BC Ferries welcomed its second Salish Class vessel, the 8,728gt/2017 built Salish Eagle, into service on 21st June with a small public event on board the 0910 and 1050 inaugural sailings between Tsawwassen and the Southern Gulf Islands.

The 4,939gt/1964 built Queen of Nanaimo returned to service on the Tsawwassen-Southern Gulf route on 29th June following propulsion system repairs. The 21,777gt/2008 built Coastal Inspiration returned to work on 30th June on the Duke Point-Tsawwassen link following a prolonged refit caused by unexpected faults that emerged following the installation of a new propeller hub and a rebuild of a gearbox. The return of the Coastal Inspiration allowed BC Ferries to redeploy the 13,646gt/1976 built Queen of Coquitlam to Langdale to operate as the second vessel on the Horseshoe Bay-Langdale route and for the 21,777gt/2007 built Coastal Renaissance to redeploy to Departure Bay to serve on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay route for the summer.

Damen Shipbuilding received an order for an additional SeaBus passenger ferry in June from TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s regional transportation authority. The vessel will be employed to ferry passengers between downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

Deltamarin Ltd. has signed contracts with Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. (XSI), which is located in southeast China, for engineering and construction support services for the Viking Line LNG-fuelled ropax vessel newbuilding. The contracts cover basic and detail design as well as comprehensive project management support and supervision services to the shipyard during vessel construction. The value of Deltamarin’s contracts with XSI in total is over €11M. The engineering and pre-construction project management support will be carried out mainly at Deltamarin’s offices in Finland over an estimated period of 12 months. The new ro-pax vessel for Viking Line will have a passenger capacity of 2,800 people and a 1,500m lanemetre capacity. In addition to running on LNG, the vessel will have two 24m high rotor sails installed.

Maritime Nantaise, owner of Brittany Ferries’ chartered MN Pelican (above) was reportedly acquired by the Le Havre based Sogestran Group. The Nantes based Maritime Nantaise also operate the Ro-Ro ships MN Toucan (9,125gt/1995), MN Colibri (9,141gt/2000), MN Calao and MN Tangara (23,673gt/2013), the research vessel Langevin (1,324gt/1980) and also manages the three masted barque Belem, owned by Fondation Belem and built in 1896.

The Mercury Clipper (above) of MBNA Clippers departed Wight Shipyard Ltd., Cowes, on the morning of 21st June for her 12 hour delivery voyage to Greenwich. After crew training the craft entered service on 26th June. The two new 172 capacity passenger boats (Mercury Clipper and Jupiter Clipper), a £6.3 million investment in London’s port and transport infrastructure, have been built at the Wight Shipyard Co. Ltd. on the Isle of Wight.

MedFerry Shipping’s 16,776gt/1978 built and 151m long Med Star caught fire near Rhodes, Greece on 15th June. The ferry had departed from Rhodes with 33 vehicles bound for Santorini when she suffered a fire in the engine room, which quickly spread to the superstructure. Twenty persons aboard evacuated the ship via a lifeboat while 12 crew remained on board to extinguish the blaze. The ship was formerly the Nordic Ferry/Pride of Flanders/Stena Transporter. The 5,363gt/1978 built Pelagitis was chartered to cover for the fire damaged ship.

P&O Ferries’ use of the 22,986gt/1991 built European Seaway (above) on the Cairnryan-Larne serice as the refit relief vessel has been heralded a success. Freight traffic reportedly increased during the ship’s stint on the route whereas the deployment of the previous relief vessel, the 17,464gt/1994 built Norbay, apparently coincided with a drop in freight levels each year that she was used. Probably no prizes for which ship will be P&O’s North Channel relief vessel next time around! The Dover ship made her last trip of 2017 on 19th June when the 20,646gt/2000 built European Causeway returned to service after refit at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. The European Seaway then returned south almost immediately to resume her Dover- Calais sailings.

The company carried more freight across the English Channel in the first six months of 2017 than in any first half of the year in its modern history. The company’s six ships on the Dover-Calais route transported 710,813 lorries between January and June. This figure represents a 10.4% increase on 2016, which was the previous best ever year.

Rathlin Island Ferry’s Island Class vehicle ferry Canna (above) departed from Ballycastle to Rathlin for the very last time in general service on 14th June, but has continued to support her new fleetmate since. That same day the brand new Spirit of Rathlin completed her maiden scheduled sailing to Ballycastle. The 1975 built and 22.5m long Canna is owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited. With a capacity for 6 cars and 140 passengers, the 69gt vessel had served the Ballycastle route since 1997. The £2.8m, 28.17m long and 140 passenger/6 car capacity Spirit of Rathlin has a gross tonnage of 105gt and was built by Arklow Marine Services, Arklow, Ireland. The Spirit of Rathlin is a modernised version of the Canna.

