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The Naval Service's two inshore patrol vessels (which were purchased from New Zealand) have been named the LÉ Aoibhinn and the LÉ Gobnait. They are currently undergoing a programme of works and preparation at the Naval HQ in Haulbowline including crew familiarisation and training, before them becoming operational. They are planned to replace "Peacocks" - Orla and Ciara

Nice to see the naval service return to naming ships after saints/mythical figures. The Beckett Class are affectionally known as the Dead Poet Class in the Haulbowline!

There also appears to be some (slow) movement on Eithne's replacement - procurement documents were published at the end of January.

Some local press are reporting a new operator, Hibernia Line are about to launch a new Cork - Boulogne route in the Spring/Early Summer, with a 350 cabin ferry.

Company was incorporated in December 2022 in Cork, and has some former DFDS management involved.

Hi all,

Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas where ever you are, you get to enjoy the break, and Santy is good to you.

Thanks again for being part of our little community, it's been an interesting year with Stena Europe leaving (and returning), a new Oscar Wilde joining Irish Ferries, and P&O giving up Dublin Liverpool, i'm sure 2024 will have plenty more surprises.

Kieran

Some sad news from Haulbowline, the former Irish Naval Service flag ship (and last vessel to be built at Verolme Cork Dockyard) LÉ Eithne is to be scrapped, after plans to turn her into a museum ship fell through.

I'm sure we have all seen Irish defence forces have had a busy few days between the Navy interception then the Army Rangers storming the MV Matthew (and seizing 2.2 tons of cocaine) and the rescue of a trawler discovered to be involved in smuggling also.

https://x.com/defenceforces/status/1706761306357866720

Despite serious staffing shortages, especially in the Naval service, it's was some incredible work in some very nasty conditions. Hopefully the crews get the recognition for the job they did, and longer terms, we see the wages of crews addressed to build numbers.

Hi all,

I just wanted to wish everyone a ferry happy Christmas. Hope everyone has a lovely break, and Santa gets you all some nautical surprises.

Let's all admire Seatrucks Christmas ferry on top of the tree (and I'll stop with the puns now, promise).

Also, thank you all for being a part of our little community here.

As the result of a communication breakdown between Port Control, Stena Europe and the Conamera, the two ships came with-in 100m of each other outside Rosslare Harbour.

Oddly, to work in Port Control in Ireland, there is no formal training, which is also raised as a concern.

Irish Examiner news report on the incident is here, and MCIB report is here[/url[.

Hi all,

Over the weekend, i put the forums into maintenance mode, and undertook a fairly hefty update to the forum software. To be honest, it's been a task on my to do list since before the pandemic, however, i just couldn't find the time to do it.

Hopefully issues with emails and log ins will now be solved, if anyone notices anything odd, let me know (either pm me on here, or mail kieran@irish-ferries-enthiusiasts.com). The template still needs some work, however that's for later in the week at this stage.

Finally, apologies for taking the forums offline over the weekend, it's not something I wanted to do, however it was the only time i could set aside to do the work involved.

Kieran

Hi all,

Some members may have received an email claiming to be from the site warning users their password "is ab‏‏‏‏out to exp‏‏‏‏ire tomorrow".

If you get it ignore it, it's a phishing scam, and if ever in doubt, drop me a mail (forum@irish-ferries-enthusiasts.com) and i can confirm if it is valid or not.

Kieran

[Stena Line: Fire onboard Cairnryan to Belfast ferry]

There was a small engine room fire on Superfast VIII on her way into Belfast last night. RNLI lifeboats from Bangor, Donaghadee and Larn responded, as well as coast guard units. Looks like the crew brought it under control quickly, with no injuries and all passenger disembarked safely.

Stena Line: Fire onboard Cairnryan to Belfast ferry
From BBC News

Coastguard and lifeboat teams were tasked to a fire onboard a Stena Line ferry sailing from Cairnryan to Belfast.

A small blaze broke out in the engine room of the Superfast VIII on Monday at about 21:00 BST.

Stena Line says the fire has now been extinguished.

The vessel was due to arrive in Belfast at about 21:45 local time. It arrived with the assistance of the coastguard and tugs at 22:16.

Passengers safely disembarked the ferry and there are no reports of any injuries.

Lifeboats from Bangor, Donaghadee and Larne were tasked to deal with the incident.

