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Displaying items by tag: Naval Service newest OPV

#ThirdOPV90 - According to NavalTechnology.com, the Naval Service has reportedly floated out the third and final OPV90 / Samuel Beckett-class newbuild LÉ William Butler Yeats (P63).

A total of two Samuel Beckett-class OPVs were ordered by Ireland's Department of Defence under a £81m contract from Babcock Marine in October 2010, with the option of a third vessel.

In June 2014, the department exercised the option under the original contract to place an order for the third OPV, which was scheduled for delivery in the middle of this year.

Float out of L.É. William Butler Yeats time lapse video

Float out of L.É. William Butler Yeats time lapse video

Posted by Irish Naval Service on Friday, 11 March 2016

Designed by Vard Marine, the OPVs replace three earlier vessels, the 'Deirdre' Class LE Emer, LE Aoife and LE Aisling, which were commissioned with the Irish Naval Service between 1978 and 1984. To read more click here.

Afloat adds the second 'Beckett' class OPV90 LE James Joyce (P62) was last year commissioned into service and named in a joint ceremony held in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Published in Navy

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