#SeasonalWithdrawal - A Scottish seasonal-only route is to close on this final day of this month, following the completion this evening of P&O's last Larne-Troon round trip sailings operated by the fast-craft Express, writes Jehan Ashmore.

This final 2 hour 15 minute crossing will be in the wake of CalMac’s end of seasonal sailings linking Ardrossan to Campbeltown (Mull of Kintyre). The summer service served by Isle of Arran was withdrawn last Sunday. This was the third and final year of a trial pilot based route designed to stimulate tourism between these regions in south-west Scotland.

Likewise of the Express, the Isle of Arran also took a passage time of 2 hours 15 minutes on the scenic 'Kintyre' service. As of previous summers, she too added a boost in capacity on the Ardrossan-Brodrick (Isle of Arran) route alongside Caledonian Isles. (See newbuild replacements).

The closure this evening of P&O’s return crossing between the Ayrshire and Antrim ports, has been faithfully operated for the last decade by the 868 passenger / 195 car-carrying Express. The last inbound sailing to Larne will be marked by the arrival of the 1998 built InCAT 91m craft which is scheduled to arrive at 21.30hrs.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the charter of the craft to P&O is not to be renewed for season 2016. Her Argentinian owners, Buquebus, have secured a new charter with Swedish operator, Nordic HSC to run a service linking the mainland port of Vastervik and Visby, the capital of Gotland.

P&O Ferries have said that they are in the process of evaluating alternative tonnage for the Larne-Troon route for 2016. Since the chartering of Express, P&O have cited the economics of running such a fastcraft have changed and that they are now looking for the best type of vessel to service the route.

In the meantime this leaves to speculation as to what direction P&O will take on the future of the 2 hour 15 minute route which has faced increased competition, notably since the launch in 2011 of the Stena ‘Superfast’ sisters. These ships serve on the second North Channel short-sea route between Belfast-Cairnryan in direct competition to P&O’s year-round Larne-Cairnryan service.This 2 hour route are served by a pair of conventional ferries.

The issue of road access to Troon is significantly better when compared to the alternative single carriageway of the A77 to Cairnryan. This road carries the central-belt traffic from the main populations of Glasgow and Edinburgh, yet the Ayrshire port has an advantage.

As according to Ferry & Cruise Review, it takes one hour and a quarter to drive to Cairnryan, so there is still advantage to P&O maintaining a second route from Troon to Northern Ireland. Also that the operating costs of the Cairnryan-Larne sisters are less than those of the Stena's Superfast twins.

#LastStenaHSS – Former Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead Stena HSS fast-ferry catamaran, Stena Explorer which remains laid-up at the Welsh port since withdrawal a year ago, is the sole surviving sister of three following the scrapping of another craft, writes Jehan Ashmore.

So what is the future of the Irish route? and that of the 19,000 tonnes craft which currently lies idle at her berth in the inner harbour at the Port of Holyhead. The ferry company that owns the port, notably introduced the Stena Explorer, the first of the HSS1500 series of the world’s largest fast-ferries on the Irish Sea route in 1996. She was the last HSS craft to be withdrawn in September 2014.

Afloat.ie contacted Stena as to the fate of last member of the 1500 passenger / 375 car craft in which a spokesperson said that no decision has been made on the future of the HSS at present.

Asides a return to service? wherever that might be unless scrapped, could she became a 'floating' hotel or hostel? Such examples are to be found in several Scandinavian cities and ports, particularly using former ferry tonnage. Or dare I say a restaurent with a drive in car park facility! Should any these be an viable option, there is always the issue of cost and maintenance and a suitable port?

The footage shows the craft berthed at Holyhead's custom-built link-span, from where during the best part of almost two decades of service she sailed to Dun Laoghaire in only 99 minutes! This is compared to the replaced ferry time of 3 hours and 30 minutes. This was achieved all thanks to the craft's then revolutionary General Electric gas turbines producing an impressive 40 knots! That's 74 km/h or 46mph although she was understood to be capable of 110km/h or 70mph!

