Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: XSV20

Safehaven Marine put Thunder Child II to the test against the might of Storm Brendan yesterday — showing just how well the wave-piercing powerboat can handle the roughest elements at sea.

Sea trials for the XSV20 design began a year ago but had taken a backseat to the successful Cork boatbuilder’s commissions for port and harbour vessels — an enviable situation which nevertheless saw the planned North Atlantic Challenge that had been scheduled for last summer moved to this year.

Thunder Child II has been developed in mind of setting a new west-east transatlantic world record, and a proposed route has been plotted from St John’s in Newfoundland, via Greenland and Iceland, to Killybegs on Ireland’s West Coast.

Published in Safehaven Marine

Safehaven Marine has shared a video of the recent delivery of its latest XSV20, named Safehaven, to its owner Jack Setton from Cork to Sardinia.

Safehaven was commissioned by and built for Jack Setton, a well-known name in the superyacht world. The original owner of, among others, the 194ft expedition superyacht Senses was “intimately involved” with Safehaven’s design and specification during construction.

The hybrid design, which fuses an asymmetrical catamaran with a wave-piercing monohull, incorporates a Hysucraft hydrofoil system for efficiency at high speeds, and is powered by a pair of Caterpillar C18 1,150hp engines through ZF 500 gearboxes with propulsion by Marine Jet Power Hybrid 350 water jets.

During sea trials in August, Safehaven achieved a very impressive (considering the 23m length) maximum speed of 45kts. Long range fuel tanks provide extended offshore voyage capabilities and a 500 nautical mile range.

Safehaven is also fitted out to a very high standard with a clean, minimalistic but luxurious interior design incorporating three separate below-deck forward sleeping cabins and a spacious main cabin incorporating SHOXS military spec shock mitigation seating for the ‘driving area’ and a full concealed galley and comfortable dinette set in the living area.

XSV20 Safehaven 2 interior

Twin Dometic 27,000btu air conditioning units powered by an 18kw AC generator ensure cabins are kept cool in hot climates. A flybridge provides a second commanding helm position and there is also carries a crane-launched 4m RIB on a large dive platform. A spacious aft deck also incorporates seating areas converting to loungers and a large sun bed.

XSV20 Safehaven 4 Sardinia

Safehaven sailed from East Ferry Marina in Cork Harbour on the morning of Sunday 15 September to begin the 2,500nm delivery voyage to Sardinia in Italy, which Safehaven Marine MD Frank Kowalski recounts in detail HERE.

Published in Safehaven Marine
Tagged under

Safehaven Marine have shared new video from rough weather sea trials for its latest pilot boat, Dalmore, as well as its new XSV20 named Safehaven.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Dalmore is an Interceptor 48 — the 15th of this model, and 40th pilot boat overall for Safehaven Marine — commissioned by the Port of Cromarty Firth in Scotland.

Also on trial was the Cork-based extreme performance boatbuilder’s latest XSV20, which is soon to take up residence in the Bay of Biscay.

Safehaven follows Thunder Child II, the next generation of the piercing monohull class that will now see its world record Transatlantic attempt take place in summer 2020 — thanks in part to the busy business’ full order book this year.

Published in Safehaven Marine

Safehaven Marine’s latest design concept is the XSV20, which has been undergoing scale model testing out of its Cork Harbour boatyard.

Combining a twin-stepped asymmetrical catamaran hull with a wave-piercing monohull, the hybrid XSV20 aims to set a new standard for high-speed patrol and interceptor vessels.

Safehaven says the 22m hull mould is now complete on the patent-pending design following six months of research and development, during which 12 scale model variants were extensively tank-tested to optimise performance and hydrodynamics.

The first full-scale XSV20 will be powered by four Caterpillar C8.7 650hp engines, ZF gearboxes and France Helises SDS surface drives. The boat will have a maximum speed of well over 50 knots, with a 40kt cruise speed and a range of 800 nautical miles.

The design incorporates all the features of Safehaven’s smaller 11-17m Barracuda range of naval craft, but with greater endurance, payload and crew capacity.

The design has been developed, as Safehaven’s designer and MD Frank Kowalski puts it, “in ones endless pursuit of travelling fast in rough seas” and should allow higher speeds to be maintained in rough sea conditions with greater crew comfort, safety and endurance than conventional designs.

Safehaven says its demonstrator vessel will be due for launch very early next year, when we should expect to see some of the company’s usual extreme testing.

Published in Safehaven Marine
Tagged under

About Dublin Port 

Dublin Port is Ireland’s largest and busiest port with approximately 17,000 vessel movements per year. As well as being the country’s largest port, Dublin Port has the highest rate of growth and, in the seven years to 2019, total cargo volumes grew by 36.1%.

The vision of Dublin Port Company is to have the required capacity to service the needs of its customers and the wider economy safely, efficiently and sustainably. Dublin Port will integrate with the City by enhancing the natural and built environments. The Port is being developed in line with Masterplan 2040.

Dublin Port Company is currently investing about €277 million on its Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR), which is due to be complete by 2021. The redevelopment will improve the port's capacity for large ships by deepening and lengthening 3km of its 7km of berths. The ABR is part of a €1bn capital programme up to 2028, which will also include initial work on the Dublin Port’s MP2 Project - a major capital development project proposal for works within the existing port lands in the northeastern part of the port.

