Asian Marine Transport Corporation’s 17,884gt/1980 built Super Shuttle Roro 9 was attacked by Aby Sayaf militants in the Moro Gulf some 19 nautical miles southeast off Sibago island, Philippines in March. The vessel was en-route from Cebu to General Santos when she was approached by two motor skiffs with armed men, who crossed the path of the ship and managed to board her. The armed militants took control of the vessel and kidnapped four of the ferry’s crew, including the Master and Chief Engineer. The pirates fled to the shore on their skiffs with the hostages. The ship headed to the nearest port of Zamboanga with reduced speed and reported the incident to the local authorities. Other crew on board were unharmed and in good health. The circumstances around the incident are unclear but it appears that adequate actions to prevent boarding by the pirates were not taken. The vessel has a high freeboard and thus such a ship is usually a difficult target for hijacking. The Super Shuttle Roro 9 is better known to readers as P&O Ferries’ Norqueen.

BC Ferries’ second of three new liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered Salish Class vessels, the 8,728gt Salish Eagle, arrived at its British Columbia home on 20th March. The 107m long vessel took 38 days to sail 10,440 nautical miles from Gdansk-based Remontowa Shipbuilding, where she was constructed. The third such vessel, the Salish Raven, departed Poland for Canada in April 2017.

Cobelfret’s 25,593gt/2009 built and 196m long Ro-Ro vessel Palatine collided with a quay at Santander, Spain around 25th March. The Palatine was attempting to berth at Santander when she struck the quay suffering an 11m gash in the hull above the waterline. The ship was escorted to a shipyard at Astander to undergo repairs.

DFDS Seaways’ 28,833gt/1992 built Calais Seaways returned to service on 31st March following an extensive refit at the Damen shipyard in Dunkerque. The ship has undergone a multi-million pound renovation which was carried out by UKbased marine interior refit firm Trimline. Trimline’s objective was to produce the same quality and high standards that were achieved in 2016 aboard the Cote Des Flandres & Cotes Des Dunes.

Finland’s Port of Helsinki officially opened its new passenger ferry terminal, West Terminal 2, which features an automated mooring system from Cavotec, in mid- March. West Terminal 2 is the largest single investment project undertaken by the port in a decade and included the construction of new berths, a terminal building, passenger bridges and access roads. Cavotec has installed its vacuum-based automated mooring MoorMaster units that eliminate the need for conventional mooring lines. The remote-controlled vacuum pads on the quayside will moor and release Tallink’s Shuttle ferries Megastar and Star in seconds. This is much quicker than conventional mooring systems with a similar system currently being installed by Wightlink on its Portsmouth-Fishbourne service.

Finnlines of Finland will lengthen four of its 28,002gt Breeze Class Ro-Ro ferries constructed from 2011 (Finnsea above), with an option for two additional vessels, in response to increased demand. The company has signed a contract with Remontowa S.A. shipyard in Gdansk, Poland where the actual work will commence in mid September 2017. The yard is committed to perform this work in less than two months for each vessel and the entire lengthening programme will be completed in May 2018, increasing vessel capacity by around 1,000 lane metres per ship.

Fred. Olsen S.A. is to convert all four engines of its 6,344gt/1999 built and 96m Incat wavepiercer Bencomo Express to dual fuel LNG operation. The conversion is part of the EU Project LNG Technologies and Innovation for Maritime Transport for the Promotion of Sustainability, Multimodality and the Efficiency of the Network, which is co-funded by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility Program. A Caterpillar 3618 engine, a sister model to those installed in the wavepiercer, has now successfully completed bench mark testing to become the world’s first marine high speed propulsion engine to be converted to dual fuel. All four engines of the Bencomo Express are expected to be converted to LNG next year and further vessels are to follow.

Incat Crowther announced the delivery of two 20m catamaran passenger ferries on 23rd March, namely the Confidence 1 and Confidence 2. The vessels are the first in a series of four vessels built by SAM Aluminium in Singapore. Designed to support Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) with operation to Bonny Island in the Gulf of Guinea, the vessels carry 50 passengers with luggage, additional hot shot cargo and have crew accommodation.

Moby Line’s involvement in the St. Peter Line service operated by the 37,583gt/1986 built Princess Anastasia (above), formerly the Pride of Bilbao, has produced a dazzling Moby Lines style livery on the ship with Moby Lines on one side and St. Peter Line on the other. Another surprise livery is that bestowed upon Tirrenia’s 39,798gt/2005 built Sharden – a Batman cartoon along the length of the ship!

