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Sailings Cancelled on Brittany Ferries Rosslare-Cherbourg Service to Have Involved Final ‘Normandie’ Crossings

20th January 2024
Surprise call as Brittany Ferries well-proportioned cruiseferry Normandie, for the first ever time arrived to an Irish port, berthing at Rosslare Europort after a sailing from Cherbourg earlier this month, so to cover crossings Cotentin would have operated, but currently the ropax is under repair in Brittany. This weekend’s France-Ireland roundtrip is cancelled, as Normandie remains at the French port. On the right, also at Rosslare is partially seen the Stena Europe, which too made a surprise return recently, as Afloat had reported the veteran is off-service on the Fishguard route due also to repairs.
Surprise call as Brittany Ferries well-proportioned cruiseferry Normandie, for the first ever time arrived to an Irish port, berthing at Rosslare Europort after a sailing from Cherbourg earlier this month, so to cover crossings Cotentin would have operated, but currently the ropax is under repair in Brittany. This weekend’s France-Ireland roundtrip is cancelled, as Normandie remains at the French port. On the right, also at Rosslare is partially seen the Stena Europe, which too made a surprise return recently, as Afloat had reported the veteran is off-service on the Fishguard route due also to repairs. Credit: Breffni O'Sullivan/Documenting Rosslare Harbour-facebook

Today’s night-time Brittany Ferries sailing on the Rosslare-Cherbourg service is cancelled, this was to have been the third and final France-Ireland weekend roundtrip operated notably by Normandie in a relief role, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The operator’s website sailing update does not outline as to why this weekend’s crossings are cancelled, though the forecast is of a Status Yellow - Gale warning for all Irish coastal waters and the Irish Sea, with south to southwest winds to reach gale force 8 at times.

In addition as of Sunday, is the arrival of Storm Isha which has been issued with a Status Orange warning, and is set to bring very strong winds coupled with damaging gusts over the next few days.

The reason for the use of the English Channel serving cruiseferry Normandie that runs Portsmouth-Oustreham (Caen) was due to a major engine issue of the Ireland-France route’s ropax, Cotentin which is currently undergoing repair in Brittany.

It was on Saturday, 6 January, when Afloat during routine tracking noted with much surprise the Normandie in Rosslare Europort, as seen above, on the cruiseferry’s first ever time to an Irish port.

The unexpected inaugural call was forced, as Normandie had to be deployment so to stand in for the Cotentin. This led the ropax to head for the repairs in Brittany with an arrival to Damen Shiprepair Brest (DSB), where the facility features several quays (with the ropax alongside) and three dry docks, the largest being 420 x 80m, is one of the biggest in Europe.

Cotentin which has been the route’s main ship of the last two years, has been supported with other ferries of the E-Flexer class cruiseferries chartered from Stena.

Occasionally, the freight-orientated vessel built for Brittany Ferries in Finland, has operated just on the English Channel leaving the Irish route to a single-ship service, but also at times operating from France to both Ireland and England on a rotational basis. Either way this is in competition on the Ireland-France route as Stena Line also operates a service.

Next week’s sailing schedules, sees Brittany Ferries second introduced E-Flexer, Salamanca operating the service and the return of Cotentin, should this all go according to plan.

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

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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).