the welfare of our city port is concerned, even in the short year since the CAI was last in the river, the tower cranes have proliferated. Whatever about the future, there’s a building boom at present along the Liffey, and a sense of optimism.

The figurehead on the Jeanie Johnston provides an evocative frame for the boats of the CAI. Photo: W M Nixon

Any excuse to get the fascinating Samuel Beckett bridge to swing open is welcome, and a visit by the CAI is a better reason than most. Photo: W M Nixon

Of course, for the main event on Saturday, the weather was benign. We’ll blot out Sunday’s rain, and instead simply recall that on Saturday CAI Commodore Clifford Brown presided over a full house of boats and people in sunshine, with the usual conviviality at the capacity crowd for the dinner on the restaurant ship Cill Airne.

This included a reception for the people working in Dublin Port and with the City Council who facilitated the co-ordinated opening of the bridges. So there was enthusiastic support when world circumnavigation veteran Pat Murphy of Aldebaran suggested that in future it simply be called The Three Bridges Rally. In fact, they should copyright the name immediately, for it’s a great way to bring the cruising season gently towards its close.

Even with the full length of Dublin Port’s pontoon in use, fleet numbers were such that there still had to be some rafting up. Photo: W M Nixon

#DublinPort - Planning permission has been granted for a major dredging scheme at Dublin Port, clearing the final hurdle before works on the proposed new cruise liner terminal for the city.

The application, given the go-ahead by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday 13 September, provides for dredging from the North Wall Quay Extension to the -10m Chart Datum contour in Dublin Bay.

It also permits the disposal of dredged material at the existing licensed site west of the Burford Bank – a matter of much controversy this summer due to its location within the special are of conservation from Rockabill to Dalkey Island.

The subsequent Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project comprises the infilling of the basin at current berths 52 and 53, a deepening of the fairway and a marina protection structure, intended to future-proof the port to accommodate the next generation of cruise liners of more than 300m in length.

Dublin Port's plans advance as Dun Laoghaire awaits the next step in its own harbour masterplan proposals for a modern cruise terminal.

This week on my podcast, I focus on what Dublin is doing about its waterfront. This follows on my last podcast about the lack of attention by many of the country’s towns and cities to their waterfronts and why they should be doing more to make those waterfronts attractive to the public, so that they would become part of local environmental infrastructure, making the ports accessible as far as possible, allowing for security and safety constraints, so that there would be more public understanding and appreciation of the importance of the ports.

Dublin Port’s Chief Executive, Eamonn O’Reilly, has spoken to me about what Dublin is doing in this regard. He has just announced the competition for public art work displays in the port and he explains to me the Port Trail is being constructed, a public viewing facility of the port, its history and culture. This is a positive development and puts Dublin far ahead of any other port in the country. What is most important is the realisation which he expresses, that public appreciation and understanding of the port has diminished and that this link needs to be restored.

And he speaks about sailing within the port area.

• Listen to the podcast below.

• I will be interviewing Eamonn O’Reilly in more depth and detail in the next edition of my radio programme podcast – THIS ISLAND on Afloat.ie about the working of the port and its plans for future expansion.

Read all the latest Dublin Port news here

#WindsofChange – Afloat.ie has monitored Mein Schiff 5 movements noting the new cruiseship less than two months in service was forced to change its first ever call to an Irish port today, writes Jehan Ashmore.

It transpired that high winds forecast at Dublin Port were the cause and so the 2,750 passenger cruiseship had to call to Cobh, where the 295m newbuild berthed this morning but was due to call anyway tomorrow. Cruisegoers will not be left dissappointed as the near 100,00 gross tonnage ship will be simply swapping ports with the scheduled call to the capital a day later. 

The impact of windage on the TUI Cruises newest ship with 15 decks high had to be considered when berthing in the confines of Dublin Port, where most callers are to Alexandra Basin.

Dublin Port Company’s first ever cruise terminal costing €30m is part of the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project (ABR) which is been built to accommodate even larger cruiseships and following a major dredging channel campaign.

A reconfiguration of quays will enable these mega cruiseships to call using an increased turning circle though at the expense of demolishing the end of the North Wall Quay Extension.

More quayside space and adjacent hard standing for cargo space, however will be made with the infilling of the Dublin Graving Docks that closed in April.

The ABR project is phase one of DPC plans to also permit increasingly larger cargsoships and associated deeper drafts to enter the port, so to meet demands of throughput which is forecast to rise, as the port in 2015 alone experienced record breaking volumes.

The 220m graving dock is nearby to where these mega cruiseships will dock at the two-berth terminal and much closer to city-centre, been next to the Tom Clarke toll-bridge.

#NewestShip – Afloat.ie has tracked another big brand new cruiseship, Mein Schiff 5 that is to make a first call to an Irish port tomorrow, reflecting the growing demand for such visits and related infrastructural developments, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Mein Schiff 5 towering 15 decks and almost 100,000 gross tonnage is TUI Cruises' latest fleet member with a 2,750 passenger capacity that is to make a debut to Dublin Port before dawn.

After her visit to the capital, passengers have no less than 13 restuarants and bistros dining options to choose, before it will be the Port of Cork’s turn to welcome the latest newcomer to Cobh on Saturday. Both Dublin through its new cruise terminal development and Cobh’s upgrade are to meet the berthing requirements of even much larger cruiseships.

Today, Mein Schiff is berthed at the Port of Holyhead from where had arrived from the UK’s premier cruise port of Southampton.

In July, the 295m vessel was named Mein Schiff 5 at a ceremony in Lübeck/Travemünde. It was at nearby Kiel, she sailed across the Baltic Sea for her maiden voyage to Stockholm, calling at Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Helsinki.

The newest addition brings to a total of 14 cruiseships for TUI Group, a hotel and cruise group that was initiated at the end of 2014 and includes the rebranding of the UK operator, Thomson Cruises. Mein Schiff 5 is the Group’s third new build, and in June was handed over 10 days ahead of scheduled at the Meyer Turku shipyard, Finland to subsidiary TUI Cruises.

Like TUI Cruises’ other newbuilds, Meins Schiff 5 is a low-vibration vessel, which uses state of the art technologically that will enhance a pleasant environment for her guests. She has a 280m jogging track and 25m swimming pool.

In terms of operational efficiency, there is 30% less energy consumption and therefore 30% less fuel than other cruiseships of a comparable size.

Towards the end of the construction period, work simultaneously began on the construction of another sister, Mein Schiff 6. Meyer Turku were also involved in the construction of predecessor, Mein Schiff 4 launched in 2014.

In the following year, Mein Schiff 4 made a first call to Dun Laoghaire with an anchorage much closer to the harbour compared to other callers of recent years. The south Dublin Bay port still awaits a planning decision on the controversial cruise-berth to enable such sized ships and even larger to dock within the harbour.