Displaying items by tag: Moby Zasa in Med service

9th July 2016

Former Cork-Swansea Ferry Debuts On 'Nice' New Service

Former Cork-Swansea ferry Julia of the Fastnet Line since closed, has entered service in recent days on a new service for Moby Lines between Nice-Bastia in Corsica. She is seen in this initial montage of a new livery scheme which has since been revised following dry-docking in Livorno. Photo: Norsk skipsfarts forum

#NiceNewService - Former Fastnet Line’s Cork-Swansea ferry which was due to enter Mediterranean service later this month, has since our previous report begun sailings on a new France-Corsica service, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The 1,850 passenger/325 car/30 truck Julia which had served two seasons on the Ireland-Wales route closed following insufficient funds to resume sailings in 2012 and after a failed examinership. A previous operator on the Celtic Sea link was Swansea-Cork Ferries which closed after failing to find suitable replacement tonnage for Superferry that was required back by Greek charterers.

Moby Zazà, the renamed ferry for her new French role between Nice and Bastia, Corsica, had in recent years served as a Dutch owned floating accommodation vessel. As the Wind Perfection she was stationed at anchor during a wind-farm installation project in the Irish Sea.

She was then re-sold to Moby Lines the Italian operator that has deployed the 153m long ferry on the new service. Moby also operate an extensive network to and from the Italian mainland to Sardinia, Elba and Sicily. Consequently, the new service is the operators only service connecting just French ports.

The high-season debut of Moby Zazà (1982/22,161gt) sees her operate sailings in tandem with Moby Corse (1978/14,399gt). The former North Sea veteran last month launched the new service for Moby Lines.

Overnight sailings are 9.5 hours while daytime passages are 7.5 hours. The service links the resorts of the French Riviera on the Cote d’Azur with those located on one of the largest islands in the western Mediterranean.

Moby Lines entry on the Nice route marketplace following the collapse of French operator, SNCM which went bankrupt, however after rebranding exercise emerged Corsica Linea this year. SNCM used to serve out of Nice and the successor leaves only existing established operator, Corsica-Sardinia Ferries to compete with Moby Lines.

Among their Corsica-Italy-Elba routes are more veterans from the Irish Sea, Moby Vincent, the one-time St. Brendan which in 1987 operated in a joint operation between B+I Line and Sealink on the Rosslare-Fishguard route.The 1974 built Scandinavian ferry having made her Irish debut as the chartered Stena Normandica.

The Moby Love in its last career served the Isle of Man Steam Packet to the UK mainland as King Orry but not routes to Ireland. As the St. Eloi she served a stint while on relief duties for Sealink British Ferries on the Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route.

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National Yacht Club Facilities

Facilities include a slipway directly accessing Dun Laoghaire Harbour, over eighty club moorings, platform parking, pontoons, fuelling, watering and crane-lifting ensure that the NYC is excellently equipped to cater for all the needs of the contemporary sailor. Berths with diesel, water, power and overnight facilities are available to cruising yachtsmen with shopping facilities being a short walk away. The club is active throughout the year with full dining and bar facilities and winter activities include bridge, snooker, quiz nights, wine tasting and special events.

National Yacht Club History

Although there are references to an active “club” prior to 1870, history records that the present clubhouse was erected in 1870 at a cost of £4,000 to a design by William Sterling and the Kingstown Royal Harbour Boat Club was registered with Lloyds in the same year. By 1872 the name had been changed to the Kingston Harbour Boat Club and this change was registered at Lloyds.

In 1881. the premises were purchased by a Captain Peacocke and others who formed a proprietary club called the Kingstown Harbour Yacht Club again registered at Lloyds. Some six years later in 1877 the building again changed hands being bought by a Mr Charles Barrington. and between 1877 and 1901 the club was very active and operated for a while as the “Absolute Club” although this change of name was never registered.

In 1901, the lease was purchased by three trustees who registered it as the Edward Yacht Club. In 1930 at a time when the Edward Yacht Club was relatively inactive, a committee including The Earl of Granard approached the trustees with a proposition to form the National Yacht Club. The Earl of Granard had been Commodore of the North Shannon Y.C. and was a senator in the W.T.Cosgrave government. An agreement was reached, the National Yacht Club was registered at Lloyds. The club burgee was created, red cross of Saint George with blue and white quarters being sky cloud, sea and surf. The Earl of Granard became the first Commodore.

In July of 1950, a warrant was issued to the National Yacht Club by the Government under the Merchant Shipping Act authorising members to hoist a club ensign in lieu of the National Flag. The new ensign to include a representation of the harp. This privilege is unique and specific to members of the National Yacht Club. Sterling’s design for the exterior of the club was a hybrid French Chateau and eighteenth century Garden Pavilion and today as a Class A restricted building it continues to provide elegant dining and bar facilities.

An early drawing of the building shows viewing balconies on the roof and the waterfront façade. Subsequent additions of platforms and a new slip to the seaward side and most recently the construction of new changing rooms, offices and boathouse provide state of the art facilities, capable of coping with major international and world championship events. The club provides a wide range of sailing facilities, from Junior training to family cruising, dinghy sailing to offshore racing and caters for most major classes of dinghies, one design keelboats, sports boats and cruiser racers. It provides training facilities within the ISA Youth Sailing Scheme and National Power Boat Schemes.

Past Commodores

1931 – 42 Earl of Granard 1942 – 45 T.J. Hamilton 1945 – 47 P.M. Purcell 1947 – 50 J.J. O’Leary 1950 – 55 A.A. Murphy 1955 – 60 J.J. O’Leary 1960 – 64 F. Lemass 1964 – 69 J.C. McConnell 1969 – 72 P.J. Johnston 1972 – 74 L. Boyd 1974 – 76 F.C. Winkelmann 1976 – 79 P.A. Browne 1979 – 83 W.A. Maguire 1983 – 87 F.J. Cooney 1987 – 88 J.J. Byrne 1988 – 91 M.F. Muldoon 1991 – 94 B.D. Barry 1994 – 97 M.P.B. Horgan 1997 – 00 B. MacNeaney 2000 – 02 I.E. Kiernan 2002 – 05 C.N.I. Moore 2005 – 08 C.J. Murphy 2008 – 11 P.D. Ryan 2011 – P. Barrington 2011-2014 Larry Power 2014-2017 Ronan Beirne 2017 – 2019