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Displaying items by tag: Black Sea Sochi

#FerryBreakers – In 2011, Afloat.ie reported on a trio of Irish Sea Larne-Fleetwood (since closed) ro-ro freight vessels which Stena Line sold to Russian interests in the Black Sea and understood for use in the recently held Winter Olympics in Sochi, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The sisters Stena Seafarer, Stena Leader and Stena Pioneer, the latter which as Bison between 1989-1993 served B&I Line on joint service with P&O's freight division, Pandoro between Dublin-Liverpool.

At the time of the vessels sale, they departed Belfast Lough in mid-June. They were understood to be bound for to Sevastopol in the Ukraine and placed under the Moldovan flag and with a port of registry in Giurgiulesti.

For much more on this story, Ships Monthly reports of the German-built sisters which spent more than 30 years on Irish Sea freight services originally for P&O before their most recent spells with Russian operator Antship. They fittingly ended their days together after arriving at Aliaga, Turkey for scrapping during February.

 

Published in Ferry

Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.