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Displaying items by tag: Departs Shipyard

#FerryNews - While Irish Ferries flagship Ulysses is currently out of service, Afloat also reports on the much delayed €150m cruiseferry W.B. Yeats which is finally to begin sea-trials in the Baltic Sea, writes Jehan Ashmore.

W.B. Yeats last night departed the shipbuilder, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) in Flensburg. The shipyard located close the Danish border, experienced delays in the fitting out of interior components for public areas and on the electrical system installation in the hull and deckhouse.

According to FSG, back in June, the shipyard stated that entry into service is now planned for September. This final stage of construction work subcontracted by FSG, was further pushed back and so delayed again the debut of the 1,885 passenger/1,200 vehicles capacity cruiseferry which has accommodation in 435 cabins. 

The largest ferry that is to connect Ireland-France, W.B. Yeats at 54,985 gross tonnage, was originally to start service on 12 July, firstly on the Dublin-Cherbourg route followed in September by a transfer to the Holyhead route in the winter months. As during that timeframe, ropax ferry Epsilon maintains the year round operated link connecting the Irish capital and France.

The postponement of W.B. Yeats by FSG, left Irish Ferries in a difficult situation that led to major disruption as sailings were cancellations during the peak-season. This involved affecting to varying degress the travel plans of thousands of holidaymakers. 

Passengers were given the option of travelling on the company's more established continental routes through Rosslare served by cruiseferry Oscar Wilde which Afloat reported today has been operating this month both to Holyhead and Cherbourg on routes based out of Dublin.

Oscar Wilde since yesterday has begun covering the Rosslare -Pembroke route while routine cruiseferry Isle of Inishmore took over the sailing roster of Ulysses. The flagship as alluded in the introduction is off service from the Dublin-Holyhead route due to technical reasons. 

Published in Ferry

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.