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A Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: AfloatA Sigma 33 One Design keelboat racing on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

Displaying items by tag: Celtic Tugs

Cork shipping company Celtic Tugs, a subsidiary of Irish Mainport Holdings, have purchased a new Tug which arrived into Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth in the Port of Cork on 31st March. The new tug is expected to rejuvenate the company’s existing fleet of three tugs already owned and in operation by Celtic Tugs.

Currently named ‘Efesan Port’, initially registered in August 2015 under the Turkish flag, the new tug will be renamed in the coming days to ‘Celtic Fergus’ and will operate under an Irish flag.

The 24/45tbp tug was designed & modified by well-known Canadian designer Robert Allan Ltd and have a pair of CAT 3512 high speed diesel engines driving Schottel SRP 1012 FP propellers. The tug is able to serve as a fire fighting vessel with the help of an engine driven firefighting pump. In addition to frequency controlled electrical driven fore towing anchor winch, the vessels are fitted with aft towing winches and rescue boat crane for long distance towage. The vessel is able to accommodate 6 crew on board if necessary.

Speaking about the new purchase, Dermot Curtin Fleet Director Irish Mainport Holdings said: “The Tug has been purchased as part of Celtic Tugs long term plans to rejuvenate the present fleet of 3 tugs and shows our commitment and dedication to our current clients and contracts. The ‘Celtic Fergus’ will replace the ‘Celtic Banner’ which has served flawlessly in the Shannon Foynes Port area for the last 16 years.”

He continued: “Celtic Tugs is the largest privately owned port towage and salvage fleet operator in Ireland and since the company’s inception it has provided towage services to clients not just in Shannon and Cork harbour, but also on the coast by way of contract towage and salvage. We are looking forward to introducing ‘Celtic Fergus’ to our fleet and putting it into operation.”

Published in Port of Cork

#SHANNON ESTUARY – The Maritime Journal reports that a simulated fire and rescue drill simulating a fire on board a ship took place in Foynes Port this week.

Limerick County Fire & Rescue Service with the assistance of Shannon Foynes Port Company and Celtic Tugs which operates a fleet of  tugs in the port hosted the Ship and Ports Course.

A number of exercises were carried out during the course, to read more on the exercise click HERE.

Published in Shannon Estuary
The Mainport Group, an Irish owned integrated marine services company have bare-boat chartered the AHTS Dina Alliance from Norwegian interests, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Dina Alliance is a supply seismic support vessel which is currently on duty servicing three other seismic vessels operating in the North Sea on behalf of Mainport clients. She was built in 2009 by Fujian, China as an anchor handling tug supply (AHTS).

On board the 60m vessel there is an aft clear working deck space used for supplies which is capable of handling two 20ft reefer containers and a single 20ft storage container. The vessels' powerplant is provided by 2 x Caterpillar 3516B main-engines of 1920kW (5150bhp) at 1500 rpm which drive twin kort nozzles propellers and equipped with a corresponding pair of high-lift rudders.

Accommodation is for 42 berths (11 for officers and crew) and other marine personnel (numbering 31) in addition to two hospital berths. All of the cabins are air-conditioned with washrooms/WC.

Dina Alliance brings the Mainport Group fleet total to 24 vessels (for list click HERE) which are deployed in various sectors engaged in offshore support vessels covering safety standby, tugs, tanker assist, towage, bunkering and seismic support services.

Earlier this year the company's Foynes based tug Celtic Isle was requested to assist in refloating the stricken combi-heavy lift vessel Pantanel which had dragged its anchor in stormy seas after running aground in Cashla Bay, Rossaveal. The German-owned vessel was to load two former Aran Direct owned fast-ferries that operated from the Connemara harbour on a delivery voyage bound for Mauritius.

Mainport is a Cork based operation with offices located in Foynes, Limerick, Drogheda in addition to operations overseas in Durban and Johannesburg in South Africa and Aktau in Kazakhstan.

Published in Ports & Shipping

The 61,000 dwt bulker Sibulk Prosperity became the largest ship to date to dock at Shannon Foynes recently according to The Limerick Leader.

The Panamanian registered vessel carrying a cargo from Santo in Brazil. At 200 meters long and a draft of 10.5 meters, the vessel delivered a cargo of 22,000 tonnes and took 3 days to discharge its cargo of animal feed. The discharge rate was 1,100 per hour for her time in port. Limerick based ship agents Mullock & Sons provided stevedoring services.

Tim Egan, manager of Mullocks & Sons Shipbroking in Foynes said 'Ships that usually come into Foynes would be about 35,000 dwt. This is almost double that but the challenge isn't her size but her length. The way they are building ships these days, it nearly double the dead weight but is the same depth in the water. She will have to turn around in the Estuary to get out when she leave the port'.

Mr Egan commented that 'two years ago the Port Company of Shannon Foynes invested in a dredging vessel which has allowed super-sized cargo ships to get in and out of the port with greater ease. The dredging and ploughing has kept a depth in the Channel which makes it a lot easier'.

The Sibulk Properity departed Foynes with the assistance of Celtic Tugs based in Foynes.

Published in Shannon Estuary

How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]