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Displaying items by tag: Sea Explorer

#CruiseLiners – Sea Explorer the small cruiseship which spent a brief 'lay-up' period in Dun Laoghaire Harbour during the Spring, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, returned to Dublin Bay today again 'without' passengers, with the ship docking instead in Dublin Port, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Since the departure of the 4,200 tonnes cruiseship from Dun Laoghaire Harbour, she has spent a further period of under lay-up in Barrow-in-Furness.

Sea Explorer berthed this morning at Ocean Pier, having sailed the Irish Sea from the Cumbrian port so to prepare the Italian built vessel for a new charter season for Copenhagen based Albratros Travel.  The cruises will operate in Northern Europe and to Greenland.

Also in Dublin Port today is Le Boreal which berthed at North Wall Quay (close to the East-Link bridge), from where the detained cargoship Clipper Faith had to shift berths from this location and moor elsewhere in the port.

It will be a busy day for the port as third cruise caller is due this evening with Island Sky making a teatime arrival. She is one of eight sisters including Sea Explorer that were originally built for Renaissance Cruises.

Published in Cruise Liners

#CruiseLiners – Sea Explorer, the small cruiseship which underwent a period of 'lay-up' in Dun Laoghaire Harbour as previously reported on Afloat.ie, is currently berthed in Barrow-in-Furness, having departed the Irish port last month, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Owned by Miami based International Shipping Partners (ISP), the 4,200 tonnes cruiseship with a 118 passenger capacity remained in Dun Laoghaire Harbour for just over a fortnight.

It was envisaged that the former Corinthian II which was renamed in Cadiz prior to her repositioning voyage to Dun Laoghaire Harbour, would at least remain in port until June before starting on a new cruise charter career.

Despite the relocation of Irish Sea port, Sea Explorer is currently in lay-up mode in the Cumbrian port, however she is due to start a new career during the summer on charter to Copenhagen based Albatross Travel. The Danish operator will be running cruises in Greenland. For several winter seasons, she will run for Polar Latitude on cruises in the Antarctic.

Also reported on Afloat.ie was the Waterford cruiseship season which started this month. Among the callers will be Sea Explorer which is due on 21 May and is to berth along the city-quays.

The call is to follow cruiseships that will have either taken anchorage or berthed at various locations throughout Waterford estuary.

 

Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.