Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Displaying items by tag: DFDS Group

It was a Valentine's Day start for Seatruck Ferries opening of the Dublin-Heysham freight-only route, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Initiating the service, the port welcomed back a familiar vessel, the chartered Anglia Seaways which only a fortnight ago had operated the same route before DFDS Seaways closed Irish Sea operations.

The vessel has accommodation for 12 drivers. Most of the daily sailings depart Dublin at 15:15hrs and return from the Lancashire port at 02:15hrs. On certain days the schedules vary, to view the timetable click here.

In addition to the new route for Seatruck Ferries, the freight-only operator has a fleet of 8 vessels on routes between Dublin-Liverpool, Warrenpoint-Heysham and Larne-Heysham.

Anglia Seaways arrived into Dublin yesterday morning from Avonmouth Docks, where the 120 unit capacity vessel went into temporary lay-up period, since departing the Irish capital on 31 January (see related posting and photo).

The 13,073grt vessel revived the 8-hour route yesterday with an afternoon sailing bound for Heysham. The vessel was originally reported to be relocated to Baltic Sea operations, but with its charter to Seatruck, the DFDS Seaways funnel symbol of the Maltese cross was painted out.

Though, the Maltese cross can still be seen in Irish ports with calls made by sisterships, Dana Gothia (ex. Maersk Westland) and Dana Hollandia (formerly Maersk Waterford) which are part of the DFDS Group container subsidiary DFDS Logistics.

In total the Lo-Lo shipping division operates four vessels on several routing options with weekly calls to Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Waterford to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.

The German built sisters originally operated Dublin-Rotterdam and Waterford-Rotterdam routes for Norfolk Line (a subsidiary of Maersk / A.P. Moller Group).Incidentally Maersk /Norfolkline also owned the Anglia Seaways until DFDS Seaways purchased the vessel last year.

Published in Ferry

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago