A Manx-flagged ropax ferry made its first Dublin-Holyhead round trip sailings to enable covering for an Irish Ferries cruise ferry, which also yesterday transferred to the company’s southern Irish Sea route, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. (IOMSPCo) ropax Ben-My-Chree, Stena Line, was initially chartered to serve Rosslare-Fishguard before transferring onto the central Irish Sea route, where the 12,474-ton ferry carried out the overnight crossings.

Interestingly, during this stage of the charter to Stena, it involves the Ben-My-Chree taking over the ‘roster’ from rival Irish Ferries with their cruise ferry, James Joyce, and also forms the temporary share-capacity charter agreement between the companies. Aside from cooperating in the exchange of ferries as some head off for planned dry-docking, the agreement also provides passengers and haulers the use of each company's services and is convenient for customers.

Therefore, bookings, as far as Ben-My-Chree is concerned, can only be made through the Irish Ferries website.

As the IOMSPCo’s Ben-My-Chree is a freight-oriented (ropax) ferry, it has a capacity for just 630 passengers, 275 cars, and 90 unaccompanied freight-trailer units, but its role on the Ireland-Wales routes is operating during the low season, which permits dry-docking of ferries in advance of the festive season and those early in the new year. The unaccompanied freight trailers known as ‘drops’ are loaded by port-based vehicles, called tugmasters, which drive on and drive off decks, among them the open aft part of the uppermost vehicle deck (as pictured above), of Ben-My-Chree during a St. George’s Channel crossing earlier this week.

As Afloat reported, the ropax repositioned to Holyhead on Wednesday, where it remained at a layover berth used otherwise by seasonal cruise ships, before taking up its relief role last night on its inaugural sailing from North Wales to the Irish capital. Meanwhile astern, the Stena Estrid was back on its routine route from Holyhead, where its temporary replacement, the Stena Nordica, completed its final crossing from Dublin in the evening. The route's Rosslare-Fishguard ropax, which was replaced by the ‘Ben’ until Tuesday, left Anglesey last night bound for Birkenhead on Merseyside to have its turn to be dry-docked at Cammell Laird, having entered the facility this morning.  

Despite the changes, the core Irish Sea route continues to also be maintained by the service's largest ferries, Irish Ferries cruise ferry Ulysses and, likewise, its competing counterpart, Stena Adventurer, on the 3-hour-30-minute service.

With the Ben-My-Chree arrival at Holyhead, this enabled James Joyce on Wednesday to make an overnight crossing of the Irish Sea bound for Co. Wexford. As alluded, it took over the Rosslare-Pembroke sailing schedule yesterday afternoon of the routine ferry Isle of Innisfree, which has been in service since last year following its transfer from the company’s Dover-Calais route.  

The oldest ferry in the company’s seven-ship fleet, Isle of Innisfree, was yesterday delayed on its sailing from Pembrokeshire, which caused a knock-on effect that led to the cruise ferry entry being delayed and resultant hours behind schedule. The veteran vessel, however, by mid-afternoon, finally set off for planned winter dry-docking at Dunkirk, France.

Now that James Joyce is operating the Rosslare-Pembroke route, the cruise ferry with more than 2,000 passenger capacity has a superior level of facilities compared to Stena’s chartered Manx ferry, which, as alluded to recently, ended a first stint on the Rosslare-Fishguard route. The ferry operates with a reduced level of passenger facilities and notably no cabins available. During its brief role, unfortunately, adverse weather affected several sailings that led to cancellations.

The presence of the Steam Packet’s former flagship at Dublin is not strange, as the ropax almost a year ago was chartered to Stena to offer a ‘freight’-only contingency route to Heysham while Holyhead was closed following a ferry incident at the port during Storm Darragh.

In addition, during its early career, the Dutch-built (1998) ropax served the Douglas-based company’s seasonal route to the Irish capital.