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Displaying items by tag: Sell ferry

#FerrySell - Irish Continental Group (ICG) parent company of Irish Ferries, revealed today it has agreed to sell the €45 million sale of a passenger ferry to a New Zealand company, KiwiRail, as the Irish group reported that its revenues for the first four months for the year grew 4 per cent.

As the Irish Times reports the ferry, Kaitaki built in 1995 and previously operated under names including the Isle of Innisfree and Pride of Cherbourg, has been on charter outside ICG since 2002, most recently to KiwiRail.

The disclosure came in a trading update issued by ICG ahead of its annual general meeting in Dublin. “We consider €45 million for this 21-year-old vessel to be an attractive price,” said analysts at Investec in Dublin in a note to clients, adding that it will leave the group with net cash on the balance sheet.

ICG’s latest trading statement said that consolidated group revenue for the first four months of the year came to €95.1 million, up 4 per cent on the year, while net debt fell to €24.5 million from €37.9 million at the end of 2016.

For the year to May 13th, ICG’s Irish Ferries carried 103,200 cars, a decrease of 0.7 per cent on the same period last year, while roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) freight volumes fell by 1.7 per cent.

For more on the story, click here.

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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.