On 26th December 2014 a new era in ferry travel to the Channel Isles arrived at the port of Poole in Dorset on her delivery voyage from the Philippines. Described as a ground breaking and technologically advanced craft, Austal’s Yard No. 270 was purchased by Condor Ferries in August 2014 but her keel was actually laid at Austal’s Henderson Yard in Jervoise Bay, near Fremantle, Western Australia on 27th November 2008. Based on the Auto Express 127, the 127m long and 2005 built Benchijigua Express operated by Fred. Olsen Express out of Los Cristianos, Tenerife, the Auto Express 102 was built speculatively and completed in December 2009. The vessel was widely reported as being constructed to maintain shipyard output during a lean period for the Henderson facility. Although resembling a trimaran, the Auto Express 102/127 designs are actually stabilised monohull craft. The 102m long and 26.80m beam craft has a draught of 4.20m and a gross tonnage of 6,307.

During sea trials in January/February 2011 Austal 270 exceeded all expectations with speeds in excess of 40 knots. The vessel’s creator, Austal, has been specialising in highspeed craft from the outset in 1988 with a vision to build high quality commercial vessels for the international market. By the company’s fifth anniversary, Austal had become the world’s leading manufacturer of 40 metre passenger catamarans and the dominant supplier to Asia. It was in Hong Kong as early as 1993, that Austal introduced gas turbine propulsion and the first two installations of their own motion control system. The success in Asia and the introduction of a range of sophisticated, large vehicle-carrying fast ferries were the catalyst for ongoing growth. Today, Austal remains a leading builder of fast ferries and can list some of the world’s leading highspeed ferry and shipping operators amongst its customer base such as Fred. Olsen S.A, Virtu Ferries, Conferry, Hellas Flying Dolphins, Nordic Ferry Services, Irish Ferries, L’Express des Iles and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

 From Unemployment to Liberation

Once all the sea trials and preparations had been completed the vessel was largely idle as various potential buyers came and went. Unlike other fast ferry formats constructed by Austal, Incat and others, the stabilised monohull Auto-Express concept was a less familiar one with only the Benchijigua Express in operational service. Data from her performance was used in the design and build process for the 102m version. The patented technology that produced the Auto Express 127 also spawned the design for the US Navy’s LCS 2 Independence, which was launched at Austal’s Mobile, Alabama, shipyard in April 2008. A contract for further such Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) craft followed from May 2009. A period of almost five years passed as the dormant craft awaited a career and, on more than one occasion, a home on the Channel Islands services was mooted. The Incat 5,005gt/1996 built Condor Express and 5,007gt/1997 built Condor Vitesse were approaching 20 years in service and a time when either replacement or major refurbishment was required. In August 2014 Condor Ferries chose the replacement option, having negotiated with the States of Guernsey and Jersey to secure a 10 year service contract, and Austal 270 had a new home. Austal also own the Balamban Yard in Cebu, The Philippines and the vessel was taken there for modifications to make her more suitable for operation between Poole and Guernsey/Jersey. The centrally positioned wheelhouse had full length bridge wings added to it, albeit in a style that does not match the aesthetics of the craft. These are also one level down from the central navigation platform. A centrally located and winch operated 10m x 10m stern ramp was also added, flanked by two 10m long pedestrian gangways, all secured to a framework across the stern.

The 10,500 nautical mile delivery voyage to Poole (initially stated as Southampton) commenced on 4th December 2014, almost exactly five years after she was launched. The journey took her via the Indian Ocean, along the Gulf of Aden (stopping briefly in Djibouti to change crew, refuel and re-stock) and to the Suez Canal. A final stop was made in Malta before the homeward leg of the voyage, reaching her destination on Boxing Day. The timing even allowed the crew to take part in Christmas Jumper Day. Once at Poole’s No. 2 linkspan outfitting specialists Trimline set to work on the vessel to prepare her passenger spaces for passenger service. The customisation of the £50 million Condor 102 (as she was known prior to naming) included the installation of a new Duty Free shop, children’s play area, Information Desk and range of eating and drinking outlets. The team also finalised the three new seating lounges, including two upgrade areas that enable passengers to travel in style. In the Duty Free Shop installation alone, Trimline used 1,000m2 of lightweight honeycomb board, 72m2 of solid surface board, 1,656 pieces of stainless steel and 180m of strip lighting. On 15th January Condor Ferries unveiled a brand new look for the company, with a complete refresh of the company identify. Three new colours are at the core of the new company branding, namely dark blue, pink and gold, representing more of a leisure and holiday outlook. The ribbons, which were a distinctive feature in the existing ferry livery, evolved to form a new identity to accompany the new logo.The new brand also embodied Condor Ferries’ new outlook and concept of Good Times, signifying the Good Times ahead for the company, its customers and the Channel Islands. This latter part of the new branding was to come back and haunt the company. New staff uniforms in the form of smart grey suits offset with flashes of pink, with pink neck scarves and ties, completed the rebranding.

