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Displaying items by tag: Norway, Arctic Circle

The newest Irish flagged merchant ship, Arklow Ranger has made its maiden voyage from The Netherlands to Norway as the newbuild dry-cargo ship arrived this afternoon into the Arctic Circle, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Arklow Ranger departed the Dutch north-east port of Eemshaven having departed last Thursday, 11 January, the day shipbuilder, Royal Bodewes officially delivered the newbuild to Arklow Shipping Ltd. Also that day the newbuild began the maiden voyage, firstly heading through the Wadden Sea and then into the North Sea.

On the Sunday, Afloat continued to track the newbuild when offshore of the Nordic nation’s coast. The inaugural passage was concluded after navigating the 11 nautical mile Glomfjorden to the fjord’s namesake port of Glomfjord with the 105m merchant ship berthing today at around 1500hrs.

Arklow Ranger, is the fourth Eco-Trader 6,800dwat / R class multipurpose newbuild of seven on order from ASL to the Dutch shipbuilders based in Hoogezand, near Groningen, which conducted sea trails in the North Sea based out of Eemshaven.

Currently berthed in the Norwegian port is ASL fleetmate, Arklow Field and their Dutch flagged Arklow Glen.

In addition is a Norwegian based rival, Wilson AS of Bergen, whose cargo ship Wilson Dieppe is berthed ahead of the Arklow trio at the fjord port located in Nordland, a county mid-way located along the country’s rugged and extensive coastline.

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Match Racing

A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head.

In yacht racing, it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams consisting of 2, 3 or 4 boats compete together in a team race, with their results being combined.

A match race consists of two identical boats racing against each other. With effective boat handling and clever use of wind and currents, a trailing boat can escape the grasp of the leader and pass. The leader uses blocking techniques to hold the other boat back. This one-on-one duel is a game of strategy and tactics.

About the World Match Racing Tour

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The WMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by the sport’s world governing body – World Sailing – and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL) and Ian Williams (GBR). Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors