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Displaying items by tag: ICG trading results

#IrishFerries - Irish Ferries a division of owners Irish Continental Group (ICG) reported a 1.6pc rise in revenues in the year so far, and said it has a low level of exposure to sterling.

As the Independent.ie writes the company behind Irish Ferries, which operates between Ireland and Britain, said in a trading update that the impact of the plunge in sterling since the Brexit vote in June had so far been offset by lower costs.

The company said it had a low level of net sterling exposure. In the 10 months to the end of October, (ICG) consolidated revenue was €280.2m, up 1.6pc from a year ago, it said.

Net debt stood at €25.6m at the end of the period, compared to €44.3m at the end of 2015. Construction of a new cruise ferry announced on May 31 remains on schedule for delivery in May 2018, the company said.

For more detailed financial trading figures released by ICG click here 

Afloat adds that their ropax ferry MV Kaitaki (formerly Isle of Inishfree) remained on charter, operating in New Zealand, while four container ships (see EUCON trading results report) acquired in late 2015 were fully deployed in the period.

Also previously covered on Afloat, the charterer of the HSC Westpac Express exercised their option to extend the charter for a further period of up to 12 months to October 2017. The charter is subject to usual US government procurement regulations and the charterer has further options to extend the charter up to mid 2021.

The construction of a new 50,000 gross tonnage cruise ferry costing €144m announced in May this year remains on schedule for delivery in May 2018.

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.