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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: Greenore

Ireland has a new resident dolphin, as a solitary bottlenose seems to have made its home in Carlingford Lough — and locals have voted to name it ‘Finn’.

Nearly 3,000 people took part in the Facebook poll in which Finn (the Anglicisation of Fionn) won out over ‘Bobby’ in a landslide.

“As we don't know if the dolphin is male or female, Finn works well as it is a popular name for both boys and girls,” the Carlingford Lough and the Cooley Peninsula Facebook page said.

“But if we can call our famous legend Finn or Fionn, we are sure the dolphin won’t mind.”

The Dundalk Democrat reports that Finn has been recently sighted ‘belly flopping’ near the port of Greenore — but marine wildlife experts warn that this may be a sign of distress.

Particularly in light of reports that a snorkeller was seen swimming close to the dolphin, all water users are to be reminded that it is a wild animal and advised to keep their distance.

Published in Marine Wildlife

#Coastguard - Greenore Coast Guard congratulate their retiring officer in chief James Larkin, who is stepping down after 21 years in the post.

Larkin now takes up a full-time role as section manager for the Irish Coast Guard’s Eastern Region.

He is succeeded at the Co Louth coastguard station by George Campbell, who along with deputy OIC Shay Gormley presented Larkin with a canvas on behalf of all Greenore Coast Guard volunteers.

Published in Coastguard

Following the completion of an extensive port dredging project, the arrival of the largest steel ship to ever call to Greenore represents a new landmark for the port.

The cargo vessel MV Smart Tina arrived in Greenore Port from China as part of its maiden voyage. The MV Smart Tina has a dead weight tonnage of 38,900T and measures 180 metres in length.

Greenore Port completed an extensive port dredging project in May. The main aim of the project was to make the port accessible to 8-metre draft vessels at all tidal conditions. Prior to the dredging works being carried out, the port would have been unable to handle a vessel of this size. One of the most challenging aspects of the project was the deepening of the berthing area which is located in a section of the harbour with a rock bottom and strong tidal currents. "Dredging commenced in February and by mid-May we had removed over 7000 tonnes of rock from the harbour bed" said Niall McCarthy, General Manager of the Port.

Greenore Port was purchased by the Doyle Shipping Group in late 2014 and the port deepening project is part of the group's strategic plan to develop facilities at the Port. McCarthy commented that the project was an investment in the future of the port, "there is a growing trend in the industry for larger, more efficient vessels which provide customers with economies of scale, it is important that Greenore Port can facilitate such vessels, so the arrival of a vessel the size of the MV Smart Tina is indeed a landmark for the Port"

Greenore Port's previous largest steel ship was the MV Ourania, which had a dead weight tonnage of 27,797T.

A privately owned Irish company the Doyle Shipping Group's portfolio includes operations in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Foynes Ports. The company has been operating since 1886 when it was founded by DF Doyle.

Published in Ports & Shipping
Tagged under
# PORTS & SHIPPING - Arklow Forest, the newest vessel of the Arklow Shipping fleet sailed from Greenore to Dublin Port last night to berth at the Alexandra Basin Jetty. The bulk-solid facility specialises in lead and zinc concentrate which arrive by train from the Co. Meath mine owned by Boliden, writes Jehan Ashmore.
 
The 'F' class Arklow Forest was delivered to ASL last month from Spanish shipbuilders Astilleros de Murueta SA in Erandio, near Bilbao, and brings the fleet total close to 45 vessels. During a promotional trade visit to the Basque Country, Irish Ambassador to Spain Justin Harman and Honorary Consul Rocco Caira attended the christening ceremony of the vessel along with Mr. James Tyrell, CEO of Arklow Shipping and management team at the shipyard's facilities on 7 October.

She has a gross tonnage of 2,998 and a single-box hold with two portable bulkheads which can be placed into 10 positions for cargo separation. At 4,800 dwt, ship is certified for the carriage of dangerous goods of IMO Class 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.2 (packaged) as well as general bulk cargoes. The main engine is a MAN 6L27/38 2040kW gearbox with CPP, delivering about 12 knots.

The 89m Arklow Forest was one of the 4,500 dwt 'R' class designs but was modified to allow carriage of a further 300 tonnes of cargo. She follows Arklow Field (PHOTO) which entered service this year and to read a report on another F class, Arklow Future click HERE.

Arklow Shipping Ltd with its headquarters in Co. Wicklow operate the fleet which in the majority are Irish registered. Some vessels though are managed through Dutch subsidiary Arklow Shipping Netherland B.V. based in Rotterdam where they are also registered in that port.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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]