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Darren Byers has been appointed Port Manager at Stena Line based in Belfast Harbour.

With over 20 years’ experience within Maritime operations, Darren joins the ferry and port operator from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) where he was Area Life Saving Manager covering Ireland and the Isle of Man. This year is notably significant, as the RNLI is to celebrate its 200th birthday on 4th March.

An experienced operations manager, Darren, from Bangor Co. Down, will manage the safe, efficient and effective operations in the Belfast terminals and support the success of Stena Line in Belfast Harbour.

He will support Duty Managers and lead the teams in the day-to-day functions at the Port.

The ferry operator has three routes serving Belfast Harbour, connecting Cairnryan, Scotland and Birkenhead (Liverpool) in addition the freight-only service to Heysham also in England. 

Published in Stena Line

The Commissioners of Irish Lights continues to provide essential services to maritime trade for Ireland, north and south during the Covid-19 crisis. 

In an update yesterday on operational activity, Irish Lights announced that their ILV Granuaile and coastal teams provide important maintenance for marine aids to navigation, vital for the safe movement of food, fuel, medical, hygiene and other supplies.

Our 24-hour emergency number remains open as always in the event of a need to report an aid to navigation that is not functioning correctly – +353 (1) 2801996.

In line with government advice in relation to a range of public health and safety measures to delay the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Irish Lights has put in place working arrangements to protect our employees and to keep them safe, while at the same time continuing to allow us to deliver our essential safety at sea services.

The Irish Lights facility in Dun Laoghaire Harbour is open on a restricted-access basis. The office and buoy yard remains accessible for essential operational requirements, and will continue to support the work of Irish Lights around the coast and at sea. Deliveries will be accepted, please phone ahead to reception at 01 271 5400 in advance.

Business operations continue with the majority of our employees working from home. They can be contacted as normal by email or phone.

Essential maintenance and outage response work continues around the coast, and revised health and safety measures have been put in place for the protection of employees working in coastal locations. ILV Granuaile operations and essential buoy maintenance work, outage response, and wreck response continue. Extra precautions are being undertaken to ensure optimal health and safety standards on the vessel.

Requirements are being reviewed on an ongoing basis, please see CIL's website or Twitter for further updates.

The 2024 Vendée Globe Race

A record-sized fleet of 44 skippers are aiming for the tenth edition of the Vendée Globe: the 24,296 nautical miles solo non-stop round-the-world race from Les Sables d’Olonne in France, on Sunday, November 10 2024 and will be expected back in mid-January 2025.

Vendée Globe Race FAQs

Six women (Alexia Barrier, Clarisse Cremer, Isabelle Joschke, Sam Davies, Miranda Merron, Pip Hare).

Nine nations (France, Germany, Japan, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, and Great Britain)

After much speculation following Galway man Enda O’Coineen’s 2016 race debut for Ireland, there were as many as four campaigns proposed at one point, but unfortunately, none have reached the start line.

The Vendée Globe is a sailing race round the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance. It takes place every four years and it is regarded as the Everest of sailing. The event followed in the wake of the Golden Globe which had initiated the first circumnavigation of this type via the three capes (Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn) in 1968.

The record to beat is Armel Le Cléac’h 74 days 3h 35 minutes 46s set in 2017. Some pundits are saying the boats could beat a sub-60 day time.

The number of theoretical miles to cover is 24,296 miles (45,000 km).

The IMOCA 60 ("Open 60"), is a development class monohull sailing yacht run by the International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA). The class pinnacle events are single or two-person ocean races, such as the Route du Rhum and the Vendée Globe.

Zero past winners are competing but two podiums 2017: Alex Thomson second, Jérémie Beyou third. It is also the fifth participation for Jean Le Cam and Alex Thomson, fourth for Arnaud Boissières and Jérémie Beyou.

The youngest on this ninth edition of the race is Alan Roura, 27 years old.

The oldest on this ninth edition is Jean Le Cam, 61 years old.

Over half the fleet are debutantes, totalling 18 first-timers.

The start procedure begins 8 minutes before the gun fires with the warning signal. At 4 minutes before, for the preparatory signal, the skipper must be alone on board, follow the countdown and take the line at the start signal at 13:02hrs local time. If an IMOCA crosses the line too early, it incurs a penalty of 5 hours which they will have to complete on the course before the latitude 38 ° 40 N (just north of Lisbon latitude). For safety reasons, there is no opportunity to turn back and recross the line. A competitor who has not crossed the starting line 60 minutes after the signal will be considered as not starting. They will have to wait until a time indicated by the race committee to start again. No departure will be given after November 18, 2020, at 1:02 p.m when the line closes.

The first boat could be home in sixty days. Expect the leaders from January 7th 2021 but to beat the 2017 race record they need to finish by January 19 2021.

Today, building a brand new IMOCA generally costs between 4.2 and €4.7million, without the sails but second-hand boats that are in short supply can be got for around €1m.

©Afloat 2020

Vendee Globe 2024 Key Figures

  • 10th edition
  • Six women (vs six in 2020)
  • 16 international skippers (vs 12 in 2020)
  • 11 nationalities represented: France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, China, USA, New Zealand (vs 9 in 2020)
  • 18 rookies (vs 20 in 2020)
  • 30 causes supported
  • 14 new IMOCAs (vs 9 in 2020)
  • Two 'handisport' skippers

At A Glance - Vendee Globe 2024

The 10th edition will leave from Les Sables d’Olonne on November 10, 2024

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