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Displaying items by tag: Birkenhead Docks

#PORTS  – The operator of Birkenhead Docks at Twelve Quays Terminal, says it is confident it will recover the business it lost when DFDS Seaways closed down ferry operations last year, according to a report in today's Liverpool Daily Post.

Birkenhead Port, part of the Peel Group, says overall tonnage for the year to March stood at 3.2m tonnes – down 3% on the previous year. It said the fall was due to DFDS's decision to shut its Birkenhead-Dublin routes in January, 2011 (click HERE).

In accounts newly filed at Companies House, Birkenhead Port said business for the first ten months of the year had been strong. But it said that, in the final quarter, ongoing growth on its Belfast route was "more than offset by the loss of all Dublin volume".

It added: "While, in the short term, the loss of the DFDS business will adversely impact revenues and overall financial result, in the medium term the directors are confident that the company will recover this lost business as we look to contract with another operator at this flagship, purpose-built roll-on, roll-off facility."

It said that, with Stena Line axing its Fleetwood-Larne service, Birkenhead could attract more business to its Belfast route.

Published in Ports & Shipping

The Dragon was designed by Johan Anker in 1929 as an entry for a competition run by the Royal Yacht Club of Gothenburg, to find a small keel-boat that could be used for simple weekend cruising among the islands and fjords of the Scandinavian seaboard. The original design had two berths and was ideally suited for cruising in his home waters of Norway. The boat quickly attracted owners and within ten years it had spread all over Europe.

The Dragon's long keel and elegant metre-boat lines remain unchanged, but today Dragons are constructed using the latest technology to make the boat durable and easy to maintain. GRP is the most popular material, but both new and old wooden boats regularly win major competitions while looking as beautiful as any craft afloat. Exotic materials are banned throughout the boat, and strict rules are applied to all areas of construction to avoid sacrificing value for a fractional increase in speed.

The key to the Dragon's enduring appeal lies in the careful development of its rig. Its well-balanced sail plan makes boat handling easy for lightweights, while a controlled process of development has produced one of the most flexible and controllable rigs of any racing boat.