Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: Maiden Irish Visit

A French Navy offshore support and assistance vessel which was commissioned into service earlier this year visited Waterford City over the weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The impressive Loire class or Metropolitan Support and Assistance Building (BSAM) Rhône entered service in January. This call to the 'Crystal City' was a maiden first to Ireland as the 70m newbuild berthed on the Suir at the Frank Cassin Wharf.

This part of the port on the Co. Kilkenny side was where Bell Lines lo-lo terminal was located before shifting downriver to Belview, the current main terminal of the Port of Waterford.

BSAM Rhône entered service in January as the second of pair following leadship BSAM Loire that form part of the unarmed support ships serving the French Navy. The newbuild built in Brittany at the Piriou shipyards of Concarneau was developed in a programme named the Kership. The joint venture was created in 2013 by Piriou (55%) and DCNS (45%).

The newbuild which has a displacement of 2960 tons has a propulsion system derived from two diesel engines that delivers a speed of 14 knots. A crew consists of 17 sailors in addition to an option for 12 divers.

This morning the naval visitor is scheduled to depart the Suir. 

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.