Displaying items by tag: New Sailing Schedule 2014

6th January 2014

Celtic Link Ferries to Launch Improved Sailing Schedule for 2014

#ImprovedSchedule - Celtic Link Ferries Rosslare-Cherbourg route vessel, Celtic Horizon is to launch an improved sailing schedule in 2014, following a period of maintenance at Swansea Drydocks, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Currently the 27,522 tonnes ro-pax ferry is docked at the South Wales ship repair and recycling facility and is due to return to the Rosslare-Cherbourg route sometime between 11 and 14 January 2014. When the 1,000 passenger capacity vessel resumes service, the revised sailing schedule is to bring a more customer friendly schedule.

Celtic Link Ferries will now arrive and sail earlier on the weekend sailings. The improved sailing times will now provide customers to arrive earlier in port for the onward destination in France or Ireland.

"Celtic Link Ferries wants to give its passengers more opportunity to drive during delight hours at the weekend" said the company's Tourist Passenger Manager, Rory McCall.

"The most commonly issued request from our customers is to arrive and to sail earlier between Ireland and France, now we will do that".

Celtic Horizon will now sail at 21:00 on Friday night (local time) from Cherbourg, at 16:00 from Rosslare on Saturday and at 16:00 (local time) from France on Sunday.

The low-fares Irish owned ferry company will continue to operate more direct sailings between Ireland and France than any other company sailing on the direct services to the continent.

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About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour