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Displaying items by tag: ICG H1 results

Dublin based Irish Ferries, owned by Irish Continental Group (ICG) has reported lower pre-tax profits and flat revenues for the six months of this year reports RTE News.

The results from the half-year report to the end of June, is amid the continued return towards pre-pandemic travel patterns after the disruption caused by Covid-19.

The Irish-based maritime transport group said its half year revenues increased by 0.3% to €264m while its pre-tax profits fell by 9.1% to €16.2m from €17.4m the same time last year.

ICG declared an interim dividend of 4.87 cent per share, this is up from the dividend of last year’s 4.64 cent.

In May, ICG chartered the former Baltic Sea cruise ferry Oscar Wilde for an initial 20 month period and Afloat adds with the option to extend by two, plus two years and purchase. The 2,080 passenger ferry entered service on the Rosslare-Pembroke route having replaced another chartered ferry the Blue Star 1.

The continued normalisation in passenger travel levels after Covid had benefitted the Group in all its markets. This was reflected with growth in its Roll on Roll off (RoRo) freight carryings and the strengthening of its position on the short-sea Dover-Calais route competing with P&O Ferries and DFDS.

ICG said the continued return of ferry passenger travel alongside continued support of its freight customers on both its old and new routes (the UK-France route launched in 2021) resulted in the highest ever revenue levels in the ferries division.

More here on the H1 results for 2023.

Published in Irish Ferries

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.