Pentland Ferries has ordered an 85m fast ferry to replace the 2,382gt/2008 built Pentalina. The contract was placed with Strategic Marine, a subsidiary of Triyards, and the yard also secured an order for a 40m high-speed passenger ferry for an Asian operator, to a total value of $20.64m. The Pentland Ferries vessel is scheduled for delivery during the first half of 2018 and will sail between Gills Bay on the Scottish mainland and St. Margaret’s Hope in the Orkney Islands. The vessel will accommodate 98 cars and 430 passengers. Building on the existing strong relationship with BMT Polferries has acquired the 25,028gt/2002 built Drujba (built as the Murillo for Acciona Trasmediterranea) from a service between the Black Sea ports of Bourgas, Poti and Novorossiysk and will rename her Mazovie ready for service from June.

Polferries has acquired the 25,028gt/2002 built Drujba, built as the Murillo for Acciona Trasmediterranea. She will be renamed Mazovie and will join the Ystad-Swinoujskie service from June.

Portsmouth International Port announced on 10th March that 2,045,074 passengers were recorded last year at the port, which is owned by Portsmouth City Council. That is a 3% increase on the 2015 figures, when 1,983,908 were shown to have travelled.

Portucalence S.A. has cancelled the purchase of Moby Line’s 5,435gt/1975 built Moby Love for use on the Atlanticoline services in the Azores. Reports suggest that the presence of asbestos throughout the ship had stopped the sale. The ship is best known as the St. Eloi/King Orry.

Red Funnel, which operates ferry services between Southampton and Cowes/East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, has been put on the market by owners Infracapital Partners LP for more than £250million after 9 years of ownership. Australian bank Macquarie has been instructed to sell the multi-million pound company on behalf of Infracapital, Prudential’s infrastructure fund. Macquarie sold competitor Wightlink Ferries to Balfour Beatty in 2015. Prudential purchased the Red Funnel group from HBOS bank and the ferry operator’s management team in 2007 for around £200million. Prior to this, Red Funnel was sold by Associated British Ports to JP Morgan in 2000 for £71million and then 4 years later it changed hands again for £100million. The company, which dates back to 1861, operates three passenger and vehicle ferries and three fast passenger ferries. There has been significant investment and improvement in the services over the 9 years and there’s more to come.

Scandlines deployed the 16,071gt/1981 built Kronprins Frederik as a freight vessel on the Puttgarden-Rødby route as from 4th April. Until now the ship has sailed on the Rostock-Gedser route but, following the deployment of the two new hybrid ferries on this route, Scandlines decided to retain the Kronprins Frederik and employ her from Puttgarden, which in 2016 achieved a growth rate of 8% in freight traffic. In February 2017 the 35 truck capacity Kronprins Frederik was sent to the Navikon shipyard in Swinoujscie, Poland. To have two new aft ramps, each measuring 12m, installed to allow her to dock at the berth in Puttgarden, as well as new and larger fenders at the bow to assist berthing at Rødby. In addition to this, 12 tons of steel were replaced in the water ballast tanks, among other things. For the vessel to be able to berth in Puttgarden, two dredgers removed 70,000m3 of silt from the port since 1st March 2017. The total costs of the ship modifications and the berth works in Puttgarden and Rødby amount to just under €3.5m.

A call for tender is launched for the operation of the Transmanche between Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) and Newhaven.

Toremar vessel Giovanni Bellini, 1,573gt/ built 1985, suffered an engine room fire off Piombino, Italy, on 6th March whilst en route from Piombino to Rio Marina with 75 passengers aboard during the first week of March. The crew reacted immediately and activated the CO2 firefighting system, extinguishing the fire, but the vessel was disabled as the machinery had been damaged. The 71m long ship anchored off Palmaiola island, between Piombino and Elba to await two tugs to tow her into Piombino.

The Tuxedo Royale, the former Sealink ferry Dover/Earl Siward of 1965, has been an eyesore on the River Tees at Middles-borough since she was moved there from Newcastle in 2009. Her owners went into administration shortly after the move, leaving the ship with no legal owner, and therefore nobody to take responsibility for the maintenance or removal, and then she sank. Plans are now underway to remove the vessel subject to any financial constraints.

UN Ro-Ro’s 34,182gt/2008 built UN Akdeniz has been lengthened at a shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey. This is the first time that such an operation has been completed in a Turkish yard.

Ventouris Sea Lines’ 5,122gt/1972 built Panagia Tinou was towed from Piraeus on 21st March by the 499gt/2006 built Pantokrator bound for scrap at Aliaga. The former Sealink vessel Hengist sank mysteriously at her moorings in April 2016 and was only salvaged days prior to her removal.

Viking Line signed a conditional shipbuilding contract with Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co. on 5th April concerning a new 63,000gt and 2,800 passenger capacity cruiseferry for the Turku-Åland Islands- Stockholm route with a planned delivery of 2020. A final agreement is subject to the approval of the Board of Directors of both the buyer and the seller as well as financial arrangements entered into. The total contract amount is about 194 million euros. The agreement also includes an option on another vessel.