On 27th January the Condor 102’s new name, Condor Liberation, was announced. The associated naming competition in the Channel Islands attracted 7,146 entries and the winning name was chosen in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Channel Islands in 2015. Talking of anniversaries, Condor Ferries was founded in 1964 and celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2014. They initially operated a passenger service between France and the Channel Islands and in 1987 the first service linking the Channel Islands with the UK was launched to Weymouth, the natural gateway to the Channel Islands. Since then Condor Ferries has operated a year-round service connecting the UK through Poole, Weymouth and Portsmouth, the Channel Islands through Guernsey and Jersey and the ports of St Malo and Cherbourg in France.

New Vessel, New Era

There were two major drawbacks to the introduction of the Condor Liberation, namely the company’s withdrawal from the historic ferry port of Weymouth (and so soon after the quayside rebuild there to permit the ferry service to continue), and the announced sale of both 86m Incat craft, the Condor Express and the Condor Vitesse. The latter was withdrawn in February 2015 and the Condor Express closed the Weymouth service on 23rd March whilst carrying a plain white livery following her dry docking in January. Both were sold to Greek operator Sea Jets to become Champion Jet 1 and Champion Jet 2. There was considerable opposition to these portions of Condor’s strategy, not least for the detrimental effect on Weymouth but also the extended journey times for using Poole as the fast craft port plus relying on just one fast ferry for the UK services. A previous attempt to make Poole the sole fast craft port in 1997 caused the service to suffer, so naturally, there were fears of this being repeated. The lack of a second craft means that at peak times the Condor Liberation undertakes two rotations in a day, but this requires departures from Poole as early as 03.00. The Condor Liberation remained alongside at Poole’s ferry port undergoing her makeover until shakedown trials began on 10th March and berthing trials at St. Peter Port and St. Helier followed on 16th/17th March. From 20th-22nd March open days were held at both ports. The maiden voyage from Poole was scheduled for 0930 on 27th March, the beginning of the Easter holiday period, but sailed at 1005 due to an incident when loading the vehicles. The Condor Liberation can accommodate 880 passengers and 245 cars. Alternatively the main vehicle deck can offer 190 lane metres for trucks in the central vehicle lanes plus 145 cars on the remainder of the main deck (beneath the fixed mezzanine deck) and in the mezzanine car garage itself. The clear height on the main deck in the area suitable for trucks is 4.3 metres. The area of the upper car deck offers above and below clear heights of 2.00 metres and 2.3 metres respectively for cars. Vehicle access is provided via an open stern deck area over the aforementioned centrally located ramp. On either side of the main deck (117 car capacity) are hoistable internal ramps to the double lane U-shaped mezzanine level (128 car capacity) that also incorporates car space in the bow section, which is open air thus provide through ventilation.

