Displaying items by tag: Dover disruption

6th March 2023

Dublin Swift Prepares for Fast Ferry Sailings to Holyhead While Disruption Continues at Dover-Calais

Afloat tracked Irish Ferries high-speed craft (HSC) Dublin Swift to Holyhead on Friday, having departed last month from Belfast Harbour on the repositioning voyage to north Wales, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The HSC which had been at Harland & Wolff for annual dry-docking, completed the Irish Sea passage in four hours, in preparation for this year’s return to seasonal service on the Dublin-Holyhead route

Dublin Swift as previously reported, is set to sail from its namesake port this Friday, 10 March, one week prior to the busy St. Patrick’s Day bank holiday weekend with capacity available for 900 passengers and 200 cars.

The high-speed sailings which also handle 16 lorries, takes just over 2 hours on the Ireland-Wales route. Whereas conventional cruiseferry crossings by Ulysses and by the more freight oriented (ropax) vessel Epsilon take 3 hours 15 minutes.

Dover-Calais disruption

Also on Friday is when an engine-room fire on board Isle of Innisfree took place and was contained with no injury to crew nor passengers having disembarked safely at Calais.

The incident however led to cancelled sailings which currently remains in place on the Irish Ferries UK ‘landbridge’ service on the Dover-Calais route.

Other sailings, however are been maintained, albeit by just one ferry, the Isle of Inishmore, though the 'Innisfree' is set to return to service on Wednesday, 8 March.

This reduction in sailing frequency has also been compounded as a third route ferry, Isle of Inisheer is also off-service due to dry-docking at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.

Afloat also notes that according to the operator's sailing updates, the 'Inisheer' is listed for sailings on Thursday, 9 March, however on that day, the company regrets that all sailings have been cancelled due to technical reasons. Customers will however be accommodated on other sailings.

Sailings take 1 hour 30 minutes on the service which Irish Ferries began in July, 2021.

For the latest sailing updates on the Strait of Dover route, along with Ireland-Wales routes and connecting Ireland-France, they can be consulted here.

In addition to the link above is a 24hr pre-recorded telephone information service.

Published in Irish Ferries

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Beneteau 31.7 sailing in Ireland

In Ireland, the Beneteau First 31.7 Ireland One Design Class Association encourages and develop the use of the Beneteau First 31.7 yacht as a one-design keelboat, mainly for racing.

Each year the association stages national championships with boats coming from different sailing across Ireland. The main centre is Dun Laoghaire Harbour where the bulk of the fleet (15 boats) are based at the National Yacht club but are moored at Dun Laoghaire Marina.

The Beneteau 31.7 boat is not new to Dublin Bay, as boats of this size and type have competed in DBSC in the Cruiser 2 class for some years.

However during the 2006 season, due to their increased numbers, DBSC granted the class its own racing start, thereby facilitating one-design racing for this cruiser/racer.

Since then it has become one of the biggest one-design keelboat classes on the Bay.

One-design rules were drawn up to discourage modifications, maintain a level playing field and set a generally ‘Corinthian’ ethos.

To preserve the cruising dimension, the boat races with cushions aboard.

Numbers entered in DBSC have settled down to approx 15-18 boats, and regular Thursday and Saturday attendances over the season are usually of the order of 14 to 16 boats, reflecting good participation by members. Racing is close and competitive.

In addition to scratch results, ECHO results are also posted. This combines the best of both worlds, providing one-design racing which the members like, while also providing an incentive and interest in turning out for those boats who may not always approach podium position on scratch.

At A Glance – Beneteau First 31.7 Specifications

L.O.A 9.61 m
Hull length 9.50 m
L.W.L. 8.80 m
Beam 3.23 m
Draught min (Deep draught keel) Cast iron 1.90 m
Ballast weight (Deep draught keel) 1 025 kg
Air draught (max) 13.90 m
Light displacement (EC) 3 750 kg
Fuel capacity 30 l
Freshwater capacity 160 l
Engine power 21 HP