Displaying items by tag: MS Expedition

31st May 2012

Former 'Lipstick' Ferry Calls to Saltees Islands

#SALTEES CRUISE CALL – The Saltee Islands off Co. Wexford was where the small cruiseship Expedition (1972/ 6,334grt) made an anchorage call yesterday, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 140 passenger vessel which underwent a $13 million refit in 2009, specialises in cruising to some of the world's most remote regions. As usual for this type of cruiseship, a fleet of Zodiacs are provided for expedition excursions. Large common areas and observation decks provide panoramic views. As for all her cabins they too feature ocean-view windows or portholes and private en-suite facilities.

Expedition was a former Baltic Sea ferry which was sold in 2008 to G.A.P. Shipping Co. Ltd for their G-Adventures cruises having served as Ålandsfärjan for Viking Line's Mariehamn- Kapellskar on the Åland Islands route. The archipelago situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia form an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland.

Prior to her Baltic Sea career she served P&O's subsidiary Normandy Ferries on the Dover-Boulogne route as their N.F Tiger which followed her original back-round as the Kattegat built for a Danish operator four decades ago.

The cruiseship retains her distinctive bright red hull colour inherited from her Viking Line years. Intriguingly when the company had to choose what colour to use for their first ferry Apollo, the answer found was rather novel as one of the owner's relatives produced her lipstick!

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About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

About the ILCA/Laser Dinghy

The ILCA, formerly known as the Laser, is the most produced boat in the world, with 220,000 units built since 1971.

It's easy to see why the single-handed dinghy has won the title of the most widely distributed boat of all time.

The Laser is a one-design dinghy, the hulls being identical but three rigs that can be used according to the size and weight of the sailor.

The class is international, with sailors from 120 countries. The boat has also been an Olympic class since 1996, being both the men's and women's singlehanded dinghy.

Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Class Association (ILCA):

ILCA 4: sail of 4.70m2

ILCA 6: sail of 5.76 m2

ILCA 7: sail of 7.06 m2