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Displaying items by tag: Newbuild Pioneer

A multimillion-pound hybrid newbuild ferry for P&O Ferries Dover-Calais service has arrived in the Kent port for the first time yesterday.

P&O Pioneer, the first of twin newbuilds that is joining P&O Ferris fleet, arrived in the Port of Dover in the morning at 8am.

Combined the newbuilds costing £230 million, will replace P&O’s older fleet and significantly the ferries will be the first double-headed vessels on the UK-France.

By having this design, the ferries will reduce time in port when loading and unloading by virtue of not having to turn around in port. In addition to saving o fuel and reduced emissions.

P&O Pioneer is scheduled to make its first journey on the Strait of Dover route on 19 June.

After the ferry operator announced the order in 2020, P&O said the new ferries would cut fuel use by 40% "through a combination of fuel and battery propulsion".

The twins built by the Guangzhou Shipyard in China for P&O who claim their ships are designed with the capacity to be carbon neutral in the future based on the twin assumptions that there are more electric shore charging stations in ports and batteries.

More from KentOnline on the entry of the first of the newbuilds.

Published in Ferry

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.