Seajets of Greece has purchased the Incat built highspeed craft HSV-2 Swift and she has been towed to Elefsina. The 98m long and 2003 built craft was badly damaged last October off Yemen in a rocket attack. She will probably be rebuilt as a fast ferry.

SOL Continent Line announced on 12th June that the Ark Forwarder (above) would be replaced by the brand new 2,800 lanemetre capacity Ro-Ro vessel Freyja at the end of June on the Gothenburg- Zeebrugge service. During a transition period between the re-delivery of the Ark Forwarder on 18th of June in Zeebrugge and the delivery of the Freyja, 2 weeks later, the Elisabeth Russ took over the sailings from the Ark Forwarder.

Stena RoPax Ltd. has purchased the Stena Superfast VII (above) and Stena Superfast VIII from the Tallink Group. The transaction was announced on 12th July 2017. With a value 133.5 million euros, the sale will complete in December when the ships are handed over. The 30,285gt/2001 built ships will remain on the Belfast- Cairnryan service for the time being.

Tallink is to open a regular roll-on roll-off freight route between the port of Muuga just outside Tallinn and the port of Vuosaari in Helsinki in October. The 15,879gt/1972 built Sea Wind, which is 152m long and has 1,000 lanemetres of freight capacity, will operate the service.

Transport for London’s new ferries for the Woolwich Crossing will be named Ben Woollacott and Dame Vera Lynn and are due to be launched next year in Poland. Ben was the sixth generation of Thames waterman in his family but tragically drowned after he was dragged into the water after a mooring rope accident in 2011. The former ferry operator Serco was fined £200,000 over failings that led to the tragedy. A petition was created to have one of the vessels named after Ben and reached over 2,470 signatures. Dame Vera was born in East Ham in 1917 and went on to become the “force’s sweetheart” in the Second World War. The ferries (above) will cost around £20 million each and will be fitted with hybrid engines.

Viking Line informed China’s Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co. on 3rd July that all conditions in the shipbuilding contract had been met and the contract thus entered into force. The shipbuilding contract is for a new cruise ferry for the Turku-Åland Islands-Stockholm route with planned delivery in 2020. The contract amount is approximately €194 million euros and also includes an option for another vessel. The energy-efficient 63,000gt vessel will be 218m long and have a passenger capacity of 2,800 and a freight capacity of 1,500m lanemetres. In comparison to 2016, Viking Line’s passenger numbers for June increased by 30% on the Tallinn routes. The popularity of day cruises between Helsinki and Tallinn is also on the rise. Viking Line is responding to this demand by operating up to 12 times a day between Helsinki and Tallinn with the addition of the cruiseferries Mariella and Gabriella operating on this route during the summer period 1st July- 6th August. Viking Line has added a record number of additional departures to the summer service in 2017 and this summer, passengers can also travel to Tallinn using the highspeed service of the Viking FSTR.

Whitefunnel Ltd.’s Balmoral (above) has not been having the best of seasons so far. Approximately 20% of sailings for the entire season had been lost by the end of June. Severe weather at the beginning of week commencing 5th June saw the Balmoral’s repositioning voyage for the Thames and Solent seasons curtailed off North Cornwall and, at the same time, came the news that Gravesend Pier was damaged so could not accommodate the ship. The unavailability of Gravesend Pier and a mechanical issue saw all Thames & Solent sailings cancelled. All sailings 21st-28th June were cancelled following a routine evening inspection that revealed a new tear in the coupling between the engine and gearbox, the part which was repaired and inspected by a specialist technician the previous week. The Balmoral was therefore unable to sail until the previously ordered new part arrived. The plan was to return to service sailing from Menai Bridge & Llandudno to the Isle of Man on 29th June. Then Isle of Man sailings were lost on 29th June with Llandudno/Menai Straits also deferred until the weather improved. However, this extra period of inactivity allowed the necessary repairs to the vessel to be completed. The Isle of Man itinerary 17th-23rd July was also lost from the revenue earning timetable as the Balmoral could not sail to the Island (which is not a part of the U.K) using her Class III Certificate as the I.o.M represents an “international voyage.” Exemptions had applied to the Waverley and Balmoral in the past but the MCA will no longer permit such exemptions to the rules.