Displaying items by tag: Tidal Turbine

4th August 2021

Strangford Narrows Tidal Turbine Mooring System Undergoes Decommission

Glasgow based Flex Marine Power has issued a Notice to Mariners regarding its activity within the Strangford Narrows in County Down in Northern Ireland.

The turbine mooring system is being decommissioned and there is a workboat, and buoys marking the location.

Strangford Narrows is a narrow six-mile stretch of water with strong tides in the southeast of County Down leading from the Irish Sea into Strangford Lough.

The operations, which will take place between 2nd and 15th August, are part of continued research by Flex Marine Power Ltd in conjunction with Queen's University, Belfast into the performance of tidal turbine moorings in the Narrows.

The work may impede navigation as the workboat will periodically be loading and unloading at Portaferry Quay and transiting between the Quay and the location of the works.

The Notice to Mariners dated 1st August is accessible on the Bangor Marina Facebook page here

Published in Power From the Sea

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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.