The last sailing operated by Stena Superfast X took place on Tuesday from Cairnryan, Scotland to Belfast Harbour from where the ferry departed for the final time last night bound for Greece, writes Jehan Ashmore.

It was the turn of the North Channel route where the ferry would last serve Stena Line as otherwise Stena Superfast X had until recently operated on the Dublin-Holyhead. The ferry has served Stena for five years (since March, 2015) having joined Stena Adventurer on the Ireland-Wales route which led to the withdrawal of Stena Nordica.

Afloat also tracked Stena Superfast X this morning to the west of the Scilly Isles off Cornwall and heading for the Port of Piraeus. On arrival the ferry is to undergo conversion back into a night-ferry to increase cabin accommodation for a new charter role from Stena RoRo in the Meditterranean Sea for operator, Corsica Linea.

The 1,200 passenger / 2,000 freight lane metre ferry is according to the new operator to be renamed A Neptina and begin service in June between Marseille, France and Algiers, the capital of Algeria in north Africa. Another former Irish Sea and continental Europe serving ferry, Oscar Wilde formerly with competitor, Irish Ferries which went to dry-dock at Harland & Wolff, Belfast last year when ICG agreed to sell the ship to Swiss based MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA.

MSC's ferry subsidiary, Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) renamed the ferry GNV Allegra to operate the Genoa-Olbia in Sardinia. Afloat today tracked the ferry though to a dry-dock in Marseille where the ferry last month made a repositioning sailing from the Italian city port. 

Oscar Wilde was replaced by Irish Ferries newbuild cruiseferry W.B. Yeats (see Irish Sea) which in 2019 completed a first season on the Dublin-Cherbourg route albeit having abandoned services to France based from Rosslare Europort. This is where Brittany Ferries have stepped this year with the new Spain route in addition to the former Irish Ferries seasonal service to Roscoff that the French operator is to revive later this month. 

As for the conversion of Stena Superfast X this will be somewhat full-circle as the ferry launched as Superfast X in 2000 for Greek based Superfast Ferries (Attica Group). At their peak of operations, Superfast traded not just in the Med and Adriatic Seas on Greece-Italy routes but also in northern Europe on the North Sea and in the Baltic. The ship also operated as Jean Nicoli for another Med operator, the former French operator of (Veolia's) SNCM. 

Ahead of Stena Superast X's Greek bound sailing was Brittany Ferries Kerry (also chartered from Stena RoRo). However this ropax ferry passed to the east of the Scilly Isles having departed Rosslare Europort in the early hours of today, Wednesday, 4 March. The departure from the Wexford ferryport was only the ropax ferry's second outward sailing on the new direct Ireland-Spain route launched last Friday with a crossing of the Bay of Biscay bound for Bilbao.

Stena Superfast X's recent deployment from familiar Dublin-Holyhead duties, saw the ferry cover the sailing roster of the Belfast-Cairnryan route's Stena Superfast VIII which went off service briefly and to Harland & Wolff. Though this did not require the ferry to dry-dock but instead berth at a shipyard quay to enable a maintenance inspection.

Sister Stena Superfast VII maintained sailings in tandem on the North Channel with Stena Superfast X which had previously returned to the Dublin route following cover carried out in the winter with a stint on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route. This was a first for the Superfast X to operate on the Ireland-France route in addition to been the largest tonnage for Stena on the mainland Europe connection. The replacement ferry allowed routine ferry, Stena Horizon to undergo a routine drydocking at A&P Falmouth in Cornwall.

Also to have a scheduled winter dry-docking in the same UK yard was Stena Adventurer which returned to the Dublin-Holyhead route almost a week ago, following an afternoon sailing from the Welsh port last Thursday. The older ferry's sailings were swapped with the new Chinese built E-Flexer class leadship Stena Estrid which entered service during Storm Brendan. As for the South Korean built Stena Adventurer dating to 2004, refurbishment work took place to upgrade some passenger facilities to reflect those on the new ferry.

A sister of Stena Edda is expected to begin Belfast-Birkenhead (Liverpool) sailings this month and in the process is to directly replace Stena Lagan. This will leave identical fleetmate Stena Mersey to continue operating until ultimately replaced by the third E-Flexer, Stena Embla.