As for the HSS sister which was scrapped, this was the Stena Discovery which was the final member of the fast-ferry trio. According to the latest issue of Ships Monthly, she was towed to Alliaga, the well-known Turkish shipbreaking centre in late July.

The ‘Discovery’ originally served Stena on the Harwich-Hook van Holland route in the Netherlands for a decade of service until withdrawn in 2007. This led to Stena Discovery being laid-up in Belfast where she spent more two years before sale to Venezuelan interests, arriving in La Guaira in 2009. The craft however never saw any service on the northern coast of South America.

The fate of the second HSS sister, Stena Voyager which entered Belfast-Stranraer service in 1997 remained operating until 2011. In that year the ‘Voyager’ was made redundant following the introduction of a pair of ‘Superfast’ conventional ferries were launched onto a new route, as the Scottish ferry port was switched to Cairnryan but continued to link Belfast.

Likewise of 'Discovery', the Stena Voyager spent two years laid up in Belfast until in 2013. As previously reported on Afloat.ie she she was towed to Landskrona, Sweden to be scrapped.

A subsidiary company, Stena Recycling as the title suggests, took suitable parts of the craft and made them into furniture!

#HSSberthRemoval - A planning application from Stena Line to remove its idle HSS fast-ferry berth in Dun Laoghaire Harbour, has been declared invalid due to failing to comply with articles in the planning procedures, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCoCo) has deemed the application submitted earlier this month to be invalid due to a failure to fully furnish documents in accordance with the Planning & Development Regulations 2001.

Among the articles not complied by Stena Line in its application to DLRCoCo, is the requirment that an applicant shall within the period of two weeks before the making of a planning application give notice of the intention to publish the application in a newspaper.

It transpires that the planning authority only received the application from Stena but this was submitted late, been one day beyond the required fortnight to be recognised valid.

Stena Line's head office in Holyhead (responsible that is for its Irish Sea south operations) has made no new resubmission to DLRCoCo to date.

The Stena HSS berth has remained redundant since the ferry operator withdrew the fast-ferry craft more than one-year ago in September 2014. The ferry firm decided to concentrate all operations in Dublin Port.

Prior to the transfer to the capital, Dublin Port has already been a customer of Stena since 1995, one year before the HSS Stena Explorer took up service on the Dun Laoghaire route. The former fast-ferry remains laid-up in the Welsh port, while two ferries operate the Dublin-Holyhead route which takes 3 hour 30 minute to complete the core central Irish Sea route.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Stena want to remove this year the specialist custom-built HSS craft berth linkspan, associated steel-supporting pier dolphins and concrete structures at St. Michael’s Pier. To give an indication, the outermost dolphin extends from the pierhead and is somewhat a little further into the harbour to that parrallel of the East Pier Bandstand.

The application would also involve work to dismantle where the 19,638 tonnes fast-ferry used to dock next to the connecting east/west walkway (double passenger enclosed gangways) structure and connecting walkways to the terminal completed in the mid-1990’s. There are plans to incorporate the proposed €18m cruise-berth’s associated passenger access and use of vehicle hard-standing areas within the disused ferry terminal.

Also last April, Afloat.ie contacted Stena which confirmed that as part of an agreement with Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, they will have to remove the linkspan and that the ferry firm were seeking the assistance of Stena Metall and Stena Teknik.

In the request by Stena to remove the berthing equipment at St Michael’s Pier, this would mean that no other fast-ferry except for the high-speed sea service (HSS) can use this port infrastructure. Secondly, as referred above the HSS Stena Explorer is laid-up in Holyhead's inner harbour.

There are however several parties who responded earlier this year to DLHC with expressions of interest to resume the seasonal-only ferry service. According to the harbour authority, should there be a suitable operator this would be from the season of 2016.

