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Displaying items by tag: INO XXX

British race favourite James Neville – the Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club – and skipper of INO XXX is out of the SSE Renewables Round Ireland Yacht Race this evening after suffering 'hull delamination' off the County Kerry coast. 

The yacht produced early gains on the east coast right off the Wicklow startline on Saturday and was in the leading pack as the 47-boat fleet made the Fastnet Rock off West Cork on Sunday morning. 

All Sunday, the she had been vying with the Swiss canting keel Cookson 50 Kuka 3 as the leaders headed north into strong headwinds.

INO XXX was victorious earlier this month in the RORC Myth of Malham Race but while Neville may have been unbeatable in the Cowes-Eddystone-Solent 230-miler, the tough pounding Atlantic conditions this afternoon appear to have been too much for the HH42.

The Hudson/Hakes built 42’, a Judel/Vrolijk design, took line honours and first place in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race IRC One Class so she is no stranger to Irish waters. 

Race organisers Wicklow Sailing Club have confirmed the retirement of the Grand Prix yacht. INOXX42 is currently heading back along its track. See tracker below.

Published in Round Ireland

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).