The 447 tonnes OPV provides communication liaison and assistance should the forty six sailors require during the arduous race including SAR. As such the vessel can deploy a rapid response high speed RIB-craft from an internal dock-well located at the stern.

Otherwise the RIB is used to board fishing vessels as part of fishery monitoring duties and patrolling France's Exclusive Economic Zone out to 200 nautical miles (370 km). She is a Flamant class OPV and was built in 1997 by the Cherbourg based shipyard Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie. The 54m/177-ft craft is equipped with two 12.7mm machine guns.

As Dun Laoghaire is the only international port of call during the four-leg stages of the 1,695 nautical miles (3,390kms) the hosting of the Irish harbour is a welcomed boost to the sailing community and the local economy. Leading off the Carlisle Pier are pontoons where the one-design boats are moored and opposite is the East Pier jetty berth where the PSP Cormoran is docked.

Also at the East Pier is a festival market which is part of the Festival des Bateaux. The three-day festival ends tomorrow and was organised by the race-hosts the National Yacht Club, the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. For further festival details click HERE.

The presence of a foreign naval visitor to the harbour was more commonplace particularly during festivals held in the 1980's. In addition to the French, navies from Belgium, The Netherlands were regular festival participants.

Built by Schichau Seebeck Werft, Bremerhaven, the 68m vessel has a limited armament capability and a crew of 45. Her main role is as a safety ship for use in submarine training and is equipped for fire-fighting, icebreaking and wreck location duties.

The veteran vessel had called to Dublin Port last weekend while her stay in the southern city will end with a departure scheduled for Monday morning.

She was built in 1967 by Schichau Seebeck Werft, Bremerhaven and the 68m / 23-ft long auxiliary has a limited armament capability and a crew of 45. Employed as safety ship for the submarine training group, she is also equipped for fire-fighting, icebreaking and wreck location duties. The Kiel registered veteran vessel is named after a German island.

Admiral Chabaneko was built by Yantar Zavod in Kaliningrad, and her sister Admiral Basisty though she was cancelled and scrapped in 1994. In 1996 Admiral Chabaneko was transferred to the Russian Navy but was not commissioned until two years later. In 1999 she changed naval base from Baltysk to Severomorsk to take up service in the Northern Fleet.

The last such call by the Russian Navy to Dublin was by her half-sister, Severomorsk, one of over a dozen of the original Udaloy-I class destroyers built, which made a three-day visit to the capital in 2009.

Severomorsk had arrived from Cherbourg after completing in FRUKUS 2009, an international naval anti-piracy exercise in the North Atlantic. The five-day exercise was held off the Brest and included a Tourville class frigate from the French navy, the UK's HMS York and USS Klaking.