The last of CLdN Ro Ro S.A.'s four inherited FSG-class freight ferries from the era of predecessor owner, Seatruck, finally received its new, albeit shortened, name as part of completing a rebranding exercise, writes Jehan Ashmore.

As the former Seatruck Power called at Harland & Wolff, Belfast, over the weekend, Afloat previously speculated it would present an opportunity to rename and rebrand the vessel. As the ‘Power,’ the simple renaming reflects the demise of the old owner’s prefix trading name to that of the current owner, Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Navigation (CLdN), along with the modification work of freshly applied paintwork to the freighter’s 142m hull. It is not known yet as to what other work may have taken place other than just a cosmetic call.

The rebranding occurred at H&W’s Belfast Dry-Dock of the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FGS) shipyard-built vessel from Germany, which was the last of the FGS class quartet to undergo the transformation. The class otherwise dubbed the ‘HeyshamMax’ quartet was built between 2011 and 2012 specially to serve out of the Lancashire port as part of Seatruck’s dedicated unaccompanied freight model established in 1996 with a single chartered ship running then just one route between Warrenpoint, Co. Down, and the northwest of England port.

The weekend’s brief Belfast call by Seatruck Power also included Monday, given no scheduled sailings take place during its Dublin-Heysham weekly roster. Previously, like its fleetmates, initially the funnel colours were the first to go, following CLdN’s announcement of its acquisition of Seatruck Ferries in 2022, which led to its formal takeover the following year, which also led to ceasing its limited car-based and motorhome service including on the Dublin-Liverpool (see latest) and Warrenpoint-Heysham. In 2016 a Dublin-Bristol route was launched, importing trade cars, but this was a short-lived service that echoed the 'Seaspeed' service through Barry, Wales in the 1970s, which also connected Cork Harbour given a contract with Ford. 

With this existing change of funnel colours, the next most visible change came with the removal of the trading brand name amidships, with its large white ‘Seatruck’ letters clearly on display. Eventually, this became a familiar sight on the North Irish Sea and across three routes of almost 30 years, until it disappeared with the freshly applied paintwork amidships of the 151-trailer-unit-capacity freight ferry (however, one ship remains completely unaltered, as revealed below).

But before identifying this ship, Afloat understands the penultimate FGS to receive such rebranding was the Seatruck Performance, now with its shortened name given what the AIS tracking revealed as the Performance, yet the company’s sailing schedule still retains the ship’s original name listed on the Warrenpoint-Heysham route.

Another clear indicator of the transformation of Seatruck Power is that it has been reflagged from Cyprus to Malta. This is already applicable to the remaining renamed FGS pair, the Precision and Progress, which operate with other vessels that CLdN added as part of the five-ship service on the Liverpool-Dublin link, as also recently reported. The capital is a hub port given its integration with the service Liverpool and linking Santander, Spain, which CLdN inaugurated in 2020 and subsequently expanded in capacity two years later on the Ireland-UK-Spain rotation. 

As for that final unbranded ship, there is the Seatruck Point, the sole remaining P-class quartet of an older generation, which also has an Iberian link, as the class was built in Spain but at different shipyards from the same shipbuilding group, Astilleros S.A. They were also custom-built to serve Heysham and have the same 142m length as the HeyshamMax but differed given a smaller capacity of 120 trailer units. As for the 'Point', it was built in 2008 originally as Clipper Point, as Seatruck's parent company (from 2002) was the Danish Clipper Group, but the vessel was mainly chartered until its return to Seatruck in 2016, but it was only renamed recently under its current name in January 2023. 

Another P class, the Seatruck Pace (Afloat featured in 2014), which retained its name, having been sold in recent months by CLdN to overseas owners in Egypt as reported, to Arab Bridge Maritime as the Al Hussein, between Nuweiba on the Gulf of Aqaba to the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Prior to this most recent disposal, the remaining P-class pair were sold since 2023. Seatruck Pennant, likewise of the' Pace, was sold to Aran Maritime Bridge as Ur and on the same route, whereas Seatruck Panorama was sold last year to Transportacion Maritima de California (TMC) as the Santa Rita running in Mexican waters.