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Displaying items by tag: Easons

#AmbitiousVoyage - Irish Ferries and the story of its involvement in the development of passenger and freight ferry services between Ireland, UK and Continental Europe is the subject of a new book entitled 'Irish Ferries – An Ambitious Voyage' .

The book distributed by Easons and on sale through bookshops around Ireland was written by noted marine historians Miles Cowsill and Justin Merrigan. The book is produced by Isle of Man based Ferry Publications.

The 150 page hard-back production traces the path that the Irish Ferries organisation has taken from its very earliest days operating services on the Irish Sea between Ireland and Britain under the B&I Line flag.

Detailed and comprehensive, the book goes on to chronicle the development of direct ferry services between Ireland and France and the role played by Irish Continental Line before that company and B&I line came together in the early-1990s to form the enlarged enterprise known today as Irish Ferries.

Covered in some detail is the ship building and modernisation programme carried out by the company which resulted in the commissioning of four new vessels for the company's Dublin-Holyhead and Rosslare-Pembroke Dock routes, including the cruise ferry 'Ulysses' which, at the time of its launch, was the world's largest car ferry.

Amply illustrated with pictures drawn from various private and company archives, the book is one that will appeal to all involved in shipping and maritime history.

 

Published in Book Review

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)