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Displaying items by tag: Cruiseferry PontAven

#FerryNews – Brittany Ferries final Cork-Roscoff end of season sailing for 2013 took place on Saturday as the flagship cruiseferry Pont-Aven headed past Cork Harbour's Roches Point Lighthouse, writes Jehan Ashmore.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the Irish-French service began operations 35 years ago when Breton based operator Bretagne-Angleterre Irlande (B.A.I) otherwise known as Brittany Ferries introduced the small and sleek Armorique into service in 1978.

Over the decades the French ferry company has continued to grow the service with a range of stylish ferries.  The deck interiors exude a typical air of French flair and an extensive art collection of Breton scenes all adding to the holiday atmosphere.

Pont-Aven is a custom-built 41,748 tonnes cruiseferry that features luxury cabins with balconies and there's an indoor swimming pool, the only ferry to have this unique facility serving in Irish waters. The 2,400 passenger /650 cabin cruiseferry returns onto the Irish service in March 2014 on the shortest and fastest route linking the continent with a 14 hour sailing time.

Pont-Aven opens the season with a sailing from Roscoff on 14 March. The following morning she arrives in Cork (Ringaskiddy) ferryport to unload before resuming on her first round-trip leg to Roscoff with a sailing departing in the afternoon.

Published in Brittany Ferries

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.