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Displaying items by tag: German cruise ship operator

12th August 2011

Big Lips Kiss Dublin Bay

A cruise ship with a difference docked in Dublin Port today, the Aidablu displays a distinctly bold livery scheme of a giant red mouth and eyes emblazoned across the bow, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Towering 15 decks above the oceans, the Italian built 71,300 tonnes vessel berthed at Ocean Pier after an overnight passage from Cobh. Aidablu has a capacity for over 2,000 passengers and 600 crew.The vessel has all the usual expected facilites to be found on a cruiseship but she also has a rather novel attraction, a brewery, the first to be installed on a cruise ship.

She was launched last year from the Meyer Werft shipyard. The 252 m vessel is operated by German operator Aida Cruises and the lips symbol is also the logo used by the company which operates a fleet of seven vessels.

Should you wish to take a closer look of Aidablu, she departs this evening at 21.00hrs and she will head out of Dublin Bay via the North Burford buoy off the Baily Lighthouse bound for Liverpool. The cruise started from Dover and after her visit to Merseyside tommorrow, she will then proceed to Greenock, followed by Invergorden before ending the cruise in Hamburg.  

Published in Cruise Liners

About Quarter Tonners

The Quarter Ton Class is a sailing class of the International Offshore Rule racing the Quarter Ton Cup between 1967 and 1996 and from 2005 until today.

The class is sailed by smaller keelboats of similar size and is likely the world's most-produced keelboat class.

The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc. 'classes' were each given a 'length' and yacht designers had almost free rein to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length.

The Ton Rules produced cranky and tender boats without actual downwind speed. Measurement points created weird, almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs.

They were challenging to sail optimally and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.

Although its heyday was 30 years ago, the boat class continues to make its presence felt by holding its own in terms of popularity against some fern race fleets.