#StenaTALLship – Stavros S. Niarchos a brig operating for Tall Ships Youth Trust which visited Dublin Port earlier this month has returned again and as of this afternoon she departed on a passage bound for Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, writes Jehan Ashmore.
At 197ft long the brig was the largest built in Britain for over a century when launched in 2000 from the then owned Appledore Shipbuilders yard in Bidna, which lies downriver of Bideford in North Devon.
The brig flies the Stena Group houseflag as she is one of more than 130 vessels managed by a subsidiary of the Swedish shipping giant through the Clydebank based Northern Marine Management.
Recently the former Celtic Link operated ro-pax which was taken over by Stena Line has been renamed Stena Horizon (2006/27,522grt) and she becomes under the NMM operated fleet. The 940 passenger capacity vessel continues to serve to the thrice weekly round-trip sailing schedule of the Rosslare-Cherbourg route.
The Italian flagged Stena Horizon is currently berthed in Rosslare Harbour this evening as is her fleetmate, Stena Europe which sails on the company's established service to Fishguard. The St. Georges Channel route commenced in 1906 and originaly operated by railway companies from both sides of the Irish Sea.
The present-day service to Wales offers an alternative 'landbridge' service to the continent via the UK from where the operator's only ferry service to Europe is Harwich-Hook van Holland.
Ironically, the 1981 built Stena Europe previously served on the UK-Dutch route between 1997 until she was transferred to the Wexford-Pembrokeshire link in 2002.
