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Displaying items by tag: Nearing Completion

A massive development in the Port of Cork of a new container handling terminal at Ringaskiddy, is almost complete and, when operational, will future-proof the transit of imports and exports for Ireland.

Work on the €86m project - the biggest single investment ever made by the Port of Cork - started in 2018. It has been a huge undertaking, involving the dredging of 285,000 tonnes of silt and rock, the laying of 92,000 sq m of concrete and the development of 2kms of new roads at the 150-acre site.

A lot of the silt was buried at sea, close to Roche's Point, under an EPA licence, while most of the rock was ground up and used for infill at the site.

Jim Murphy, project and development engineer with the Port of Cork, explained that the new 360m-long quay (equipped with STS gantry cranes) had a 13m depth of water, meaning it is capable of handling the biggest container ships in the world.

“They are typically 300m long and 16 containers wide. The containers are 40ft long each and the Ringaskiddy terminal will be able to handle 280,000 of these containers every year,” Mr Murphy said.

Port of Cork's new gantry cranes Photo: Bob BatemanPort of Cork's new gantry cranes Photo: Bob Bateman

This is approximately 40,000 more containers than can be handled (upriver) at Tivoli, where operations will start to be phased out once Ringaskiddy is fully up and running.

Further Irish Examiner coverage of the port project here.

Published in Port of Cork

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.