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Displaying items by tag: Lady Gaga

#PORTS & SHIPPING REVIEW - Over the last fortnight Jehan Ashmore has reported from the Shipping scene where the Stena Line HSS seasonal-only operated Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead service completed its final sailing for the summer, though sailings are to resume over Christmas/New Year period.

Despite the HSS Stena Explorer's last high-season sailing on 11 September, the fast-ferry made a return call to Dun Laoghaire five days later, for a special freight-only charter, to load stage trucks following the Lady Gaga concert held in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

Incidentally the ferry terminal in Dun Laoghaire now features a new exhibition space, where the Tanaiste Eamonn Gilmore, T.D. officially launched the Shackleton Endurance Exhibition – 'Triumph Against All Odds'.

The Cork Harbour Open Weekend provided a great opportunity for locals and visitors alike to see what the world's second largest natural harbour has to offer, in terms of activities held on and off the water, including trips to Spike Island.

At Cobh a detained French registered fishing vessel was escorted to the town by the Naval Service OPV L.E. Roisin, following alleged breaches of technical fishing regulations.

A Dutch owned cargoship, the Julia, which docked in Drogheda Port faced arrest, following claims by its crew that they were owed in total $102,700 in unpaid wages to them.

The summer may be over, but that's not stopping Irish Ferries offering Autumn short shopping breaks and wine mini-cruises on the route to Cherbourg.

While rivals Celtic Link Ferries, found themselves taking additional business at short notice, as passengers were transferred from the cancelled Brittany Ferries Roscoff-Cork sailing, following strike-action by French staff over a dispute on new working conditions.

Celtic Link Ferries will however be expecting a response from customers as they take part in Gathering 2013, as the ferry operator are offering free car travel on 15th March next year in advance of St. Patricks Day celebrations.

Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, has appointed James Frater to the board of the Dublin Port Company. The Scot has held senior positions at ports in the UK, Egypt, Hong Kong and Oman.

Published in Ports & Shipping

#LADY GAGA– Stena Line's HSS Stena Explorer is set to return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour this Sunday, despite last Tuesday's end of season sailings to Holyhead, as previously reported on Afloat.ie. The HSS has been specially chartered in to transport stage trucks following the Lady Gaga concert to be held this weekend in Dublin, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The US pop-star is to play her only Irish tour date on Saturday night in the Aviva Stadium. Following the New York musician's 'The Born This Way Ball' performance, the stage equipment is to be transported from the Ballsbridge venue by a convoy of 25 freight trucks to the ferryport in Dun Laoghaire for the sailing to Holyhead.

On arrival of the HSS into Dun Laoghaire, the fast-ferry will be in a 'light' mode, i.e. no passengers or vehicles on board. However on the return leg to Anglesey, the craft will be loaded with the stage trucks on the vehicle decks that are capable of loading in total 50 lorries (each of 15m in length).

Upon arrival in Holyhead, the truck convoy will travel 'landbridge' across the UK as they proceed onward to The Netherlands, where the tour continues in Amsterdam, at the cities Ziggo Dome.

However normal HSS sailings are to resume for 12 days over the Christmas /New Year period, for further information visit: www.stenaline.ie/ferry/book-now/hss-christmas-sailings-2012/

Published in Ferry

New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs,  Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.