Atlanticoline of the Azores will employ the 3,934gt/2002 built Aqua Jewel and the 3,989gt/1995 built Mega Jet (built as Incat 035/Cat-Link I) 3rd May-29th September and 15th June-12th September respectively. The 748gt/2013 built Mestre Simao was badly damaged after a mechanical failure during stormy weather and her sister, the 748gt/2013 built Gilberto Mariano, is back in service following refit. The 287gt/1983 built catamaran Expresso Do Triangulo has been laid up for four years and may now be revived to deputise for the Mestre Simao.

CLdN’s second new Ro-Ro ship, the 74,273gt Delphine, arrived at Zeebrugge after her delivery voyage on 17th February. She is a sistership to the 7,800 lanemetre capacity Celine.

Deltamarin Ltd. has signed a contract with the Chinese Guangzhou Shipyard International Co. Ltd. (GSI) for consultancy and engineering services for the new DFDS Ro-Pax ferries. Deltamarin earlier carried out contract design of the ship concept for GSI in close co-operation with the owner.

Deltamarin will provide the yard with basic (approval) and detail design together with Safe Return to Port (SRtP) documentation. The contract covers all disciplines and all areas. The value of Deltamarin’s contract with GSI is about €5 million. The work will be carried out at Deltamarin’s offices in Finland and China with the assistance of network companies from Europe over an estimated period of 13 months. The shipbuilding contract for the two new DFDS Ro-Pax ferries was signed on 12th February between DFDS and GSI. Both ships are planned to be delivered in 2021 and will be built at GSI’s Nansha yard. The 230m long ships will offer capacity for 4,500 lane metres of freight and passenger vehicles as well as 600 passengers. The ships are planned to be deployed on one of the Baltic routes connecting Lithuania to either Sweden or Germany. They will be built to the newest environmental standard offering the lowest possible fuel consumption and emissions. They will also be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers and have ice class 1C.

Finnlines has signed a letter of intent for the construction of three new 7,300 lane metre Ro-Ro vessels in response to growing volumes and market demand. The company revealed the plan as part of its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2017, during which Finnlines recorded a 17.1% percent rise in its revenue, which stood at €131.8 million at the end of the quarter, compared to €112.6 million reported in the same period a year earlier. The company’s result for the reporting period was also up to €14.9 million from €7.3 million seen in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Golden Star Ferries has finally gained approval for the summer service from Rafina to Crete using the 4,258gt/1995 built Superferry and 4,986gt/1974 built Superferry II (above). The daily service will operate 2nd May-31st October with calls each way at Andros, Tinos, Mikonos, Paros, Ios (from Rafina only), Santorini and Iraklion (Crete).

Grimaldi Group and Fincantieri signed a letter of intent on 6th March for the lengthening and refurbishment programme for the cruise ferries Cruise Roma and Cruise Barcelona (above). The construction of the two mid-body sections will begin in 2018, while the completion of the works at the Palermo shipyard is expected during summer 2019.

Fjord1 of Norway has decided to expand its fleet with seven new battery-powered ferries, which will use zero and low-emission technology based on electric propulsion. Delivery is expected during autumn 2019 with the company ordering five newbuildings from Havyard Ship Technology’s shipyard in Leirvik and Sogn. The newbuilds will have a capacity of up to 50 passengers and will operate on the Kvanne-Rykkjem, Edøya-Sandvika, Fedje-Sevrøy and Langevåg-Buavåg routes. The remaining two ferries will be built at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey, each with a capacity of 80 passengers and destined for the Seivika-Tømmervåg service.

Hoverspeed as a company may be long gone but the two iconic Dover-Calais SRN4 hovercraft The Princess Anne and The Princess Margaret have languished at Lee on Solent since December 2000. The Princess Anne is now owned by the Hovercraft Museum on the site but the sister craft could not be secured as costs were prohibitive, and moving her anywhere else was an almost impossible task. So, the process of breaking up The Princess Margaret at HMS Daedulus commenced on 9th March, meeting her end in the same way as the un-stretched SRN4 Swift did several years ago, almost on the same spot.

