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Displaying items by tag: Operators Impacted

The Irish Exporters Association chief executive has warned that a number of Irish companies are going to be impacted by the coronavirus.

Simon McKeever told RTÉ radio’s News at One that markets are being affected by the virus as it is difficult to get items into and out of China. He also said that members are also beginning to see a slow down in payments from China as businesses have closed because of the virus.

The lack of components from China will have an impact at micro level for a number of Irish companies, he said as the production of source items has come to a halt.

His members are saying that the difficulties caused by the virus will have “an acute impact” in four to six weeks and even if the peak of the virus has passed, there could still be a six to eight week tail back as logistical systems get back on line.

Freight companies are also having to ship into other countries as Chinese ports are full, he said.

The Irish Examiner has more here relating to Irish people on board two cruise ships where the virus has been detected. 

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)