Tirrenia Ro-Ro Launched

The Onorato family ordered two Ro-Ros from FSG, Flensburg, for charter to Italian ferry company Tirrenia with the 32,770gt/2018 built Alf Pollak being completed during summer 2018. The second vessel, the Maria Grazia Onorato, was launched at FSG on 2nd August 2018. The second ship launch probably saw the first time that a newbuild has included a political statement. When shipowner Vincenzo Onorato launched the vessel he also embarked upon a petition in support of Italian seafarers on Italian ships. The ship’s hull displayed the slogan “Onorato for the Italian Seafarers” in Italian. Each ship will offer 4,076 lanemetres of capacity, equivalent to 283 trailers. Both ships will enter service from Catania in 2018. The Onorato family has also confirmed an order for 4 Ro-Pax ferries with a Chinese shipyard and that the group is also in discussion with various shipyards for the construction of three new port tugs to be deployed in Sardinia.

Ceremony for Honfleur

On 6th August Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) started to assemble the hull of Brittany Ferries’ first LNG-powered ship, the Honfleur (above), at its yard in Flensburg, Germany. The occasion was marked by the traditional keel-laying and coin ceremony.

Between 11th-18th September the 35,586gt/2002 built Mont St. Michel (above) was off service for dry docking at Damen’s shiprepair facility in Brest. A fishing net had become entangled in the port propeller and subsequently damaged the port side propeller shaft. The 6,581gt/2000 built Normandie Express extended her season for one week to serve Ouistreham in the absence of the Mont St. Michel whilst the 26,904gt/2008 built Etretat and 22,382gt/2003 built Baie de Seine increased their Le Havre rotations on 13th/14th September.

Debut for new Flagship

At 1030 on 26th August the brand-new 8,041gt/2018 built Victoria of Wight (above) operated her first passenger sailing for Wightlink I.o.W Ferries from Portsmouth to Fishbourne, returning at 1130. The £30 million ship operated superbly, was well received by her passengers and was then replaced by the Wight Sun to permit further preparations prior to the first full service diagram the next day. The ship’s operation was sporadic over the first 2-3 weeks but was expected to settle into a routine after the naming ceremony at Fishbourne on 20th September, undertaken by HRH Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

On the evening of the new ship’s debut a “good news day” was sadly tainted when the 2,546gt/2008 built Wight Sky (above) suffered a second catastrophic engine failure and fire, this time whilst en-route from Yarmouth to Lymington at around 1910 with the 1900 sailing. The ship had to turn back to Yarmouth when the incident occurred on two of her four engines, being escorted by Yarmouth’s Severn Class lifeboat, with the Island-bound Wight Light subsequently having to return to Lymington as she could not berth in Yarmouth. Up to eight fire engines attended from Cowes, Newport and Freshwater plus an ambulance, Police and Coastguard. The service was suspended and all traffic diverted to the Portsmouth-Fishbourne service. All 117 passengers were safely evacuated at Yarmouth, along with all vehicles once it was safe to do so. A spokesperson from the fire service confirmed that 27 firefighters were in attendance, 14 of which went onto the vessel. The ferry’s crew had extinguished the flames as the vessel headed back to port. Thankfully there were no injuries. The next morning Itchen Marine’s tug Wyetow went to Yarmouth and towed the Wight Sky to Lymington for lay up and inspection. The ferry was under her own power on two engines and one propulsion unit with the tug required to steady her passage along Lymington River. An investigation was subsequently launched by Wightlink and the MAIB as to what caused the failure and subsequent fire. The Wight Sun was transferred back to the Yarmouth route from Portsmouth on 27th August to cover for her sister vessel.

Red Funnel’s new £10 million state-of-the-art freight ferry was confirmed as on schedule at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard and over 60% complete on 6th September. The Red Kestrel is being built inside the main construction hall from 9 individual steel blocks. All the outfitting and painting will be complete by early January 2019 to enable the commissioning of equipment and sea trials to be undertaken prior to her delivery to the Solent next spring. At 74m in length, the Red Kestrel will provide 265 lanemetres of roll-on/roll-off freight capacity on her 1,021m2 freight deck and will carry up to 12 passengers.