Incat Crowther announced on 6th March 2018 the delivery of the City Jet 1 and City Jet 2, two 28m long/7.7m beam and 0.95m draught ferries that are part of a six vessel newbuild programme for the Cancun-based operator, Ultramar. The 118 passenger capacity ferries were built by Midship Marine in Harvey, Louisiana and are fitted out with high-end seating. The roof deck features 140 external passenger seats and each vessel is powered by two Yanmar 6HYM-WET engines driving fixed-pitch propellers to provide a service speed of 22 knots at 85% MCR.

Irish Ferries’ 8,403gt/2001 built High Speed Craft Westpac Express was purchased by the Irish Continental Group (ICG) for $13.25 million. The Austal built vessel was delivered to ICG in June 2016 and immediately chartered to Sealift Inc. This Charter continued until November 2017, resulting in total earned charter revenue of €6 million or approximately 54% of the purchase price of the vessel. Now renamed Dublin Swift, the fast ferry will replace the 5,989gt/1999 built HSC Jonathan Swift in the Irish Ferries fleet in 2018 with the latter being sold to Mediterranean operator Balearia.

P&O Ferries announced on 27th February that it had reached agreement with Forth Ports to move to a purpose-built £150 million river berth on the Thames at the Port of Tilbury which will treble its freight capacity to 600,000 units a year by 2020. P&O expects the new capacity at Tilbury to give it an unrivalled service for anyone exporting to or from London and the South East. The new terminal will be built subject to planning permission. An application for a development consent order (DCO) for Tilbury2 was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in October 2017. Tilbury2 intends to build on a 152 acre site which was part of the former Tilbury Power Station and will include a new deep water jetty in the river Thames. The river berth will enable a reduced crossing time of one hour, to seven hours, as the service currently relies on the lock system at Tilbury Docks. The planned new terminal will be linked directly to the A13 via a new road, providing quick and easy access. It will also have a bespoke layout enabling customers to locate their unit promptly as part of a 30 minute gate to gate turnaround.

Polferries will charter the relatively unloved 27,744gt/2014 built Nova Star (above) for their Gdansk-Nynäshamn (Stockholm) service, with the company website indicating that bookings are being accepted for the ship from 1st June 2018. The ship was originally built for LD Lines who then refused her due to design issues. The vessel found employment on the Portland-Yarmouth service before moving to the Straits of Gibraltar for Intershipping. But, after two years, she is moving on again to try her luck in the Baltic. Polferries has a new ferry on order but needed a more modern ship than the 25,318gt/1980 built Wawel beforehand due to growing traffic between Poland and Sweden plus Stena introduced a ferry onto the Gdynia-Nynäshamn route in 2017.

Stena Line Ports announced on 21st February that it is to invest more than £4 million in upgrades to improve infrastructure at the Port of Holyhead after recording a record year for freight growth. The upgrades will include the creation of additional freight space at the Port and also extensive refurbishment to the Terminal 3 ramp with work having already commenced on 16th February for around five days. The new lower deck of Terminal 3 was fabricated by McGregor Ltd. and transported to the Port by barge. During the work, Irish Ferries services shared the neighbouring Stena Line berth after some schedule revisions.

TOTE Maritime’s Alaska shipping division has completed the first of four conversion periods for its two Orca class vessels as part of the project to convert the diesel-powered ships to LNG. The 65,314gt North Star arrived in Anchorage on 25th February after completing her first voyage since the outfitting of two LNG fuel tanks at Seaspan’s Victoria Shipyard in British Columbia, Canada. In addition to the LNG tanks and accompanying infrastructure, the ship received associated engine updates necessary to utilise LNG as a fuel and underwent a standard dry-docking. The completion of Phase 1 marked a key milestone in the four-year process to convert the two Orca class vessels, the North Star and Midnight Sun, which are both currently powered by four MAN 58/64 engines running on ultra-low sulphur diesel marine gas oil. The two ships were originally constructed by NASSCO at its San Diego yard and commissioned in 2003. Both operate on Jones Act routes between Anchorage, Alaska and Tacoma, Washington, helping TOTE Maritime Alaska handle approximately one-third of goods transported between the rest of the USA and Alaska. Conversion work will be completed in early 2020 and early 2021 respectively.