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Displaying items by tag: 'Europe' in service

Passengers, particularly Welsh rugby fans travelling by ‘foot’ for this Saturday’s match with Ireland, in Dublin, have got good news as the Stena Line owned port of Fishguard is to see their ferry back on the run after a five-and-a-half-week disruption in service.

The south Wales-Ireland route, formerly served until last year by the popular Stena Europe as Afloat referred earlier today, (see related Stena CEO story), will reports the Western Telegraph, travel but from the Irish port of Rosslare to Fishguard at 7.30pm (19.30hrs) this evening on the first crossing in more than a month as the St. Georges Channel ferry service resumes. (At the time of writing, Afloat can confirm the Stena Europe has departed Rosslare). 

Stena Europe is being used as a temporary vessel while Fishguard Port undergoes maintenance work to a linkspan berth. The work means that the Stena Nordica, which was announced a year ago as the ‘permanent’ ferry since its introduction in July last year, was operating between Fishguard and Rosslare is unable to berth in Fishguard at the moment.

The ropax ferry since January has been been put on the Dublin to Holyhead route while the work takes place, allowing also for that route’s secondary ferry, Stena Estrid to provide relief cover for the Belfast-Birkenhead E-flexer twins to go for annual overhaul dry-dockings.

The only one ferry that is able to berth at Fishguard in its current configuration is the Stena Europe, however the veteran vessel dating to 1981 had to go for repairs at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, from where the ferry has been for the most part of these past weeks, then a stint afterwards at Liverpool Docks. Afloat had tracked the ferry relocate having crossed the Mersey with the assistance of a pair of tugs to enable berthing within the docks that would later include shifting to Canada Dock.

Now that the Stena Europe has returned to Fishguard after the long delay due to unforeseen mechanical issues, but Stena has confirmed that the ferry has taken over the route from today.

As previously reported, Stena Europe covered the Fishguard-Rosslare run for 21 years, until 13 July last year followed by a trip to A&P Falmouth that afterwards led to a short charter on the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.

“Stena Line can confirm that Stena Europe will enter service on the Rosslare-Fishguard route at 7.30pm on Tuesday, February 20,” said a company spokesperson. “We apologise for the delay to the resumption of this service, and we look forward to welcoming our customers onboard.”

More on the story here as the Stena Europe will also be a most welcome sight for ferry fans on both sides of the southern corridor route, though the ferry will be replaced again when Stena Nordica makes its presence with a night-sailing departing the Welsh port on St. David’s Day, 1st March.

Afloat however understands Stena Nordica is to be off-service again but on a temporary basis on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route joining the Stena Vision as the Ireland-France route's secondary ferry, ropax Stena Horizon is currently running Stena's new Dublin-Birkenhead 'freight' route but is scheduled to return to the continental service in April. 

Published in Stena Line

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)