Dublin Port has also recently secured planning approval for the development of the next phase of its inland port near Dublin Airport. The latest stage of the inland port will include a site with the capacity to store more than 2,000 shipping containers and infrastructures such as an ESB substation, an office building and gantry crane.

Dublin Port Company recently submitted a planning application for a €320 million project that aims to provide significant additional capacity at the facility within the port in order to cope with increases in trade up to 2040. The scheme will see a new roll-on/roll-off jetty built to handle ferries of up to 240 metres in length, as well as the redevelopment of an oil berth into a deep-water container berth.

Dublin Port FAQ

Dublin was little more than a monastic settlement until the Norse invasion in the 8th and 9th centuries when they selected the Liffey Estuary as their point of entry to the country as it provided relatively easy access to the central plains of Ireland. Trading with England and Europe followed which required port facilities, so the development of Dublin Port is inextricably linked to the development of Dublin City, so it is fair to say the origins of the Port go back over one thousand years. As a result, the modern organisation Dublin Port has a long and remarkable history, dating back over 300 years from 1707.

The original Port of Dublin was situated upriver, a few miles from its current location near the modern Civic Offices at Wood Quay and close to Christchurch Cathedral. The Port remained close to that area until the new Custom House opened in the 1790s. In medieval times Dublin shipped cattle hides to Britain and the continent, and the returning ships carried wine, pottery and other goods.

510 acres. The modern Dublin Port is located either side of the River Liffey, out to its mouth. On the north side of the river, the central part (205 hectares or 510 acres) of the Port lies at the end of East Wall and North Wall, from Alexandra Quay.

Dublin Port Company is a State-owned commercial company responsible for operating and developing Dublin Port.

Dublin Port Company is a self-financing, and profitable private limited company wholly-owned by the State, whose business is to manage Dublin Port, Ireland's premier Port. Established as a corporate entity in 1997, Dublin Port Company is responsible for the management, control, operation and development of the Port.

Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny of the Bounty fame) was a visitor to Dublin in 1800, and his visit to the capital had a lasting effect on the Port. Bligh's study of the currents in Dublin Bay provided the basis for the construction of the North Wall. This undertaking led to the growth of Bull Island to its present size.

Yes. Dublin Port is the largest freight and passenger port in Ireland. It handles almost 50% of all trade in the Republic of Ireland.

All cargo handling activities being carried out by private sector companies operating in intensely competitive markets within the Port. Dublin Port Company provides world-class facilities, services, accommodation and lands in the harbour for ships, goods and passengers.

Eamonn O'Reilly is the Dublin Port Chief Executive.

Capt. Michael McKenna is the Dublin Port Harbour Master

In 2019, 1,949,229 people came through the Port.

In 2019, there were 158 cruise liner visits.

In 2019, 9.4 million gross tonnes of exports were handled by Dublin Port.

In 2019, there were 7,898 ship arrivals.

In 2019, there was a gross tonnage of 38.1 million.

In 2019, there were 559,506 tourist vehicles.

There were 98,897 lorries in 2019

Boats can navigate the River Liffey into Dublin by using the navigational guidelines. Find the guidelines on this page here.

VHF channel 12. Commercial vessels using Dublin Port or Dun Laoghaire Port typically have a qualified pilot or certified master with proven local knowledge on board. They "listen out" on VHF channel 12 when in Dublin Port's jurisdiction.

A Dublin Bay webcam showing the south of the Bay at Dun Laoghaire and a distant view of Dublin Port Shipping is here
Dublin Port is creating a distributed museum on its lands in Dublin City.
 A Liffey Tolka Project cycle and pedestrian way is the key to link the elements of this distributed museum together.  The distributed museum starts at the Diving Bell and, over the course of 6.3km, will give Dubliners a real sense of the City, the Port and the Bay.  For visitors, it will be a unique eye-opening stroll and vista through and alongside one of Europe’s busiest ports:  Diving Bell along Sir John Rogerson’s Quay over the Samuel Beckett Bridge, past the Scherzer Bridge and down the North Wall Quay campshire to Berth 18 - 1.2 km.   Liffey Tolka Project - Tree-lined pedestrian and cycle route between the River Liffey and the Tolka Estuary - 1.4 km with a 300-metre spur along Alexandra Road to The Pumphouse (to be completed by Q1 2021) and another 200 metres to The Flour Mill.   Tolka Estuary Greenway - Construction of Phase 1 (1.9 km) starts in December 2020 and will be completed by Spring 2022.  Phase 2 (1.3 km) will be delivered within the following five years.  The Pumphouse is a heritage zone being created as part of the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project.  The first phase of 1.6 acres will be completed in early 2021 and will include historical port equipment and buildings and a large open space for exhibitions and performances.  It will be expanded in a subsequent phase to incorporate the Victorian Graving Dock No. 1 which will be excavated and revealed. 
 The largest component of the distributed museum will be The Flour Mill.  This involves the redevelopment of the former Odlums Flour Mill on Alexandra Road based on a masterplan completed by Grafton Architects to provide a mix of port operational uses, a National Maritime Archive, two 300 seat performance venues, working and studio spaces for artists and exhibition spaces.   The Flour Mill will be developed in stages over the remaining twenty years of Masterplan 2040 alongside major port infrastructure projects.

Source: Dublin Port Company ©Afloat 2020.