Irish Ferries' second cruise ferry on the Dublin-Holyhead route, which repositioned overnight to Rosslare, departed almost three hours late following its entry in a relief role to Pembroke Dock today, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The former Star 1 of the A/S Tallink Grupp, was acquired by Irish Ferries parent company, ICG, earlier this year, had sailed from Anglesey to Wexford to enable the dry-docking of the route’s Isle of Innisfree. This cruise ferry from Wales arrived late too at 11:45 as it was scheduled to berth much earlier in Rosslare at 0646. As of early this afternoon, the former Dover-Calais ferry departed for Dunkirk to undergo planned dry-docking at the northern France port, where it is due to arrive tomorrow evening.
In the meantime, its knock-on effect resulted in the debut of the ICG-owned James Joyce on the Rosslare-Pembroke Dock route, as the cruise ferry departed at 1235 instead of 0845. Also, according to the company’s sailing updates (at time of writing), the corresponding crossing from Wales, scheduled for this afternoon at 1445, has been pushed back with a delay of up to 3 hours.
However, such delays echoed the maiden commercial sailing by Oscar Wilde when it too was late departing Rosslare, but given the cruise ferry’s impressive turn of speed, capable of up to 27.5 knots, the ferry made up for some lost time when arriving at Pembroke Dock.
The other South Wales ferry port of Fishguard recently closed on a temporary basis to facilitate maintenance; as such, Stena Line passengers and freight, as part of a temporary space-charter agreement with Irish Ferries, are automatically accommodated on their service.
Now that the James Joyce is in service, the cruise ferry with more than 2,000 passenger capacity has a superior level of facilities compared to Stena’s chartering of a Manx ferry, which recently ended a first stint on the Rosslare-Fishguard route. As reported, Ben-my-Chree had reduced passenger facilities and notably no cabins available to passengers. During its brief role, unfortunately, adverse weather affected sailings, leading to cancellations.
Whereas, facilities on James Joyce feature a self-service restaurant, an à la carte restaurant, a bar, a gaming zone, children's play areas, and those for pets. As for truck customers, they have their customary dedicated freight drivers’ facilities. In addition, all passengers have the option of 134 cabins and vehicle decks of 2,380 lane meters, carrying cars, coaches, and freight vehicles.
Originally the custom-built cruise ferry was launched in 2007 as the Star for the Tallink Grupp of Estonia and operated the short-sea shuttle service to the Finnish capital of Helsinki, which is a very popular route that led to larger newbuilds. It was built in the Nordic nation by Aker, the same shipyard group that built Irish Ferries' main Dublin-Holyhead cruise ferry Ulysses but at another shipyard.
It was in May 2023 when the Star was chartered by ICG for 20 months and, as alluded to, was renamed Oscar Wilde, where it entered Irish Ferries service initially on the southern route before being transferred to the central Irish Sea route.
In the next year, another renaming took place at Rosslare with the change to James Joyce, aptly before ‘Bloomsday,’ which is celebrated on 16 June. The main reason, however, was to free up this name for the debut of another acquired second-hand tonnage in the form of Spirit of Britain, which P&O Ferries had run on its premier Dover-Calais route service.
The development saw ICG agree to a bareboat charter and purchase obligation from DP World, owners of P&O, which continues to run its twin 'Spirit' class Spirit of France on the short-sea link.
With James Joyce rejoining the Irish Ferries fleet on the May Bank Holiday, the cruise ferry became the company’s third largest in the fleet of seven. Combined they operate on 4 routes, which includes the firm’s only Ireland-France route between Dublin and Cherbourg.
