Last month the newbuild Stena Futura (22,500 tons) entered service on the Belfast-Heysham freight route, leaving a remaining older fleetmate partnering, but only until early next year, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The route’s long-running Stena Hibernia (13,207 tons), built in 1996 with capacity for 114 trailers, made its debut on the Irish Sea route in 2015, followed by the twin Stena Scotia, which joined three years later. The newbuild was constructed from the shipyard of CMI Shipyard in Weihai, China, has directly replaced the freighter originally built for Maersk (Norfolkline) services on the North Sea and on the Belfast-Heysham route.
The north Irish Sea link, along with Belfast-Birkenhead (Liverpool), was acquired by DFDS as part of their brief foray on the Irish Sea and would be ultimately sold to Stena in 2010 (see story) relating to the Dublin-Birkenhead route, which was not part of the sale.
Stena Futura is the lead ship of two NewMax /2800 class ships; this marketing name reflects the ship’s freight capacity of 2,800 lane metres, which in reality is actually even more at 2,848 lane metres. The capacity has boosted the route by an impressive 40%, having been driven by haulier demand on the Northern Ireland-England route. Each NewMax has an additional 1,000 additional lane meters compared to the twins that they replace as part of the Swedish company’s fleet investment programme for more efficient and greener ships.
The hybrid-powered Stena Futura with its NewMax class title also reflects the maximum length of the vessel that can be used at Heysham, at 147 m, which is longer than the older twins, each of which is 142 m. Stena Futura uses a multi-hybrid propulsion system enabling the use of battery power, biofuel, and methanol; however, there is a notable difference with its twin, Stena Connecta, as this vessel has the additional use of two 28x4 meter Norsepower Rotor Sails™. On each crossing, it can save up to 9% in fuel, and so Stena Futura is also ready for such sail installation.
Combined, all these technologies form part of Stena’s sustainability, which also features integrating battery propulsion and shore power capabilities and is the goal of the company to reduce CO₂ emissions by 30% by 2030.
Stena Scotia departed Belfast last month to be dry-docked at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, from where the Japanese-built vessel remains before it makes a debut on the route to Dublin, where Stena followed due to P&O's closure in 2023. Currently the central Irish Sea corridor service (competing with CLdN through Liverpool) is operated by the chartered Bore Song from Scandinavian owners, though the route was launched last year by ropax Stena Horizon before it transferred to the Baltic Sea service. Previously it was withdrawn from the Rosslare-Cherbourg route, which closed almost a month ago, with Stena Vision now at Gibraltar.
Much further overseas is where the Stena Connecta will soon begin a delivery voyage from the same China shipyard to the Irish Sea, a voyage that is expected to take several weeks. The second NewMax is scheduled to enter regular service on the Belfast–Heysham route from January 2026.
Also berthed at the shipyard facility is another Stena ship, and also a freight ro-ro, the Stena Forerunner, which departed Europe from Harwich, England, on the North Sea. The freighter departed on the 25th of July and arrived last month on the 7th of September. Its voyage is to enable enlargement of freight decks; the same was carried out on another vessel of the same Stena 4-Runner (Mk-II Class) class, the Stena Foreteller, which returned to the UK in July, boosting capacity by 30% on the Immingham-Rotterdam (Europoort) route.
