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Brittany Ferries to Celebrate 50 Years at Sea with Soundtrack to Start of More than 24 Million Holidays

28th November 2022
Brittany Ferries is to mark 50 years since their first-ever ferry crossing on the English Channel took place in January 1973 with the ro-ro freightferry Kerisnel linking Roscoff and Plymouth. The anniversary of the France-UK route is to be celebrated next year, in early January when the company’s flagship Pont-Aven, which has been specially re-routed for a celebratory voyage from the Breton port to Cornwall. Afloat adds the operator five years later opened their first France-Ireland route of Roscoff-Cork which earlier this month ended the seasonal service but will resume in March, 2023 with sailings operated by Armorique and Pont-Aven.
Brittany Ferries is to mark 50 years since their first-ever ferry crossing on the English Channel took place in January 1973 with the ro-ro freightferry Kerisnel linking Roscoff and Plymouth. The anniversary of the France-UK route is to be celebrated next year, in early January when the company’s flagship Pont-Aven, which has been specially re-routed for a celebratory voyage from the Breton port to Cornwall. Afloat adds the operator five years later opened their first France-Ireland route of Roscoff-Cork which earlier this month ended the seasonal service but will resume in March, 2023 with sailings operated by Armorique and Pont-Aven. Credit: Brittany Ferries

In January 2023, Brittany Ferries will mark 50 years since the first-ever ferry crossing on the English Channel took place by the operator when linking the French region and Cornwall.

A converted Israeli tank-carrier, Kerisnel departed Roscoff in Brittany, bound for Plymouth carrying a cargo of cauliflowers and cognac. The vessel arrived in Millbay Docks, Plymouth on 2 January 1973, the day after Britain had joined the common market (forerunner to the EU).

Within a few years the company had opened more routes with better ships and introduced sail-and-stay holidays for its biggest export market: British tourists which today, comprise around 90% of all passengers on board.

Brittany Ferries is preparing the 50th anniversary celebration for 2 January 2023, with Plymouth at its heart. Twinning committees representing towns, villages and communes from across Brittany have been invited to travel to Plymouth on the company’s flagship Pont-Aven which has been specially re-routed for the celebratory voyage.

They will be met in Millbay Docks by their twin-town counterparts from towns in the south west of England and Wales, as well as the great and good of Britain’s Ocean City. An afternoon reception and gala dinner on board will follow.

“Since our first sailing, Brittany Ferries aim has been to enrich regions by connecting people and boosting trade,” said Christophe Mathieu CEO Brittany Ferries. “This special anniversary event will help reinforce those links – and reconnect those who have been separated for too long by Covid and Brexit. We want to strengthen the entente cordiale between people who are closer to each other culturally and geographically, than they are to centres of power in Paris and London.”

Entertainment at the event will come courtesy of Breton folk band Dremmwel. Their music has been the soundtrack to the start of a holiday for an estimated 24.6 million passengers. That’s because music from the four-piece has been used as wake-up tunes in cabins on board most ships since 2009.

“Dremmwel’s songs must be among some of the best-known in Britain,” added Mathieu. “Few may know the men behind the music, but everyone who travels with us know what their songs signify: they say wake-up holiday maker, you have arrived at your destination.”

Members of twinning committees in the southwest should have received an invitation to the event. However, not all have easily accessible contact details. So today, Brittany Ferries calls on those who have not received an invitation to get in contact with event organisers, by emailing the following address: [email protected]

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).