Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: CldN RoRo Order More

#MoreOrders - CLdN Ro-Ro SA which operates between Dublin and northern European ports has now confirmed two more vessels have been ordered, with options for a further four, through the Croatian shipbuilder Uljanik.

The orders according to Multimodal, follow an ambitious fleet expansion programme announced last September by the Luxembourg based short-sea operator.

Currently CLdN RoRo SA operate 24 modern RoRo vessels, offering in excess of 100 sailings per week between the ports of Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, London, Killingholme, Dublin, Gothenburg, Esbjerg and Porto had previously announced its intention to add 12 new vessels to its fleet over the coming years.

CLdN, whose core services have traditionally been the Continent /UK, which commenced in December 1974, have steadily expanded their geographical presence into new markets, including Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Portugal in recent years

The initial orders, being built at the Korean yard of Hyundai were described as ‘Game changers’ at the time of order, offering 8,000 lane meters of Ro-Ro capacity. The additional orders are of the same flexible and radical design and offer 5400 lane meters, to accommodate high utilisation of trailers, containers and automotive products in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner, being ‘’LNG ready’’ for straightforward conversion to LNG propulsion.

A company spokesperson described the additional orders as the ‘workhorses’ of the expanding fleet, as they have the durability and flexibility to operate on any of the network and offer complete interchangeability to cater for the demands of the differing trades.

The company sees this as giving a key advantage in this segment and allows it to adapt to customer demands or changing market conditions very rapidly.

These orders fit with CLdN's ambition to develop an additional 70% capacity over the next four years and the Ports Division, C.Ro Ports has now embarked on preparing Terminal infrastructure to be ready for the arrival of the new ships, which will commence delivery Quarter 3 2017.

Published in Ports & Shipping

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)