James Joyce, whose charter to Irish Ferries ceased in January, is this May Bank Holiday Monday making its first commercial sailing for parent owner ICG, having recently acquired the Baltic Sea cruise ferry, writes Jehan Ashmore.
As Afloat reported last month, Irish Continental Group (ICG) signed an agreement with A/S Tallink Grupp to sell the 2007 custom-built cruise ferry originally launched as the ‘Star’ for the Tallinn, Estonia-Helsinki, Finland ‘shuttle’ service, notably then sporting a garish lime green livery.
Its most recent role has been Tallink’s Paldiski, Estonia-Kapellskär, Sweden route, with its replacement in mid-April taken over by Superfast IX following its ending of a long-term charter in Canada that saw the return of this Superfast class ferry to European waters.
Until then, the Star 1, having received this new, albeit slightly adjusted, name earlier in the year, following its 20-month charter from ICG, initially as the renamed Oscar Wilde, followed by James Joyce, was launched back into Baltic Sea service for Tallink but also in a new yet conservative livery. This would only remain a mere two months on the Baltic Sea, as the reintroduction of James Joyce, fresh from repainting in Irish Ferries livery, took place in late April at a Danish shipyard, as outlined below.
This, along with the reverted renaming to James Joyce, is where Irish Ferries had prepared in readiness for its core Ireland-UK route role, which resumed from Dublin Port this afternoon with the 1345hrs scheduled sailing. However, the inaugural departure was delayed by almost an hour on the crossing bound for Holyhead. Its first inbound sailing from Wales is scheduled for 19.30hrs with an arrival back in the capital at 2300 hrs.
The 3 hour 15 minute crossing is also operated by fellow cruise ferry Ulysses, built by the Aker Shipyards, which at another of their yards in Finland built the Star. As such, they share a Scandinavian shipbuilding heritage that is world-renowned in ferry and cruise industry circles, albeit there has been a sharp shift with the former tonnage built in China over recent years.
Also on the Ireland-Wales link is the high-speed craft (HSC) Dublin Swift, which resumed seasonally operated fast-ferry sailings last month. This sees Irish Ferries now run the HSC in addition to two cruise ferries to match its rival Stena Line with their pairing in the form of the Stena Adventurer and the newer Stena Estrid, which entered service five years ago.
With a capacity for more than 2000 passengers, James Joyce is the largest and fastest cruise ferry on the Irish Sea, with a potential top speed of 27.5 knots. Its reintroduction in the shoulder season by Irish Ferries is a boost to the increasingly busy Ireland-Wales route, along with offering 134 cabins and vehicle decks of 2,380 lane metres, carrying cars, coaches, and freight vehicles.
James Joyce has a self-service restaurant, an à la carte restaurant, a bar, gaming facilities, pet facilities, and a children's play area. As for truck customers, they have their customary dedicated freight drivers’ facilities on what is a major trade route between the counties and ‘landbridge’ to Europe and where Irish Ferries also has a Dover-Calais service.
Another attraction is that the James Joyce has the largest duty-free shop on the Irish Sea, with more than 17,000 square feet, offering customers more choice on the Ireland-UK link. This increases the competition with rival Stena Line, which currently continues to offer special duty-free foot passenger-based fares. In response, Irish Ferries, in recent weeks, unusually took the move to offer similar fares in efforts to draw attention to their service; however, at the time of writing, they are no longer available. Afloat also noted that such day trips based on a round trip onboard the James Joyce, were not permitted, as it returns to the capital late at night with a 2300hrs arrival; this also applied to back-to-back HSC sailings.
With James Joyce back on the route today, the cruise ferry, likewise of the Irish Ferries fleet, has also reverted to the Cypriot flag and has taken over the sailing roster of ropax Isle of Inisheer, which is now replaced from the Ireland-Wales route. This has enabled the smallest member of the fleet to continue operating as the secondary ship on the Dublin-Cherbourg route, supporting the cruise ferry, W.B. Yeats, on the Ireland-France route.
Again, Irish Ferries competes for market share with Stena, but they instead use Rosslare as the Irish port connecting to the Normandy port and run by another reintroduced cruise ferry, the veteran Stena Vision, which, as of 2023, was also transferred from Scandinavia. Last month its predecessor, Stena Horizon, entered service on the Travemunde, Germany-Liepaja, Latvia link.
In addition, the popular Ireland-mainland Europe route is serviced by a third operator, Brittany Ferries, which offers both a cruise ferry and ropax option on the continental connection.
Prior to the James Joyce comeback, Afloat tracked the cruise ferry when in Danish waters, having departed the Fayard shipyard on Funen to receive repainting into Irish Ferries branding. Beforehand the cruise ferry had crossed the Baltic Sea from Estonia. On completion of its shipyard call, the voyage to Ireland resumed on 28 April with it repositioning through the Kattegat and Skagerrak, across the North Sea and around Scotland, and finally through the Irish Sea.
Its arrival to Rosslare Europort took place on 1 May, where almost a year ago the Oscar Wilde was renamed James Joyce. Until then, Irish Ferries launched the ‘Oscar’ initially on the Rosslare-Pembroke route before transferring to Dublin-Holyhead/Cherbourg (weekend duties), sharing with W.B. Yeats. This morning the James Joyce, after preparatory operations, made the short coastal passage to the capital before embarking on its formal career with Irish Ferries.
As for the first renaming, as alluded to at Rosslare, this took place just days before ‘Bloomsday’ and enabled freeing this same name for Irish Ferries, which signed a year ago the bareboat charter of the cruise ferry Spirit of Britain from P&O. This Oscar Wilde is ironically competing with its rival Spirit twin, the Spirit of France, along with the Fusion class twins.
Also running on the intensely competitive UK-France short-sea route is DFDS Ferry as the third company with the same number of ferries.