The central vehicle lanes have a deckload of 12 tonnes per double wheeled axle and 9 tonnes per single wheeled axle.The upper vehicle lanes have a deck load of 1 tonne per square metre. The maximum deadweight is an impressive 680.35 tonnes. Loading such a deck layout, as with the Incats before, on a multiple port of call service presents its complications but this will improve as the vessel settles into a routine. The maiden voyage finally gave the travelling public the opportunity to see and experience the new craft at work. The passenger accommodation is on one level and every passenger is assigned a seat, something which many appeared to be oblivious of until found to be in the seats of fellow passengers. There are three seating options, namely Ocean Club, Ocean Plus and Ocean Traveller. Located forward is the spacious Ocean Plus seating in the panoramic Horizon Lounge. The beige upholstered seats are either situated around tables, or are reclining with a tray table. All have access to a power supply for charging portable devices on the move. The lounge is key code entry and has its own exclusive outlet, the Horizon Bar. Aft of this lounge on the starboard side is the Ocean Club Lounge, accessible for a cover charge ranging from £12.95 to £29.95. This lounge offers sumptuous surroundings with leather reclining seats and tables. Steward service is available along with a selection of hot beverages throughout the journey. The lounge also has its own exclusive menu (payable), at seat power sockets and free wifi for part of the journey. On the port side aft of the Horizon Lounge is one section of the Ocean Traveller open seating (all finished in blue) plus Les Casquets Bistro walk-through food servery, children’s play area and passenger services desk (tucked in a small alcove). The aft section of this deck features the Island Bar, large and clinically white Adore Duty Free Shop and further Ocean Traveller lounge sections. This seating is airline style with folding lap trays. At the stern is a small open deck area with stairway access to a larger viewing deck above the aft passenger lounge/shop area. The one negative point of the internal layout is the long corridor along the starboard side that links the Horizon Lounge to the Island Bar/Shop foyer aft (and passes the Club Lounge). Passing fellow passengers in this area is not as easy as it would be if a little wider, especially when there is vessel movement. Such a passageway may not be welcomed by those prone to motion sickness either but, otherwise, the vessel has a spacious layout.

At the business end of the vessel below decks are three MTU 20V 8000 M71L marine diesels each with a 9,100kW output at 1,150rpm. These units are arranged in two compartments in the centre hull with one located forward of the other two. The engines are each connected to ZF 53800 gearboxes which in turn drive a trio of Wartsila LJX 1300 waterjets located astern in the centre hull. With ride control fitted the vessel can exceed 40 knots and achieve an operational range of 630 nautical miles. Auxiliary engines are provided in the form of four MTU S60 units. Manoeuvrability is assisted by two HRP 3011 RT bow thrusters that deploy from the keel beneath the bow when required, and are retracted when not required so as to not create drag. One question that is often asked of this design is why three hulls instead of one or two? The designers say that the ideal hull profile needs to be elongated and slender to encourage speed and comfort, but this does not encourage stability for a monohull. A catamaran hull form is well proven but its stability also generates rolling from side to side. However, the triple hull characteristics have been accurately likened to training wheels being fitted to a child’s bicycle. Adding two small hulls to a streamlined monohull produces the ingredients for a uniquely hydrodynamic vessel that generates very little drag through the water whilst combining the wave handling ability of a mono-hull with the stability of a multi-hull. When Austal was developing these vessels, a number of unexpected benefits identified themselves including greater speed with the same payload and power when compared to a similar sized monohull or catamaran. Overall power consumption figures also indicated a saving of around 20% compared to like conditions using a catamaran and as much as 50% compared to a monohull in rough sea. Passenger comfort and ride is improved thanks to an enhanced sea-keeping ability whilst the multi-hull configuration is also able to cope with greater wave heights thus reducing bad weather disruption. These positive results subsequently indicated significant fuel savings. Another advantage of the three hulled design is a low wash attribute, which subsequently lessens any impact on the operating environment. Unlike the Auto Express 127, the 102 metre version employs three T-foil stabilizers. These tried and tested devices are horizontal wings attached to the hulls underwater to control pitching by damping the craft’s motion via individually fitted sensors.

