#SailStavros – A French Navy fleet tanker replenishment vessel this morning departed Dublin Port and where a UK youth sail training ship arrived this afternoon, writes Jehan Ashmore.
BCR Somme (A631) is a Durance class command and replenishment ship which Afloat reported on during a another visit, click here. On this occasion,the 157m tanker had spent her Irish call having arrived on Friday to the port providing crew rest leave over the weekend.
As for the sail-trainee, Stavros S Niarchos of the Tall Ships Youth Trust, she is on a visit to the capital where some of the ferries that serve the Holyhead route share a connection with the brig, that been Stena Line. The 60m brig is managed by Northern Marine Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stena AB Gothenburg. The subsidiary formed in 1983 is headquartered in Clydebank, Scotland.
Trainees of the Portsmouth based brig are given duties which involves one of the three watches to operate the vessel. It's a 24 hour job and this is where they learn how to set sails of the two square-rigged masts, man the ropes, take the helm, keep a proper look-out. All these varied tasks that are involved to keep a Tall Ship sailing.
A typical cruising programme has voyages of between 2 and 12 days. This sees Stavros S Niarchos sail along the English south coast, to the Canary Islands, Azores and as far as the Caribbean.
On this Irish visit, Stavros S Niarchos headed upriver this afternoon and passed Alexandra Basin, where BCR Somme had been allocated a berth.
The final stretch of the voyage from Merseyside involved a transit of the Tom Clarke Bridge at Ringsend. The toll-lift bascule designed structure saw the lifting span (45m wide) rise, permitting the brig’s passage upriver on the Liffey.
