#FERRY NEWS - With winds of up to 100mph, Scottish ferry sailings on the North Channel routes from Northern Ireland, have been affected with two cancellations on Stena's Belfast-Cairnryan services, according to Channel 4 News.

P&O had no reported cancellations on its Irish Sea routes but is advising passengers to check in normally and expect delays. In addition some Scottish domestic ferry services were cancelled on some routes operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, while other services were disrupted.

To read more about the weather disruption across the Scottish central belt remains which remains on-high alert for storms while Northern Ireland and the north of England are subject to a severe weather warning click HERE. For the latest weather visit www.metoffice.gov.uk/

Sailing updates from Stena Line's Belfast-Cairnryan service can be viewed by clicking HERE and for information on delays on Belfast-Liverpool service click HERE. For sailing updates on routes operated by P&O click this LINK.

For the rest of the Irish Sea ferry routes, including those operated by Stena Line and Irish Ferries it would be also advisable to check each route from the operator's websites.

Irish Ferries Dublin Swift fast-ferry sailings to and from Holyhead have been cancelled, though cruiseferry sailings remain operating. To keep updated visit the 24hrs sailing update posted on the homepage of www.irishferries.com and for Irish weather coverage by visiting www.met.ie

Apart from the novelty factor of this on board feature the 30,285grt vessels will also the largest ever deployed on any North Channel route. In addition the region will see the opening of the new £80m ferryport of Loch Ryan Port, located close to rivals, P&O (Irish Sea) at their terminal in Cairnryan.

Stena's decision to relocate to Loch Ryan Port which is only eight miles away from its existing Scottish terminal in Stranraer on the shores of Loch Ryan is to reduce passage times, fuel costs and road travel times. The closure of this port will also see the end of HSS fast-craft sailings served by HSS Stena Voyager and conventional vessels Stena Caledonia and Stena Navigator.

The Superfast sisters are on charter for two-years, where they will operated the new 2 hour 15 minute route which is due to be launched on 21 November. They will make 12 crossings per day and each of the ten-deck ships can carry up to 1200 passengers, 660 cars or 110 freight units.

Originally the pair, built in 2001 at the Howaldtswerde Deutsche Werft AG, Kiel for Attica Enterprises, were used by Superfast Ferries on their German (Rostock-Hanko) Finnish route. In 2006 they were sold to Tallink, where they operated on other Scandinavian services.