Coastguard rescue teams from Bangor, Portaferry, Larne and Portmuck also attended.

Passengers onboard had been advised to congregate in designated areas after an emergency was declared, when the ferry was in Belfast Lough.

Speaking to BBC News NI, passenger Chris Clotworthy said he was travelling home to Northern Ireland from Glasgow, where he had been for his daughter's graduation.

He said at about 21:00 BST some code words were relayed over the intercom to the crew members onboard.

"Obviously, all sorts of things went through one's mind," he said.

"The boat did a complete 180 degree turn and looked to be heading back to Scotland, this was when it was level with Blackhead (in County Antrim). It then did another complete 180 and stopped."

Mr Clotworthy said the atmosphere onboard was "relatively calm".

ICG have announced in a trading update this morning that the Isle of Inishmore is to launch a new Dover - Calais route for Irish Ferries.

Something interesting from a Rescue 117 drill with the Amorique this morning, the heli's shadow created a brocken  spectre (fancy name for a shadow in the rainbow caused by sea spray) https://www.facebook.com/Rescue117.Official/posts/5421428137897660

Hi all,

I've added a plugin that will allow us to embed tweets in threads. If you want to include a tweet, just click the share tweet, and copy link, then paste the URL into your post (no need for shortcode).

Any problems or questions, let me know!

PS, we are on Twitter! I mainly use it to share news stories for the main site
https://twitter.com/FerriesIrish

Seatrucks Social Media Manager put a "ferry" on top of their Christmas tree, gave me a laugh.

The largest domestic ferry to sail in Ireland, the 40-metre 'Saoirse na Farraige', has begun her delivery voyage.

The ship, constructed by Cheoy Lee Shipyards in Hong Kong, was loaded aboard the heavy lift ship 'Svenja' last week.

The vessel, which has a capacity of 400 passengers, will operate from Rossaveel, Co Galway to all three Aran Islands, taking 45-minutes to reach Inis Mor, 50 minutes to Inis Meain and 55 minutes to Inis Oirr, the company says.

The new ship will join Aran Island Ferries existing fleet, including Branrion Na Farruge, Ceol na Farraige, Draiocht na Farraige and Glor na Farraige.

The Government is setting aside €15m to ensure the continued operation of five ferry routes from Dublin and Rosslare for a minimum of three months.

The move follows a request for help from ferry companies who have seen numbers collapsing on their Irish routes since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

Routes to be protected under "public service obligation" designation are Rosslare-Cherbourg, Rosslare-Bilbao, Rosslare-Pembroke, Rosslare-Fishguard and Dublin-Cherbourg.

The ferry companies involved are Irish Ferries, Stena Line and Brittany Ferries.

According to Minister Paul Kehoe, the move was "essential" to keep the routes viable.

"This emergency measure is extremely welcome given the huge collapse in tourism that is affecting the entire industry," he said.

"It is also vital to ensure the protection of supply chains," he added.

Hello All,

I've been a member on here a while and enjoy reading the discussions. What I've noticed is that there's very little discussion of Seatruck Ferries.

Though predominantly a freight service and not carrying foot passengers, they do offer a limited availability for Car / Motorhome drivers at very reasonable prices. I've travelled with them a few times and cannot speak highly enough of them.

As an enthusiast its a great experience travelling by Seatruck. They have friendly laid back crews who don't mind you 'mooching' around the ferry taking photos etc. On a crossing in 2017 I even got a guided tour of the Bridge and Engine room (one email to Heysham head office a week before and they arranged it for me!!). Give them a go!

Anyway after a recent voyage on Seatruck Progress I was so inspired a spent 6 months building a Model of her. Thought you'd like to see it (attached).

Hope you like it

Seatrucker (Peter)

Came across this today, Holyhead to Dublin aboard the Leinster - 1984
https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0207/1028151-dublin-to-holyhead/

This has appeared in the news the last few days, over the last few months, Liebherr (who build container cranes in Killarney) have assembled 3, 85 metre high cranes in Cork Dockyard, they are to be loaded onto the heavy-lift ship Albatross, before being sent to Puerto Rico.



More details (and photo from) afloat.ie

Nice piece from RTÉ's archives on the changes in shipping on the Irish Sea from 1969, when car ferries and containers were a new idea....
http://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0123/499607-irish-ports-1969/