Two chartered ferries from the 'Med' for 'Brexit-bypass' roles serving rival operators, where relatively close to each other offshore of Rosslare Europort last night when bound for French ports, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Irish Ferries chartered ro-ro Mega Express Four of Corsica Ferries which Afloat observed in Dublin Bay in the late afternoon, was estimated to be offshore of Rosslare some three hours later.

This proved to be so as the Dublin-Cherbourg (weekend) serving Mega Express Four was tracked off the Wexford coast in the early evening, while almost parallel was DFDS Rosslare-Dunkirk newcomer, ro-pax Pelagos, chartered from La Méridionale.

The Marseille based operator having only acquired the ro-pax in 2019 from DFDS which operated the 114 freight trailer unit ferry with a maiden crossing from Dunkirk completed on Thursday. 

The debut of Pelagos was somewhat delayed as the ro-pax was meant to enter service on Tuesday, to directly replace Drotten, which too was on charter but only since late January. Swedish owners, Destination Gotland having as scheduled required that the ship return for Easter.

As for Pelagos, is of the prolific Visentini shipbuilder's early generation of ro-pax designed ferries that joins another ferry from the same Italian yard, Kerry which remains one of the original vessels that began the new Ireland-France route to Europe two days post-Brexit.

This is the first time these ports have been linked and the French port is the most eastern, compared to the Rosslare-Le Havre route which LD Lines had operated. 

Pelagos is now the third DFDS vessel operating the near 24 hour route. The final vessel of the trio is Visby, sister of Drotten, however DFDS announced that a fourth freight ferry is to enter service in early April to meet the boom in demand from freight hauliers.

When Ark Dania starts service in early April, the DFDS route will increase to 16 sailings per week to and from Dunkirk. The northern France port is situated close to the major markets of the BeNelux nations, the French capital and beyond to central Europe.

Ironically, Pelagos previously spent a career with DFDS as their Liverpool Seaways, when the Danish operator had a short spell of operations on the Irish Sea more than a decade ago. As the name of the ferry indicates, the ro-pax linked Merseyside (albeit Birkenhead) with Dublin Port, where a sister, Dublin Seaways also served until the route closed in early 2011. 

A third ferry from the Mediterranean, ro-ro ferry Blue Star 1 has just been chartered from Attica Group for Irish Ferries Rosslare-Pembroke route in April. This will see parent owners, ICG, redeploy the Ireland-Wales route cruiseferry Isle of Inishmore by launching on the Dover-Calais route in July.

Therefore, ICG's most notable move, will for the first time be able to offer customers as a single UK 'land-bridge' operator on the alternative service across the Strait of Dover and on the Irish Sea. 

Following Irish Ferries two-month charter in February of a Meditteranean ferry, DFDS, operator of the new Rosslare Europort-Dunkirk freight route is to introduce a ferry from Marseille next week, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Pelagos, will become the fifth ferry so far involved since DFDS launched the direct Ireland-mainland Europe service in early January. This to bypass Brexit, benefitting freight hauliers by avoiding the British land-bridge and potential delays associated in UK-EU customs paperwork.

The debut of Pelagos is to replace a ferry, the Drotten that only entered service in late January.

Afloat confirmed with DFDS as to when the Pelagos starts serving hauliers on the direct Ireland-France route. The link that transits the entire English Channel and into the Celtic Sea takes almost 24 hours to connect continental Europe.

The operator stated that Pelagos will take over from Drotten, which is scheduled to make a final outbound sailing from Rosslare on Monday night. On the next day, Pelagos will then be slotting into service also from Rosslare by taking up a sailing bound for Dunkirk.

As of other ropax's that have come and gone on the route, Pelagos is a product of the popular Visentini shipyard built class ropax, which had been in the Mediterranean. A repositioning voyage took five days as the ferry arrived to the northern France port on Thursday.

The 114-freight trailer unit ferry has been chartered back to its previous owner DFDS which as their Liverpool Seaways served DFDS Dublin-Birkenhead (Liverpool) route more than a decade ago.

As Afloat reported then the Liffey-Mersey link (incl. 'foot' passengers) was DFDS final presence on the Irish Sea when it closed in January, 2011. The Danish operator having in July 2010, for the first time entered the Irish Sea market. Albeit, merely 'months' later their other Irish Sea routes and vessels were sold to Stena Line.

Returning to Rosslare where Drotten, it is understood whose operator Destination Gotland AB, require the vessel back in the Baltic Sea to serve between the Swedish island and the mainland.

Drotten, had only entered service in late January, having replaced DFDS Optima Seaways, which launched the new route by making a maiden sailing, two days post-Brexit on 2nd January.

Earlier this month, DFDS announced it was to introduce their Ark Dania, as the route's fourth vessel next month. A maiden call in Dunkirk is scheduled on 1st April.

With this fast-changing ferry scene, Afloat take a recap on the current three-strong fleet, prior to the pending departure of Drotten to Scandinavia.

The ferries involved are Visby, same class of the Drotten, and also chartered from the Swedish operator. In addition the Visentini ropax Kerry on charter from Stena RoRo.