Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Flotilla five

#NavalVisits - A flotilla of five French Navy vessels are currently on a call to the capital following the small ships arrival into Dublin Port yesterday morning, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Mine counter measures (MCM) vessel Cassiopée built in 1984 is of the Éridan-class. The class otherwise commonly known as the 'Tripartite' class, berthed downriver unlike the rest of the flotilla allocated along Sir John Rogerson Quay. 

Accompanying the MCM Tripartite vessel displacing 615 tonnes are three sonar-towing training ships of the (BRS) type Antarès, the namesake of the leadship class which is in port. The remaining pair are Aldebaran and Altaïr. Each of the trio displace just 340 tonnes and were all commissioned in the 1990's. 

The fifth visitor is represented by the Chamois class auxiliary Élan which among its duties serves as an anti-pollution vessel based in Cherbourg. The 400 displacement tonnes vessel with a large aft-deck is equipped with a hydraulic crane located at the stern. The veteran vessel in April, marked its 40th year since entering service in 1978.

An even older French Navy visitor was the Paimpolaise-class sail training ship Belle-Poule. The schooner dating to 1932 made an impressive sight during last Monday's Bank Holiday 'Parade of Sail' in Dublin Bay before heading for Bordeaux.

Published in Naval Visits

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.