Patria Seaways of DFDS Ferry, which was chartered to cover the absence of Stena Horizon, was today in its wake on the North Sea, not far from where the former Ireland-France ropax also departed Rosslare recently, writes Jehan Ashmore.

While earlier on Saturday morning (April 19), the Stena Horizon, having also transited the Kattegat, between Denmark and Sweden, entered the Bay of Lubeck, Germany, from where it completed its repositioning voyage at Travemunde, where it is to embark on a new role on the route to Liepaja, Latvia.

Patria Seaways is also heading for Scandinavia, bound for the neighbouring Baltic Sea state of Lithuania and its registered homeport of Klaipeda, having departed Rosslare on Thursday, the same day when Stena Line reintroduced the much larger and more luxurious Stena Vision, which was withdrawn from the route to Cherbourg last October. Afloat will have more on its next role for the Danish ferry company, which also has a presence in Rosslare with their route to Dunkirk. 

Also this afternoon saw the completion of Stena Vision’s return crossing from France, marking its third year on the route but notable as the sole-serving ship, which is a first for the cruise ferry on the route. The former Scandinavian serving-ship has replaced the Stena Horizon, which itself is to replace the Stena Livia, a similar yet sold ’‘Visentini’-built ropax on the Baltic Sea route, supporting the Stena Flavia, also of the same ropax design, on the longer-distance Baltic Sea route. As such, the route takes a further three hours than the 17-hour Ireland-France connection. 

All of this follows the end of the DFDS Ferry’s ropax charter on the Ireland-France route that initially was delayed with the detention of Patric Seaways before it started service just after St. Patrick’s Day and until 14 April. During those weeks, Stena Horizon covered the scheduled dry-docking of the Dublin-Holyhead route's Stena Estrid, which resumed service on Monday. Its return took place in the lead-up to this busy Easter Bank Holiday, rejoining partner Stena Adventurer, though it wasn’t until the next day when Stena Horizon concluded its final day of Irish Sea operation and potentially its link with Ireland.

Due to logistical operational reasons, the originally intended month-long charter of Patria Seaways, however, was extended by two days before the larger cruise ferry Stena Vision was relaunched on the Ireland-France route, as referred to above. The service’s long-serving functional ropax, Stena Horizon, was seemingly scheduled to return from Baltic Sea duties with a sailing on 8 July, based on the Stena Line website booking page; however, yesterday, all of this was to change with an update. As for the entire year, the more superior Stena Vision is the named ferry operating on the continental route, competing more favourably with its similar-sized rival ferries of Brittany Ferries and Irish Ferries, but with this operator instead using Dublin as the Irish port.  

It would appear that Stena has committed the considerably larger cruise ferry with extensive passenger facilities to its predecessor, yet the ropax does have larger cabin capacity than the vessel it is replacing, the Stena Livia, which has been sold to New Zealand 'interislander' interests.

As highlighted before, Stena Vision is a fuel-thirsty vessel, and ageing, coupled with the fact that the service is competing with more modern tonnage, makes it more economical.

There is some speculation as to Stena Horizon's timeframe on the Baltic, but if it remains, the Swedish company will eventually require a more fuel-efficient vessel yet retain enhanced passenger facilities, notably given its single-ship service. Whereas rivals offer varying vessels with the running of both a cruise ferry and ropax, and hence a two-ship service also throughout the entire year.