#Ports&Shipping - Arklow Dale is the first cargoship to bear the name for the Co. Wicklow based shipowner which acquired the secondhand tonnage that forms as the third D class sister, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Afloat had been trawling through the mixed Irish-Dutch flagged fleet list of Arklow Shipping yesterday. Coincidently, on the same day is when that the newly acquired cargoship was included in the fleet list of more than 50 ships.   

The 11,048dwt cargoship is the former Flinter Arctic that served a career with the Dutch operator, Flinter Group B.V. which became bankrupt in 2016. Trading now as Arklow Dale, the double-hold cargoship is equipped with a deck-mounted gantry crane fitted with two derricks. The 132m cargoship has an Ice Class Finnish 1A notation and is currently underway in the Baltic Sea from Gdynia, Poland and bound for Lulea in Sweden.

Arklow Dale joins the other D class pair of former Flinter sisters that were previously disposed through auction to ASL and sail as Arklow Dawn and Arklow Day.  The sisters were all built by German shipbuilder, Ferus Smit whose Dutch yard in Westerbroek launched Flinter Arctic in 2010. As for the remaining sisters they were completed in the following year. The yard in recent years has seen the construction of C class cargoships for ASL. 

The newly acquired fleetmember's main engine is a 3 MAK 8M32 4000kW with gearbox. A controllable pitch propeller delivers about 14 knots. All of the D class are Irish flagged and registered in the owners homeport whereas Dutch based divison Arklow Shipping Nederland B.V. have a smaller fleet registered in Rotterdam.