#MoreFerries? - Ian Davies, Stena Line Route Director, says he might add more ferries but worries about the A55, that’s according to Wales On Line.

The ferry firm says it could bring more or bigger ships to Holyhead if freight trade continues to flourish but warned pinch points on the A55 could impact on expansion plans.

Stena Line route director Ian Davies revealed they had seen between 6% and 8% growth year on year in freight over the past two years.

With the shortest crossing over the Irish Sea the port has boomed on the back of expanding supermarket logistics with giants like Tesco and Marks and Spencer supplying their Irish stores.

To read more on Holyhead Port which has a 'bright future' said Stena Line chief ahead of Superfast X launch click here.

In addition to Afloat's coverage on board the official naming ceremony and launch of the 1,500 passenger /480 car ferry earlier this year.

#HSSoneYearOn – Today, marks the first anniversary since Stena Line withdrew HSS fast-ferry services in 2014 on the historic Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route linking Ireland and Wales that can be traced back to 1835, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The axing of the Highspeed Sea Service (HSS) craft on the central corridor Irish Sea route took place yesterday 12 months, when the final sailing was carried out on 9 September 2014, thus also ending connections to the era of the first direct 'rail-ship' capitals link between Dublin and London that began in 1848.

Stena's switch to Dublin Port in 2014 was to consolidate on existing operations to Holyhead. The move also saw the introduction of Stena Superfast X in March this year to boost capacity alongside route partner Stena Adventurer.

It was recently announced by Stena Line they are to make a planning application request to dismantle the idle HSS berth at the Dun Laoghaire Ferry Terminal on St. Micheals Wharf.

The purpose-built berth link-span (with a covered walkway above and connecting to the terminal), could only be used by the revolutionary craft as they that used satellite technology to dock.

Incidentally, the foyer of the ferry terminal this cruise-season and before has been adapted for check-in purposes, albeit only for turnaround cruises served by the five-masted wind assisted Wind Surf which docked inside the harbour.

It should be pointed out this check-in procedure involved guests having to then transfer to Carlisle Pier, where Wind Surf and other small cruise ships have berthed in previous seasons.

Considerably larger and deep-drafted cruiseships currently have to anchor offshore which necessitates tendering of cruise-goers ashore. This is where Dun Laogahire harbour Company have proposed an €18m cruise-berth to address this issue, albeit amid much controversy. Added to this is the backdrop of Dublin Port’s ABR project to include a €30m cruise terminal already granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala.

Also in Dublin Port is where Irish Ferries are in competition with Stena which launched servies to Holyhead in 1995. In the following year Stena entered the HSS fast-ferry on the Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route replacing the conventional ferry.

The ferry terminal on St. Michaels Wharf was custom built in 1995 for the HSS. So could the facility be better utilised for cruise ships than is currently proposed? There have been calls in the debate to attract specialist small cruiseship operators to bring a more discerning clientele to visit Dun Laoghaire, leaving Dublin to concentrate on mass-capacity cruiseships with equally larger-scaled vessels docking in the capital.

As for the restoration of a seasonal ferry service as sought by Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, they said a berth would be made available in 2016. In response, seven operators have shown an interest to run the 52-nautical mile route.

Asides the HSS berth the only other link-span is a legacy of an older 1960's built carferry terminal. This link-span was adapted for fast-ferry craft based on a succession of smaller Stena ‘Lynx’ craft that first pioneered fast-ferry services on the route in 1993.

It was the launch of the HSS Stena Explorer, the first of a trio of HSS 1500 sisters and the world’s largest fast-ferries capable of carrying trucks too that was a game-changer. Also, this particular HSS craft was the first to enter Stena service on the Irish Sea.

The concept of the HSS Stena Explorer would also set a benchmark as the Finnish built craft had an expansive and impressive open planned passenger deck. She also had the ability to make passage times of only 99 minutes.

At the height of her career, she handled 1.7 million passengers in 2008, however in recent years the service was notably in decline.

