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Displaying items by tag: Galley Flash

#Coastal Rowing: Myross won the senior men’s title for the second weekend in-a-row at the Irish Coastal Rowing Championships at the National Rowing Centre. The had also won at the ICRF All-Ireland. Killorglin won the senior women’s crown.

 In excellent conditions, the contest for the Club of the Championships was close. The prize goes to the club with the most wins. Holders Kilmacsimon could have taken it with wins in the final two races but were denied and Whitegate, the hosts, were crowned champions.  

Published in Rowing

#CoastalRowing: Galley Flash won the senior men’s title at the All Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships in Ballyshannon, Donegal. The West Cork crew led for virtually all the race from local rivals Kilmacsimon, with Courtmacsherry always in third.

 Vartry won the intermediate title by two lengths.

 Workmen’s from Kerry won a good final of the Senior Ladies competition. Galley Flash led early on, but Workmen’s had taken the lead by the turn and went on to forge a clearwater advantage, though Galley Flash finished well.

All Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships, Ballyshannon, Donegal (Selected Results)

Men

Senior: 1 Galley Flash 11 min 16 sec, 2 Kilmacsimon 11:21, 3 Courtmacsherry 11:26. Intermediate: Vartry. Junior: Ring. ­

Women

Senior: 1 Workmen’s 7:34, 2 Galley Flash 7:38, 3 Kilmacabea 7:49. Inter: Worken’s A 7:42. Jun: Kilmacsimon.

Published in Coastal Rowing

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).