Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: IrelandIberia

Freight-ferry operator, CLdN Ro Ro having announced additional sailings on UK and Irish routes out of Zeebrugge, Belgium, is in a next step to increase capacity and frequency on its Iberian service.

The RoRo operator announced the bi-weekly service calling both to Liverpool and Dublin Port out of Santander, Spain as from this week.

Currently CLdN is operating a weekly service out of Santander, calling Liverpool and Dublin separately. The company was forced to detach the respective services at the beginning of this year, as a direct result of Brexit.

Thanks to being an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), complying with most strict customs and safety and security regimes, the company is now in a position to combine intra EU and non-EU sailings and is to re-introduce the triangle trade: Santander-Liverpool-Dublin-Santander, twice a week.

Leaving Santander each Saturday and Wednesday, arriving in Liverpool on Monday and Friday and subsequently calling Dublin on Tuesday’s and Saturday’s.

A spokesman commented on the expansion of the services:” Driven by the success of our youngest unaccompanied routes from the Iberian Peninsula directly to the UK and Ireland, the market can benefit from increased capacity and frequency shortly. Allowing our customers to increase turnaround times of their equipment and rely on a robust service bypassing the Landbridge, with its administrative burdens".

"We are confident this will give a boost to our services and is the right answer to growing market demand, the modal shift from accompanied to unaccompanied transport and to designing sustainable supply chains with a low carbon footprint“

Published in Ferry

Tom Dolan, Solo Offshore Sailor

Even when County Meath solo sailor Tom Dolan had been down the numbers in the early stages of the four-stage 2,000 mile 2020 Figaro Race, Dolan and his boat were soon eating their way up through the fleet in any situation which demanded difficult tactical decisions.

His fifth overall at the finish – the highest-placed non-French sailor and winner of the Vivi Cup – had him right among the international elite in one of 2020's few major events.

The 33-year-old who has lived in Concarneau, Brittany since 2009 but grew up on a farm in rural County Meath came into the gruelling four-stage race aiming to get into the top half of the fleet and to underline his potential to Irish sailing administrators considering the selection process for the 2024 Olympic Mixed Double Offshore category which comes in for the Paris games.