A combination of factors led to the closure among them fuel for the gas turbine-engined craft soared and a sharp drop in passengers volumes which plummeted to less than 200,000 passengers in her final year of service.

During Stena Explorer's career of 18 years she carried 15.5 million passengers, 3.15 million cars and 469,000 thousand freight units.

Another major indicator that the writing was on the wall was increased sailing times of 2 hours 20 minutes to stave off operating costs. Added to this was a reduced sailing schedule of only a single daily round trip and based on a seasonal-only service introduced in 2012.

Currently, the only fast-ferry on the central corridor is Irish Ferries High Speed Craft (HSC) Jonathan Swift which crosses the Dublin-Holyhead route in 1 hour 49 minutes.

Compare this fast-ferry passage time to the 3 hours 30 minutes taken by conventional ferries also operated by the company as indeed by Stena on the same route to Wales.

#NewFerries - Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL) on the Clyde as the preferred tenderer for the contract to build two ferries for the Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd’s (CMAL) fleet.

Once finalised, the new £97m contract will create new jobs at the shipyard and secure employment for the existing workforce of around 150 people, providing a boost for shipbuilding and the local economy on the Clyde.

The contract once finally negotiated and entered into, will provide a boost for commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde and follows the shipyard’s successful build of the world’s first two sea-going passenger and vehicle roll-on roll-off ferries to incorporate a low-carbon hybrid system of diesel electric and battery power. The third hybrid ferry is scheduled to launch in December 2015.

The contracts, when signed between CMAL and FMEL, will see two 100 metre ferries built at Port Glasgow, which can accommodate 127 cars or 16 HGV’s or a combination of both and up to 1000 passengers.

Care has been taken with the specification to ensure a high level of passenger comfort and ease of accessibility to all areas.

The ships will be capable of operating across a range of drafts and speeds to meet the precise requirements of the current operator, CalMac Ferries Ltd, and will be able to service a wide range of ports and routes without significant redevelopment over their expected 30 year plus lifespan.

To ensure the new vessels can operate in the demanding conditions of the west coast of Scotland, the winning design from FMEL incorporates a high level of in-built backup capability to improve reliability and ability.

From an efficiency and emissions perspective, they are designed to operate on either marine diesel or liquefied natural gas (LNG), where benefits will be gained by a marked reduction in CO2 and sulphur and nitreous oxides emissions.

The ship will be capable of operating at speeds of up to 16.5 knots and will be fitted with three bow thrusters to provide a high level of manoeuvrability in adverse weather conditions.

FMEL will undertake the detailed design and construction work of new vessels, as well as their testing, equipping, launching and delivery. It is anticipated that the first vessel will enter service early in 2018, with the second following a few months later.

It is likely that the first ship will initially serve on the Ardrossan to Arran route, using the new port facilities being built at Brodick. The second vessel is destined for the Uig Triangle.

#HSSberthRemoval – Ferry operator, Stena Line announced that is it to apply for planning permission to remove its idle ferry berthing equipment at St Michael’s Pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour over the coming months.

Back in April, Afloat reported on the future of the specialist berth-linkspan built only for the Stena HSS fast-ferry (which closed services to Holyhead almost a year ago) against the backdrop of the proposed €18m cruise-berth.

The ferry company took an advertisement out in the Dun Laoghaire Gazette which reports of this story which said Stena Line would be submitting a planning application to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council but, as yet, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has not received a planning application for the works.

As part of Stena Line’s planning notice, it has stated that it will remove the east/west walkway, terminal walkways and the supporting steel and concrete structure at St Michael’s Pier.

By removing the berthing equipment at St Michael’s Pier, high-speed sea service (HSS) ferries will no longer be able to berth in the locality, but currently the Stena Line HSS is the only HSS vessel that docks in the berth.

For more on this story and responses from local councillors, click here.

