Displaying items by tag: Third C class cargoship

13th January 2017

Launch of Third ‘C’ Class Cargoship Arklow Castle Revives Old Name

After the launch of newbuild Arklow Castle yesterday in the Netherlands. The third 'C' class cargoship revives a name of a predecessor which notably operated a rare 'container' only service for ASL

#CastleLaunch- Arklow Castle was launched in the Netherlands yesterday to form the third ‘C’ class newbuild of a 10-ship order from the Co. Wicklow based operator, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 5,054dwt cargoship Arklow Castle (yard No. 426) slid into the canal at the Ferus Smit shipyard in Westerbroek.

Arklow Castle has a maximized single-hold volume of 220.000cft and a carrying capacity over 5000 deadweight tons and still falls under the 3,000 gross tons limit. The newbuild's hull has an 1A iceclass notation. Propullsion is from a 1740 kW MaK engine with a single ducted propeller.

ASL transport cargoes among them: bulk grain and dangerous bulk cargoes, steel rails, minerals, generals, offshore and landline pipes and provision to carry containers.

Arklow Castle follows sisters ‘Cape’ launched last October and leadship ‘Cadet’. Both these 2,999grt newbuilds have been given new names whereas Arklow Castle revives a predecessor that operated a rare ‘container' only liner-service for ASL until around 2006.

This former Arklow Castle ran a liner-service between Avonmouth (Bristol) to Bilbao link with calls to Greenock and Dublin on the outward voyage.

According to the ASL fleet list, a ‘W’ class bulker, Arklow Wave is no longer included. This leaves only Arklow Wind as the final of a trio of South Korean built ships dating from the early 2000’s left in service.

As reported on Afloat the 14,000dwt Arklow Willow was sold last year to Canadian interests, McKeil Marine, Hamilton which saw the ship make a delivery voyage to Lake Ontario.

Published in Arklow Shipping

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The Kingstown to Queenstown Yacht Race or 'K2Q', previously the Fastnet 450

The Organising Authority ("OA") are ISORA & SCORA in association with The National Yacht Club & The Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Kingstown to Queenstown Race (K2Q Race) is a 260-mile offshore race that will start in Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown), around the famous Fastnet Rock and finish in Cork Harbour at Cobh (formerly Queenstown).

The K2Q race follows from the successful inaugural 'Fastnet 450 Race' that ran in 2020 when Ireland was in the middle of the COVID Pandemic. It was run by the National Yacht Club, and the Royal cork Yacht Club were both celebrating significant anniversaries. The clubs combined forces to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Yacht Club and the 300th (Tricentenary) of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Of course, this race has some deeper roots. In 1860 the first-ever ocean yacht race on Irish Waters was held from Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) to Queenstown (now Cobh).

It is reported that the winner of the race was paid a prize of £15 at the time, and all competing boats got a bursary of 10/6 each. The first race winner was a Schooner Kingfisher owned by Cooper Penrose Esq. The race was held on July 14th 1860, and had sixteen boats racing.

In 2022, the winning boat will be awarded the first prize of a cheque for €15 mounted and framed and a Trophy provided by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world.

The 2022 race will differ from the original course because it will be via the Fastnet Rock, so it is a c. 260m race, a race distance approved by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club as an AZAB qualifier.

A link to an Afloat article written by WM Nixon for some history on this original race is here.

The aim is to develop the race similarly to the Dun Laoghaire–Dingle Race that runs in alternate years.

Fastnet 450 in 2020

The South Coast of Ireland Racing Association, in association with the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay and the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Cork, staged the first edition of this race from Dun Laoghaire to Cork Harbour via the Fastnet Rock on August 22nd 2020.

The IRC race started in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday, August 22nd 2020. It passed the Muglin, Tuscar, Conningbeg and Fastnet Lighthouses to Starboard before returning to Cork Harbour and passing the Cork Buoy to Port, finishing when Roches's Point bears due East. The course was specifically designed to be of sufficient length to qualify skippers and crew for the RORC Fastnet Race 2021.