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#Rowing: Ireland’s lightweight quadruple of Fintan McCarthy, Ryan Ballantine, Jake McCarthy and Andrew Goff secured an A Final place at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, this morning. They took the second and final qualification place in their repechage. Turkey and Ireland showed they meant business right through the race, with only Algeria and then Norway showing signs of being able to upset this leading order. Turkey were excellent in the second half of the race, moving over a length clear of Ireland, who were content to find their way to the final.

World Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Day Four (Irish interest)

Lightweight Quadruple Sculls – Repechage One (First Two to A Final): 1 Turkey 5:51.12, 2 Ireland (F McCarthy, R Ballantine, J McCarthy, A Goff) 5:54.09

Published in Rowing

Following the abandonment of the All Ireland Sailing Championships at Royal Cork last weekend due to lack of wind the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has yet to announce dates for the rescheduled event. An autumn date to accomodate all concerned is the objective, the association said yesterday. The eight finalists involved are; Anthony O'Leary, Neil Kenefick, Nicholas O'Leary, Garrett May, Niall Henry, James Espey, Nick Walsh and Ewen Barry.

Published in ISA

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).