#Route20thyear – This year Irish Ferries celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Ireland-France link connecting the ports of Rosslare and Roscoff.

Inaugurated in Summer 1995, the service was added to the company's then established continental services to Normandy, via the ports of Cherbourg and Le Havre. The service to provide passengers with a direct service to/from Brittany, a region popular amongst Irish holidaymakers.

Over its two decades in operation, services to Roscoff have recorded some 1,230 ferry arrivals and departures. Passenger carryings on the route are in excess of 1.5 million passengers and 400,000 vehicles.

In recognition of what it terms 'the strong cultural links' that exist between Brittany and Ireland, the intention at the time, according to the company, was to provide a regular and convenient service for Irish and Breton holidaymakers whilst facilitating the development of closer trade links between the two regions.

Since its introduction, the service has continued without interruption serviced in turn by the vessels St. Patrick II, St. Killian II, Normandy and the present cruise ferry, Oscar Wilde.

Today, services to Roscoff form an important part of the wider Irish Ferries Ireland / France route network – one that includes year-round services from Rosslare to Cherbourg and a recently introduced, once-weekly return service from Dublin.

#NewFerryInitiative - The FerryGateway Association which has been formed by major European ferry operators includes Irish Ferries. The association's other members are; Stena Line, DFDS, P&O Ferries, Viking Line, Tallink/Silja Line, Brittany Ferries and Color Line. 

The aim of FerryGateway is to proactively work together to improve sales and distribution of ferry travel. Its first step is the launch of a new systems communications standard for agents and ferry operators.

Hans Björkborg, Managing Director of The FerryGateway Association says: "In Northern Europe alone 125 million passengers travel annually on ferries and online sales between agents and ferry operators has been growing fast. Until now system connections have been supported by out-dated and non-standardised solutions, the new FerryGateway standard is set to change this."

The main advantage with the new FerryGateway xml based communication standard is that a wider range of products and services can be offered for sale.

Hans Björkborg says: "We will also be able to better meet our customers' expectations by being able to offer the full range of ferry products and services. By making selling ferry travelling both easier and more attractive we expect to see growing interest from a wide range of B2B partner organisations."

Besides increasing sales, the new standard will also improve efficiency and lower costs, as agents and operators will only have to maintain one standardised way of system communication.

The standard will be open for all registered users and will be accessible via the ferrygateway.org website.

Agents and operators are already progressing to have the new standard implemented to go live well before the 2016 peak booking season.

#P&OexpressCharter – P&O Ferries have confirmed with Afloat.ie that the operator is not renewing the charter of the fastcraft Express for the 2016 season, writes Jehan Ashmore.

For the last decade the 868 passenger /195 car fastcraft P&O Express has been in service on the Larne-Troon route. The seasonal-only (March-October) route operates to a schedule of two sailings departing each port.

Below is a statement issued by P&O Ferries.

We have given notice to the owners that we will not extend the existing charter arrangements of the craft after completion of the present season's service. As a business, P&O Ferries continually monitors and reviews its fleet to ensure it provides the best vessel for a given route.

Since chartering the Express in 2000, the economics of operating this fastcraft have changed and we are now looking for the best vessel to service the route. P&O Ferries is in the process of evaluating alternative tonnage for the Larne-Troon route for 2016 and we will update our staff and in turn our customers when we are in a position to do so.

Afloat.ie adds that prior to the introduction of P&O Express on the 2 hour 15 minute North Channel route, the 1998 built InCat 91m series craft was launched onto the English Channel in 2000.

In April 2005 she was transferred to the North Channel where she also operated on the Larne-Cairnryan. This shorter 2 hour route is currently served by pair of conventional ro-pax ferries.

As previously reported, the decision not to hire the 5,902 tons Express next year has impacted Isle of Man Steam Packet sailings for the 2016 TT Races. The 22.5 knot craft will not be available to the Manx operator on the Larne-Douglas route which is only operated during the annual prestigious motorcycle event.