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Displaying items by tag: Men & Women

#Seafarers - Over three million seafarers, both men and women live in the twilight world of big shipping according to the Seamens Christian Friend Service (SCFS).

Seafarers are responsible for most of the goods you will of had acquired over the Christmas season. It's a lonely life and as such they don't get to spend Christmas with their family.

Crews roam the world's oceans for up to 12 months at a time. They come from more than 100 different nations and speak dozens of language. For most of them accessing the internet is synonym of keeping in touch with the family.

This year, SEA-Tech Evolution Ltd, an Irish IT company established in 2007, worked with the Port of Cork, Port of Waterford and Rosslare at improving crew welfare. The company take this service very seriously but it is sometimes hard to convince the shipping industry of the benefits of decent internet connectivity.

Commenting on the benefits of such technology, Arnaud (R.no) Disant, Engineer (CTO) at SEA-Tech and Lecturer at National Maritime College of Ireland, said you know you’ve done something good this year when you see a smile on the face of a man that truly values your work.

 

 

Published in Ports & Shipping

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