Displaying items by tag: Ramsgate

7th January 2019

UK's Port of Ramsgate 'Can Not Be Ready' for Brexit Ferries

Sally Line's Ramsgate to Dunkerque ferry. AFLOAT adds this former operator at the Kent port (near to the UK's largest and busiest ferryport at Dover) was served by ferries among them The Viking (above) which during 1989, Sally chartered to B&I Line and deployed on the Dublin-Holyhead route. The state operated line was in 1992 acquired by ICG, parent company of Irish Ferries which is to introduce newbuild W.B. Yeats on the core Irish Sea route this month.

#ferries - On the UK south-east coast, the Port of Ramsgate "can not be ready" for extra ferry services in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to the councillor for the harbour area.

Seaborne Freight according to BBC News, has been given a £13.8m contract to run a freight service between Ramsgate and Ostend in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

However, Conservative councillor Beverly Martin says the harbour can not be ready by Brexit on 29 March.

The government said facilities will be open "as soon as practicable".

In a statement the Department for Transport said that "works are underway".

Ramsgate has not had a regular ferry service since 2013.

Seaborne's contract as Afloat previously covered, was one of three awarded to ease "severe congestion" at Dover, in the case of a no-deal Brexit.

The contingency plans allow for almost 4,000 more lorries a week to come and go from other ports, including Plymouth, Poole, and Portsmouth.

In total the contracts are worth £103m.

"From local knowledge, there is terrific concern that we [Ramsgate Port] can not possibly by ready. There isn't the width or the breadth of the berths that is needed to carry large ships," the councillor said.

"I don't see how, with the state of the harbour and the port and the number of repairs that are needed that it could be ready."

For more including the contract to Seaborne, click here.

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Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.