On 26th March Stena Line announced that its £6 million refit investment was due to be completed with work on the 19,722gt/2012 built Stena Precision over the Easter period. A total of seven ships had been upgraded by Stena Line over the previous 5 months with the bulk of the work being carried out at Harland & Wolff shipyard including Stena Line’s flagship vessels Stena Superfast VII and VIII which operate on the Belfast- Cairnryan service.

In 2014 the company carried a total of 1.4m passengers, 318,000 cars and 485,000 freight units and over the last 5 years alone Stena Line has invested more than £250m in its Irish Sea business. During the winter 2014-2015 work, sister ships Stena Lagan and Mersey (Belfast- Liverpool service) benefitted from an extensive refit programme which included an enhanced Stena Plus lounge, improved free Wi-Fi coverage and an extended children’s play area.

Former Irish Sea Ro-Pax vessel Stena Feronia (above), ex-Dublin Seaways/Dublin Viking/Mersey Viking 21,856gt/1997 built, has been renamed Strait Feronia and reflagged to New Zealand. At the end of March she was in dry dock at Ladskrona being prepared for a new life in the Southern Hemisphere operating for Blue Bridge (Strait Shipping). Meanwhile, having been replaced by the Stena Superfast X and then undertaking Cairnryan-Belfast refit relief duties, the 24,206gt/2000 built Stena Nordica (built as P&O’s European Ambassador) arrived at Dunkerque on 30th March to be transformed into the Malo Seaways for DFDS on their Dover-Calais service.The choice of name is nothing to do with St. Malo but the beach of Malo-les-Bains near Dunkerque.