Ship of the day

[Paul S]

Two days ago it was announced that a new ferry route would begin this year linking Ireland and Spain for the first time. Brittany Ferries will be sailing twice a week between Cork and Santander during the summer season.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...pril-1.3357346

Whilst this indeed excellent news and goes against a lot of the cut backs in the ferry routes in Europe over the last few years, it will still be significantly cheaper (and quicker) to use a budget airline from Ireland to Spain and then hire a car. This is what killed off the ferries in the first place.

But some other good news:

P&O are willing to consider new Scotland - Scandinavia routes:

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.c...avia-1-4653097

[Guy Profumo]

What big shopping malls are there in Embra to entice the Scandiwegians to come across and spend their Krone, like the old days of the Newcastle - Oslo/Bergen service and the Meh'rocentah?

[Ginger Yellow]

Do they need big shopping malls to entice them? Wouldn't a relatively cheap off licence suffice?

[WOM]

Two days ago it was announced that a new ferry route would begin this year linking Ireland and Spain for the first time. Brittany Ferries will be sailing twice a week between Cork and Santander during the summer season.

Are there a lot of Irish vacation in Spain in the summer (vs...you know...the cooler months) or Spaniards heading to Ireland? Sounds like an unlikely proposition either way.

Someone decided that Toronto and Rochester NY needed a high-speed car-ferry connection a while back. It, quite predictably, sank without a trace. Why would you spend $400 to do what you could do for $80 worth of gas just to save a couple of hours?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

When you say it sank without trace I presume you don't mean the actual ferry ...

[WOM]

When you say it sank without trace I presume you don't mean the actual ferry ...

No, just the pipe dream and all the investors' money.

[Guy Profumo]

Do they need big shopping malls to entice them? Wouldn't a relatively cheap off licence suffice?

It was the conceit in Newcastle it was the likes of Eldon Square which attracted the tourists.

[Greenlander]

Are there a lot of Irish vacation in Spain in the summer (vs...you know...the cooler months) or Spaniards heading to Ireland? Sounds like an unlikely proposition either way.

Someone decided that Toronto and Rochester NY needed a high-speed car-ferry connection a while back. It, quite predictably, sank without a trace. Why would you spend $400 to do what you could do for $80 worth of gas just to save a couple of hours?

There's a huge amount of Irish traffic that runs through Plymouth on the way to and from Spain so the new service cuts out one ferry and a fair amount of driving time. In the summer the crossing can cost up to £1000 and folk are prepared to pay it. The amount of freight carrying fresh fish and seafood to Spain will probably be enough to keep it profitable. It's bad news for us as it'll be the end of our red lemonade supply.

[WOM]

Thanks for all that. Had no idea, obvs.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Sea Bubbles heads-up.

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...=1#post1320668

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...=1#post1320579

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...=1#post1322997

After over six months of red tape issues and regulatory hoops to jump through, the "flying water taxis" have finally been given the green light to be tested on the Seine in Paris from May (Paris mayor’s soft pressure on transport ministry bods has paid off it seems). The low max. speed on the Seine (10 knots max in central Paris) was the main stumbling block as these small electric hydrofoils are designed to glide two feet over the water’s surface at nearly 30 knots, so engineers had to pretty much redesign a number of things.

Sea Bubbles: flying taxis testing in May-June 2018

End users (general public then) will test a couple of these Sea Bubbles for two months (May and June), probably for free/the price of a métro ticket (bookings via an app) before the final decision is made but at this stage it would be surprising if this project didn’t go ahead.

https://twitter.com/parnasse/status/973238691236909056

[SouthdownRebel]

Ship of the (other) day: a trip along the Thames on one of the clippers made for a pleasant alternative to a kaput Jubilee line.

[ursus arctos]

The city installed the temporary moorings along our side of the Hudson on Tuesday, so FF and I can expect the arrival of our seasonal flotilla of sailboats starting soon.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/ursus_arctos59/status/992088920224485376?s=09

[San Bernardhinault]

That must be an imposter ursus on that twitter feed. OTF's ursus collective would surely never type "visably".

[San Bernardhinault]

Meanwhile, we had a spare carrier in port this week. We only have two carriers whose home port is San Diego, the Vinson and Roosevelt. And one is usually out tootling around not far from North Korea.

Anyway, last week, in addition to Vinson, the John C Stennis was hanging out at North Island. The bizarre thing, to me, was that they'd stuck all the planes on the deck. Unless it was for a photoshoot, that seems like a strange thing to do. Here's a ton of F-18s, and an AWACSy thing, just sitting out exposed the to elements.

[Ginger Yellow]

Maybe working on the hangars? Also, it's San Diego. What elements?

[Toby Gymshorts]

Also: it's a ship. It's supposed to do elements.

[San Bernardhinault]

Maybe working on the hangars? Also, it's San Diego. What elements?

It drizzled yesterday.

[WOM]

You'd not want to fall off that ship, would you?

[Sits]

I wonder how long it takes to wheel them all into the right spots, then wheel them all away again.

[Ginger Yellow]

First cruise ship for a while in Greenwich today. Maybe first of the year.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Are there a lot of Irish vacation in Spain in the summer (vs...you know...the cooler months) or Spaniards heading to Ireland? Sounds like an unlikely proposition either way.

Someone decided that Toronto and Rochester NY needed a high-speed car-ferry connection a while back. It, quite predictably, sank without a trace. Why would you spend $400 to do what you could do for $80 worth of gas just to save a couple of hours?

I honestly don't know who would use this ferry for tourism, It's a fucking long time to spend on a ferry, and the bay of biscay is not a body of water I'd like to be continuously crossing for a living. We do however send them about €3 billion in goods every year, and they send us back €2 billion, It may not seem like much but if Canada were to export €3 bn to Spain, it would be their fourth biggest export market after US, China and Uk. (Canada exports a lot of stuff for a non-eu country, but 75% of it goes to the US. )

most of Irish exports to Spain currently go through the UK. frequently going to dover-calais, and then south, some go from British ports to Spain as part of larger flows. This whole brexit thing is seeing us desperately scrambling to find alternative routes. There was a mention back there on the Brexit thread, that the Largest Roll on Roll off Ferry is in Dublin, Getting ready to start the Dublin Rotterdam run. the UK is faffing around in the discussions about trade, meanwhile We're getting people to build big ships, because there's going to be a lot of demand, and we're building a fucking massive customs shed in Dublin Port.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

SB. Isn't the deck of an aircraft carrier generally covered in whatever planes that are on duty? They're meant to be able to withstand horrendous weather, I mean they are airplanes after all, and they're not likely to fall off. They're all heavier than a routemaster bus.

[ursus arctos]

The Mystic Whaler has made its first appearance of the season in the Hudson

[WOM]

SB. Isn't the deck of an aircraft carrier generally covered in whatever planes that are on duty?

I think they're traditionally stored below decks and brought up on massive elevating platforms. If you've been on a cruise, you know that it's windy as fuck on decks that high off the water, and that's not great for working on / maintaining the planes and whatnot.