Stena Line, which closed its only Ireland-mainland Europe Rosslare-Cherbourg route in September following a strategic review, has also sold the link’s former cruise ferry, writes Jehan Ashmore.
One of the largest and oldest in the Swedish-owned fleet that operated the France connection, Stena Vision (39,191 tons/1987), which Afloat previously tracked to Morocco and Spain for trials, then to Gibraltar, followed by anchorage offshore, has been confirmed to have been acquired by Corsica Sardinia Ferries. The veteran vessel is to be renamed Mega Serena, with speculation that it is to replace Mega Express Five.
Today Afloat tracked the 1,700-passenger, 560-car, 120-freight-trailer (2,000 lane meters) cruise ferry underway in the western Mediterranean off Spain and bound for Vado Ligure, located on the Ligurean Sea, in northern Italy. It was also noted the ferry berthed close to a dry dock at Gibraltar, where another former Irish-related ferry, Stena Europe, joined on 1 November, before recently resuming AML's Spain-Moroccan (North African) service.
Before it made its Irish debut in 2023, Stena Vision, with its luxury sauna and Nordic spa, ran between Karlskrona, Sweden, and Gdynia, Poland, and went for another major refit in readiness for the continental connection with Cherbourg, which proved successful, making the closure somewhat surprising. In response Brittany Ferries swept in to increase capacity and, ironically, using chartered tonnage using Stena RoRo's developed E-Flexer class that dominates the route and, as the sole operator, is reflected in passenger volumes.
Originally the 'Vision' was built as Stena Germanica, as one of a quartet, at the Polish shipyard Stocznia, Gdansk, to serve as a large-capacity overnight ferry serving the Kiel, Germany-Gothenburg, Sweden route, and made interim daytime crossings to Frederikshavn, Denmark, before returning to the German port. The ship subsequently was refitted in 1999 and 2010, and in that year was renamed Stena Vision and transferred to the Sweden-Poland route, where another of its class, Stena Spirit, formerly Stena Scandinavia, remains, but for how long? It serves alongside the twin lengthened E-Flexers, Stena Ebba and Stena Estelle, which were introduced in 2022.
The 174.5 m Stena Vision already has links with the Mediterranean; like many Stena ships, it is Cypriot-flagged, and as Mega Serena, it will be deployed on major routes of Corsica Sardinia Ferries, which Afloat adds connects France and Italy.
With a top speed of 20 knots, the ferry, after retrofitting, is equipped for electrical connection from the ground (shore-to-ship) during port stops.
In addition to serving these large islands, the company serves the small island Elba off the Italian coast and, between France and Menorca, the second-smallest of the Balearic Islands.
