Brittany Ferries: On 12th February the Mont. St. Michel lost power at just after midnight whilst in the vicinity of the Nab Tower outward bound. She was towed back to Spithead Anchorage by the Portsmouth tugs SD Bountiful, SD Indulgent and SD Independent at around 0400, two hours after two of the tugs reached the ship. After power was restored she continued her journey to Ouistreham at around 0500 that morning. Due to the Etretat suffering further mechanical problems, this time with her stabilisers, the Armorique deputised on her Le Havre and Bilbao/Santander schedules between 3rd and 16th March. The Armorique’s affected Roscoff-Plymouth sailings during this time were cancelled. The Bretagne awoke from her winter slumber at Le Havre on 2nd March to move to Cherbourg ahead of a return to service between St. Malo and Portsmouth on 3rd March, one week early to cover for the Armorique deputising on the Etretat’s timetable. The latter was actually off service for repairs until 23rd March so some sailings were cancelled. The Barfleur closed the Poole service ahead of her scrubber installation on 7th March. The ship then sailed from Poole to Portsmouth to operate an 1130 Portsmouth-Santander the next day to reposition the ship there for the work to commence. The severity of the problem with the Etretat’s stabilisers required them to be replaced but new ones will not be ready until April when the ship goes for overhaul. In the meantime she was to resume service on 16th March minus functioning stabilisers in freight only mode to/from Le Havre. The Cherbourg service will reopen with the Normandie Express ahead of the 20,133gt/1992 built Barfleur’s return, with a gap in service when the fast craft relocates to Le Havre-Portsmouth.

Condor Ferries’ Commodore Goodwill proceeded to Falmouth for dry docking on 1st March due to bow thruster problems and was replaced by the Arrow. The Commodore Clipper proceeded to Falmouth the following week to have a rudder problem resolved. It was just as well to have these issues addressed ahead of both the main season and the debut of the Condor Liberation on 27th March. The Liberation had a few problems on her maiden voyage, and the following day she collided with the quay in Guernsey and had to be withdrawn from service for several days. The Commodore Clipper covered the Poole route for her.

DFDS Seaways expressed concern that, on 6th February, the UK Court of Appeal granted SCOP permission for an expedited appeal of the decision by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal of 9th January 2015 to uphold the earlier decision of the Competition and Markets Authority banning Eurotunnel/SCOP from operating the MyFerryLink ferry services out of Dover. A hearing was expected to take place no later than 13th March. Calais Chamber of Commerce is reportedly considering buying the ferry operator whereas, according to local reports, a proposal for SCOP to buy the company prompted an internal rift within the organisation. Despite the latest figures showing revenue is up 9% to £155 million for the Dover services of DFDS, it still incurred a loss of £3.9 million. Most of DFDS growth has been achieved on Dover to Dunkirk services.