Displaying items by tag: UEFA EURO 2016

28th June 2016

Former Cork 'Peoples' Ferry to Make Mediterranean Debut From Nice

Former Cork-Swansea ferry Julia of the Fastnet Line since closed, is to enter a Nice-Bastia (Corsica) service next month for Moby Lines. She is seen in this initial montage of a new livery scheme which has since been revised following dry-docking in Livorno.

#FerrytoMed – Former Cork-Swansea ferry Julia of the Fastnet Line that closed in 2011, is to enter service in July on a Mediterranean service between France and Corsica, writes Jehan Ashmore.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the Julia (1982/22,161gt) which operated the Ireland-Wales link for only two seasons was re-sold to Italian operator Moby Lines, and is to enter a new Nice-Bastia (Corsica) service. This follows an interim career for Dutch owners as the Wind Perfection that provided floating accommodation in the Irish Sea for workers during construction of a wind-farm.

Under her new owners as Moby Zazà, the 1,850 passenger/325 car/30 truck ferry underwent a drydocking in Liverno to include the company’s customary ‘cartoon’ livery depicting Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters. She will enter the Nice-Bastia service next month, though the new route was only launched at the beginning of this month.

Commenting to Afloat, a spokesperson for Moby Lines said that in the meantime the route is currently served by Moby Corse (1978/14,399gt). In recent days due to the football matches of Euro 2016 held at the Allianz Arena Nice, Moby Lines have informed customers to expect increased traffic and congestion in the city.

The launch of the Nice-Bastia service which is to be operated year round is in direct competition with established operator, Corsica-Sardinia Ferries. Likewise of the new entrant they have a ferry network that includes routes to and from the France and also the Italian mainland.

Sailings times connecting the Cote D’Azur and the north-eastern Corsican port are scheduled for 7 hours 30 minutes during the day while overnight crossings will take 9 hours. Moby Zasa was launched as Olau Britannia to serve a first career sailing between Sheerness, UK and Vlissengen, Netherlands along with Olau Hollandia.

In regards to Moby Corse (as alluded above) this ferry also originally began a career sailing in the North Sea as the Dana Anglia. She served DFDS Seaways service linking England and Denmark and notably the ferry was used as the setting for a 1980’s soap opera TV series ‘Triangle’.

In much more recent times she sailed for Brittany Ferries as Pont-l'Abbé on the Plymouth-Roscoff run. Like numerous northern based European ferries, the final years of these veteran ships are mostly to be seen plying the Mediterranean.

Published in Ferry

Tagged under

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