Irish Ferries was forced to cancel crossings on the Dublin Swift’s first day of seasonal service this year on the Holyhead route due to yesterday's adverse weather, writes Jehan Ashmore.
In total, four scheduled sailings by Dublin Swift were cancelled on the core Ireland-Wales route by the 900-passenger/200-car/16-trailer-unit high-speed craft (HSC). With such capacity not utilised leading to the busy Easter Bank Holiday weekend on the route, which is also operated by cruise ferry Ulysses and ropax Isle of Inisheer, on what will be its first summer on the main Ireland-UK route.
On the previous day (Tuesday), conditions were slight to moderate on the central Irish Sea, from where the HSC was making a practice run back to Dublin, when observed from Stena Horizon during its final sailing to the North Wales port, having covered the dry-docking of Stena Estrid as previously reported. The rival ferry was making 20.7 knots, whilst the Dublin Swift was exactly five knots faster as it sped in the opposite direction bound for its namesake and literary-associated homeport.
Finally, this morning the Dublin Swift, departed Dublin, just before Good Friday, on its debut of seasonal fast-ferry service, starting with the scheduled 0730 hrs., albeit slightly late by five minutes due to operational reasons, and Afloat caught up with the HSC when tracked offshore of Anglesey when underway at an even higher speed exceeding just over 30 knots.
Heading in the opposite direction was Stena Estrid, which resumed service on Monday night, though the aforementioned stand-in vessel Stena Horizon remained in service until Tuesday lunch hour, which saw three Stena ships temporarily operating, including the route's longer-serving Stena Adventurer.
Likewise of Stena Estrid, the Dublin Swift had recently dry-docked, having gone to A&P Falmouth, Cornwall, following winter layover in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in preparation for their season of fast-ferry service.
With the resumption of Dublin Swift, Irish Ferries has its full three-vessel operation in service just before Easter and throughout the summer holidays, competing directly with Stena.
