Stena Line has chartered from DFDS a Baltic Sea ferry for its Rosslare-Cherbourg route to cover routine dry-docking of its ropax for a month in advance of the busy Easter break, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Afloat became aware of the development after consulting the Swedish operator’s website and tracking this morning the Ireland-France route’s ropax Stena Horizon, which completed its last inbound sailing to Rosslare Europort this lunch hour.
Its replacement, Patria Seaways, arrived at the ferryport on Tuesday following a five-day voyage from Klaipeda, Lithuania. The charter period is from today, 13 March, to 14 April, as the first sailing by Patria Seaways on the continental route takes place this evening at 1800hrs.
(In an update, this afternoon: Stena Line regret to advise that the 1800hrs sailing from Rosslare-Cherbourg today (13th March) is cancelled due to technical problems. For further details, click here.).
When compared to Stena Horizon’s onboard experience, Stena Line mentions the Patria Seaways has a more limited range of facilities, including basic ensuite cabins. There is no onboard shop nor cinema available, and there is no Wi-Fi service. As for the carriage of pets, they are not allowed in cars or kennels, but there are a small number of pet-friendly cabins available.
As Afloat reported, Stena Horizon made a first Fishguard call last month, having cancelled sailings to Cherbourg due to a port strike, providing an opportunity to carry trial berthing for ‘fleet agility,’ as Stena cited, and that it currently has no plans to operate the vessel from Fishguard.
It has been speculated that Stena Horizon’s arrival in South Wales should it be required to cover the route’s Stena Nordica dry-docking period and Irish Sea fleet as conducted over the years by the ropax. Among its fleet is the Belfast-based and laid-up Stena Vision, the largest and most luxurious ferry to serve their Ireland-France route until the cruiseferry's withdrawal last year. So what future awaits the originally based Scandinavian stalwart?
On Monday, Afloat tracked the Patria Seaways when off Lizard Point, Cornwall, and also in the English Channel was a fleetmate, Optima Seaways, having departed Rosslare, was in the Celtic Sea on the DFDS route to Dunkirk. As reported, Côte D’Albâtre of Transmanche is covering the dry-docking of the route’s larger Athena Seaways while away in Gdansk, Poland.
Since the arrival of Patria Seaways to Rosslare Europort, the newcomer has taken anchorage calls offshore, given the port only has three berths to handle as Ireland’s busiest ropax port, offering 36 direct sailings each week to mainland Europe.
Yesterday, in between such scheduled sailings, Patria Seaways returned to Rosslare, receiving bunkers from Bergen Star, which sailed from Milford Haven, and on completion of duties headed to Holyhead. The North Wales port is where the newcomer, the one-time Stena Traveller, inaugurated Stena Line’s route to Holyhead in 1995, which initially was freight-only.
Role on the decades to last year, when Patria Seaways redeployed to a Spain-Morocco, North Africa service following the DFDS acquisition of a Strait of Gibraltar operator but returned to its familiar Baltic Sea roles.
Another former Irish Sea ferry, which after a surprise return to the Rosslare-Fishguard route, Stena Europe, was chartered to a Spain-Moroccan operator, African Morocco Link (AML), of which Stena acquired a shareholding also last year. The veteran vessel continues its Europe-Africa role.
It was almost a year ago when DFDS themselves chartered from Adria Ferries, the AF Claudia, for the Rosslare-Dunkirk route, having observed the ropax depart the ‘Irish’ Europort from onboard the Stena Europe on St. Patrick’s Day.
Stena Horizon, as the Cartour Beta was built at the Italian shipyard of Cantiere Navale di Visentini, Donada, Venice, and the AF Claudia was also built by Visentini, albeit at their yard in Porto Viro, as Stena Forwarder in 2000. The ferry world can be so interconnected, as in the following year the ropax was chartered to Stena Line to also serve the Dublin-Holyhead route.
