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Displaying items by tag: Boudicca's Balconies

#BoudiccaBalconies - Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ 880-guest Boudicca is currently undergoing refurbishment in a drydock at Lloyd Werft's shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany, in preparation for the forthcoming 2016/17 cruise season.

The 28,55I tonnes Boudicca docked in Bremerhaven last week from the Port of Tyne, Newcastle, following a 16-night ‘Mysterious Morocco & Seductive Spain’ cruise. The same North Sea port is where Boudicca had completed a round trip cruise themed ‘Myths & Legends of Ireland & UK’ as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

During the dry dock, Boudicca will also see 28 cabins on Lido Deck 7 fitted with terrace balconies. These new terrace balcony cabins will extend out 1.2 metres from the ship’s bulkhead, and will provide guests with an increased choice of cost-effective balcony cabins, with access to the outside.

In addition, Boudicca will undergo various engineering work, general refurbishment and interior and exterior painting. 

Mike Rodwell, Managing Director of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, said: “We experience extremely high demand for balcony cabins across our fleet, in particular on a smaller-sized ship such as Boudicca, and our new terrace balcony cabins are an innovative response to this.

“We installed the new terrace balcony cabins on sister ship Black Watch during her dry dock last Autumn, and these have proved very popular with our guests.”

Following her dry dock, Boudicca will commence her cruise season from the South Essex port of Tilbury, with a 14-night ‘Landscapes of Morocco, Madeira & the Canaries’ voyage, departing at the end of this month on 30th November.

During the 2016/17 cruise season, Fred. Olsen’s fleet of four ships – Balmoral, Braemar, Boudicca and Black Watch  will be visiting a record 253 destinations in 84 countries around the globe.

Published in Cruise Liners

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.