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Displaying items by tag: Seatruck Ferries

Foot-passengers will soon no longer have the choice in taking the ferry over to Merseyside, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The Dublin-Liverpool (Birkenhead) route, operated by DFDS Seaways which is due to close on 31 January, is the only ferry operator that facilitates the inclusion of foot-passengers between the Liffey and the Mersey. P&O (Irish Sea) cater only for passengers accompanied with their vehicles and freight-trucks. As for Seatruck Ferries this is primarily a freight operation, though a very limited number of spaces are available for cars (up to two people).

Closure of the Birkenhead route will see the withdrawal of the 21,856 grt Italian built sister-ships Dublin Seaways and Liverpool Seaways. There are a number of options being investigated as to where the ro-pax pair will go, they may be deployed on other DFDS Seaways routes or placed on a sale charter arrangement.

In addition the Danish-owned shipping company is to close the freight-only Dublin-Heysham route this month. The route is served by the 13,074 grt Anglia Seaways which has a 114-trailer capacity. The vessel is due to be transferred to the Baltic Sea, according to DFDS Seaways which also operates an extensive route network in the North Sea.

Unlike DFDS Seaways use of the double river-berth terminal at Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, P&O and Seatruck vessels navigate through locks into the extensive Liverpool Docks system. Interestingly all three operators use sister-ships with P&O running the Dutch built ro-pax's Norbank and Norbay and Seatruck Ferries Spanish built Clipper Pace and Clipper Pennant.

Published in Ports & Shipping
6th January 2011

Vacancy at Seatruck Ferries

Seatruck Ferries, the only Irish Sea ferry company, dedicated solely to the carriage of freight, are looking to appoint a Group Operations Manager. The position is based in their Heysham office in Cumbria. In addition the appointment would require regular travel to Seatruck's other terminals on both sides of the north Irish Sea.

The company operates the Dublin-Liverpool, Warrenpoint-Heysham and Heysham-Larne routes which are served by an eight-strong fleet. In recent years four Spanish built newbuilds were commissioned into service on the Dublin-Liverpool and Warrenpoint-Heysham routes. Each newbuild has a 120 freight unit capacity.The remaining four vessels where built in 1998 and they can each handle 65 freight units.

Seatruck's Dublin Port operations is located at the Alexandra Basin terminal close to the East-Link Toll-Lift Bridge and the Point Village.

To find out more about the vacancy (including PDF) logon HERE and in general about the company click www.seatruckferries.com The closing date for applications is 31 January.

Published in Jobs
Page 5 of 5

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 class is targeted at youth sailors aiming at sailing the larger 49er which is an Olympic class.


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

29er skiff technical specs

  • Hull weight 74kg (163lb)
  • LOA 4.45m (14.4ft)
  • Beam 1.77m (5ft 7in)
  • Crew 2 (single trapeze) 
  • Spinnaker area 15.00 m2 (181.2sq.ft)
  • Upwind sail area 12.5 m2 (142.0 sq.ft)
  • Mast length 6.25m (20.5ft)

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