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Displaying items by tag: Warrentpoint

So far in this late season, Carlingford has enjoyed mostly kind sunny weather for its open meetings on the Lough and Warrenpoint Regatta was no exception.

Warrenpoint is a small County Down port town at the head of Carlingford Lough south of Newry and is separated from County Louth by a narrow strait. It is overlooked by the Mournes to the north and the Cooley Mountains opposite. A passenger service connects it with Omeath on the southern shore.

Warrenpoint Regatta struck lucky for its regatta with glorious sunshine and a steady sea breeze. Seven cruisers competed in three races over a triangular course set by Race Officer Tim Gibbons. With wins in races 1 and 2, it was the Beneteau 25 Platu Supersonic, skippered by Thomas Kearney from Carlingford Lough YC at Killowen on the northern shore, which pipped the J80 Warrior (owner Tim Gibbons) to win the coveted Whistledown Trophy. Tom Teggart’s Perseverance from Carlingford SC in Co Louth won the Echo 908 Class.

Warrenpoint Regatta struck lucky for its regatta with glorious sunshine and a steady sea breezeWarrenpoint Regatta struck lucky for its regatta with glorious sunshine and a steady sea breeze

Long-term sponsor Colum McAvoy from the Whistledown Hotel presented trophies to the winners at the hotel.

The final open event of the cruiser programme is the two-day CLYC Cruiser Regatta on Sept 24th & 25th

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).