Displaying items by tag: Physical Posts

14th May 2020

Ports in Northern Ireland Stormont Committee Hears Physical Posts Set for Funding

Funding for phycial posts in Northern Ports. AFLOAT adds updates on Belfast Harbour (as above) freight and passenger ferries of Stena Line berthed at the VT2 terminal and partially in the photo is ro-ro freight ferry Stena Forecaster (which Afloat reported in April) was temporarily withdrawn from Belfast-Birkenhead (Liverpool) route due to impact of Covid19. The freightship had since returned to service but as of this morning's Afloat tracked inbound sailing, noting subsequent services on the Irish Sea route have been cancelled by this ship until 1 June. Also in the foreground is a ship to shore (STS) container crane which was transported by sea from Cork Harbour (reported in March) which have since been erected. The STS crane was moved to VT3 to increase efficiency of handling essential goods for Northern Ireland.

Ports in Northern Ireland with physical posts are set for funding ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU, a Stormont committee has been told.

According to the Press Association, Junior Minister Declan Kearney told the committee that the Executive had been given a briefing by officials on Monday on the latest stage of Brexit negotiations between the UK government and the EU.

He went on to say that the London government has “confirmed that it will urgently put in place detailed plans with the Executive, which does include the physical posts at ports of entry”.

Northern Ireland is set to continue to follow EU single market rules on agricultural and manufactured goods after Brexit, while the rest of the UK will stop following these rules at the end of 2020.

“They have signalled that in order to implement the protocol for January 1 in a way that we all want which is of course is to avoid disruption to trade,” Mr Kearney told the committee.

“Delivery on that infrastructure needs to start as soon as possible, and the British government has indicated that it will provide advice on the requirements and the funding to put that in place.”

For further reading BreakingNews reports here.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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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.