ELVITA 1

Making her second visit to Sandbank this year, the coaster ELVITA 1 is no stranger to the waters of the Clyde. Built in Holland in 1979, her original name was CAPRICORN, before joining the Arklow Shipping fleet in 1985 and becoming their ARKLOW VALE. In 1988, she was renamed INISHFREE, although remaining under Arklow management, remaining there until being sold to Thomas Watson Shipping and being named LADY SYLVIA in 1994. Five years later, she was sold again, this time to a company based in Malta, and she took the name ELVITA, adopting the suffix '1' in August 2007, at which time she was registered in Panama. Her current owners appear to be based in Estonia, with her managers, Baff Vyborg, based in Russia near to the Finnish border. With an overall length of 73.4 metres, she has a deadweight of 2,703 tonnes. She is going to be making several visits to Sandbank in the next few weeks, carrying cargoes of aggregates from Belfast which are being used for the continuing expansion of the Holy Loch Marina.