Not So Good Times

Fast craft are fascinating beasts and have their niche alongside the conventional mode of sea travel but, unfortunately, the Condor Liberation did not cover herself in glory from the outset. An entire family of Gremlins had clearly stowed away aboard and emerged one by one. The problems that were to strike rather unravelled the Condor Ferries marketing machine and the tag line of “good times”. The craft’s debut on 27th March included considerable delays to the schedule, plus the engines momentarily fell silent on the outward leg to Guernsey. A gentle sea swell generated vessel movement more akin to a catamaran. The publicity for the craft included the need for 70% less sick bags and the ability to go to sea in more extreme conditions than the Incat built wavepiercers (90% less cancellations). However, unless the ride control system was not giving 100%, the vessel’s motion certainly prompted some passengers to employ sick bags. A visit to the high-tech bridge also revealed that the Condor Liberation can only operate in a maximum of 3.5m seas, the same as the Incats. This limitation may be increased when the relevant trials have been undertaken, but for now the restriction remains unchanged. Problems on day 2 struck, literally, upon arrival at St. Peter Port, Guernsey. After a delayed arrival the ferry was unable to get alongside at berth 2 in winds gusting force 5-7, the prevailing direction catching the starboard side of the craft, the side upon which she was berthing. After repositioning, the Condor Liberation went astern to berth 1 and, as she manoeuvred at the berth a gust of wind caught her and blew her against the berth fendering with a loud bang (witnessed by the writer). Sadly this caused a dent and a breach of the hull so the vessel was withdrawn from passenger service. The following day’s schedule was already cancelled due to forecasted weather conditions with passengers affected already transferred to the Commodore Clipper. A portion of the Condor Liberation’s traffic for Jersey and the U.K was switched to the ship but reports suggest around 100 cars could not travel onwards from Guernsey on the day of the accident. Jersey’s tug Duke of Normandy was summoned from St. Helier to assist the Condor Liberation out of the harbour at around 20.00, empty, bound for repairs in Poole. The new craft did not operate again until 4th April (Easter Sunday) once repairs were made.

Bad weather severely delayed the Commodore Clipper 28th- 31st March and on 31st March the ship was re-routed to Poole to make her first commercial sailing from the port in lieu of the Liberation. The Condor Express was reactivated from lay-up at Weymouth to serve Poole-Channel Isles on 3rd/4th April with the Condor Liberation resuming service thereafter. Further problems awaited including a fuel pump issue plus an engine control unit on the main engine located forward of the other two developed a malfunction causing slow running. Due to tidal restrictions at St. Helier the Condor Liberation had to miss some inter-island calls including Guernsey-Jersey on 8th April as the service speed was limited to 22- 27 knots and late running was unavoidable. This caused the Guernsey day trippers aboard to remain on the vessel for the entire round trip (13 hours) instead of going ashore at St. Peter Port. The following day the vessel only served Guernsey with the Condor Rapide operating from/to Jersey. The electrical fault was repaired in time for 11th April but on that day a failure of the stern ramp delayed departure from Poole instead. At the time of writing the Condor Liberation’s performance was improving but, predictably, the local media seemed poised for the first sign of a problem. There have been calls for St. Peter Port to acquire its own tug to assist all vessels in bad weather as this would have surely prevented the collision on 28th March. This incident also resulted in St. Peter Port’s Harbour Master imposing a temporary operational limit on the Condor Liberation in certain wind conditions. Until this issue is resolved, Guernsey faces the prospect of missed fast ferry calls. Understandably, the States of Guernsey and Jersey began demanding answers from Condor Ferries regarding the whole situation that caused at least 16 days of disruption to residents and tourists alike.The pre-service trials lacked bad weather testing with the company conceding that this would have assisted the preparations.

However, the Condor Liberation is not the first new vessel to be plagued with problems, and Channel Island fast ferries have had their fair share over the past 20 years, including the monohull fast ferries Emeraude and Traviata plus the Condor Express when she made her debut as the sole U.K-Islands fast ferry. On 12th April passengers and cars were left behind at both Poole and Jersey plus late running was still experienced once again. By stark contrast, that same day in 2014 saw the Condor Express depart Poole with 451 passengers and the Condor Vitesse departed Weymouth with 741 passengers. Had a second fast craft been retained for the U.K services then that would surely have alleviated many of the issues faced following the Condor Liberation’s debut where over 6,000 passengers have been affected? For the sake of everyone involved it is hoped that this chapter in Condor Ferries’ history quickly settles down to the expected level of performance.

Special thanks must go to Rachel Hadfield/Ian Payne/Melissa Bradley of Mckenna Townsend (Condor Ferries PR) and Paul Sparke, Marketing Manager at Austal.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS