ANEK Line’s 38,261gt/1992 built cruise ferry El Venizelos was sent to Kos in late August to relieve the refugee crisis there. The ship took 15,000 migrants to Piraeus on multiple trips, according to Greek media. The majority of the migrants are fleeing war and persecution in Syria. Other Greek island ferries have also been used to ease the crisis on other islands including Lesbos.

Brittany Ferries’ Mont St. Michel will receive her new exhaust scrubber system this autumn in the form of a third “funnel” profile between her twin funnels. 

CalMac will once again operate vehicle services from Gourock starting 1st October for around 24 weeks to allow improvement works at Weymss Bay Harbour. During this time the harbour will be closed and a temporary diverted vehicle and passenger service will operate between Rothesay and Gourock. The harbour includes a 1970s concrete pier end, 1980s timber fendering and 1970s vehicle linkspan structure. All have now reached the stage where major refurbishment works are required to secure the long term future of the port. Fifty six sailings per week will run from Gourock with no impact on the Argyll Ferries timetable to Dunoon. The harbour will also be dredged as part of the project which will give berthing vessels greater flexibility in bad weather. New road Equivalent Tariff fares for the route are being brought forward to coincide with the start of the diversion.

CLdN Ro Ro SA, part of Cobelfret, announced ambitious expansion plans at the beginning of September, including firm orders for two 8,000 lanemetre ro-ros. The company already operates 24 ro-ro vessels, offering in excess of 100 sailings per week between the ports of Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, London, Killingholme, Dublin, Gothenburg, Esbjerg and Porto. CLdN says it has already placed firm orders for two ships with a length of 235m, double the capacity of the majority of today’s larger short-sea ro-ro vessels, and is poised to place orders for further vessels of classes ranging between 4,700 and 8,000 lanemetres. The orders will be spread across various yards, in Europe and in the Far East. The design allows for the vessel to interchange between short sea ro-ro services, where high manoeuvrability and economy is paramount and deep sea trades, where endurance and a flexible and high stowage factor is required. The ships will have the “LNG ready” class notation, providing the option for a straightforward conversion to LNG propulsion. The first of these new vessels is due to enter service in 2017.

Condor Ferries’ Commodore Clipper will be at Falmouth 13th September-18th October (later than originally planned) for refit and scrubber installation with the Commodore goodwill following suit. Typically the gales rolled in as soon as the ‘Clipper’ went off service so Channel islanders faced considerable bad weather disruption without an alternative by sea. The arrow was again chartered to cover the freight traffic.

DFDS Seaways’ 21,856gt/1997 built vessel Liverpool Seaways collided with a quay under construction in Kapellskär on 2nd September during a storm, after narrowly avoiding Viking Line’s rosella. The incident caused a 7m gash in the DFDS ferry’s hull, above the waterline. The vessel had 88 commercial drivers and 67 other passengers aboard.

Reederei Cassen Eils of Cuxhaven had to wait until the second half of October to take delivery of their newbuild Helgoland, the first German flagged vessel to operate on LNG as the primary fuel. German shipbuilder Fassmer has missed the delivery deadline by around five months due to issues with the LNG systems. The 83m and 1,000 passenger capacity ferry was originally scheduled for delivery in June and is powered by two 9- cylinder Wärtsilä 20DF medium-speed dualfuel engines.

Stena Line has boosted freight capacity on the Belfast-Liverpool (Birkenhead) route with the introduction of the 19,722gt/2012 built Stena Performer, ex Seatruck Performance, from 7th September. The ship has moved from the Belfast-Heysham link and is replaced there by the ship ousted from Birkenhead, the 13,017gt/1996 built Stena Hibernia. The change comes due to the amount of freight traffic continuing to grow from the Stena freight hub in Belfast, to Merseyside. The former Stena Discovery is now being dismantled at Aliaga, Turkey, having been towed there from Venezuela. The former HSS linkspan at Belfast is to be removed and recycled whilst the last surviving HSS 1500, the Stena Explorer, is expected to be towed away to meet her maker in the near future along with the linkspans at Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire.

Team Ferry, a new operator, is planning to reintroduce an Ipswich-Ostend service using a 12 passenger ro-ro ship to be chartered from Seatruck. The plan is subject to approval in Ostend, a port crying out for a new ferry link despite the best efforts of some Politicians.