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Displaying items by tag: Irish Sea Ferry

An Irish Sea ferry crew member from Stena Line is self-isolating after testing positive for coronavirus.

Company bosses said the worker had no symptoms when they left the Stena Horizon on Wednesday, but later tested positive for Covid-19.

The ropax ferry's key Irish Sea route is between Holyhead and Dublin. (Afloat adds the ropax is providing cover having been replaced from the Rosslare-Charbourg route by relief ferry Stena Vinga). 

The Stena Horizon, which can carry up to 900 passengers and 200 cars, has recently been operating the route alongside the Stena Estrid, due to a continuing refit of the Stena Adventurer (at Harland & Wolff, Belfast). 

More on the story from NorthWalesLive here 

In addition for further impacts of Covid-19 on the Ferry sector can be read from a report released today by the IMDO, an Irish government agency that is responsible for supporting the shipping industry. 

 

Published in Ferry
The Naval Service, the Air Corps and Army Ranger Wing (ARW) an elite specialist force, completed a maritime counter terrorism exercise on board an Irish Sea ferry at the weekend, writes Jehan Ashmore.
For the purposes of the exercise Stena Line's Dublin-Holyhead ferry Stena Adventurer was used in a scenario involving terrorist activity of a large ship entering Dublin Port, culminating in an armed intervention.

The operation was spearheaded by the ARW with the support of a Naval Service coastal patrol vessel (CPV) and also Air Corps helicopters. High-speed tactical assault craft with ARW teams on board conducted manoeuvres while air-borne teams fast-roped from helicopters onto the deck of the Stena Adventurer. To see photos of the ARW team in action click HERE.

The exercise was designed to enhance the capacity of the Defence Forces to provide the State with a highly specialised maritime armed intervention capability.

Last month the Naval Service conducted close quarter manoeuvres in 'Operation Quixote' off the south-west coast. The exercise involved the entire naval fleet except for the flagship LE Eithne, which performed in gunnery practice, simulated air attacks from the Air Corps and armed naval boarding parties.

 

Published in Navy

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)