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Displaying items by tag: Russian Research Vessel

#ResearchNavy - A Russian research vessel built during the Soviet era along with the Naval Service's newest patrol vessel LÉ Samuel Beckett (P61) are at Cork Dockyard, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Geolog Dmitriy Nalivkin of 1,935 tonnes was built in Turku, Finland during 1985. She originally had the Soviet symbolism of the 'hammer & sickle' and star on the funnel.

Three decades later and her current owners are understood to be the Marine Arctic Geological Expedition Murmansk (MAGE).

The 71m vessel is berthed alongside the quay at the facility in Rushbrooke so to have an exchange of crew personnel.

Among the other vessels at the shiprepair facility is the general cargoship Arklow Rambler also taking a riverside berth.

As previously alluded the LÉ Samuel Beckett, the 2,256 tonnes OPV is undergoing her first scheduled annual maintenance with work carried out in the dry-dock.

The OPV90 or 'Beckett' class vessel was built last year from the UK yard of Babcock Marine & Technology in Appledore north Devon.  

She was commissioned in May and entered service also that month.

Published in Cork Harbour

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.