This is dissappointing , at 35 years old there is still about 25 years left in her (although not for operation in Europe).
Two factors at play here are , firstly Solas 2010 regulations come into full force in october this year , these are higher standards for ship design and operation , many vessels will be withdrawn as making them compliant with the new standards is too expensive , indeed these regulations have already claimed the worlds oldest operational passenger liner , the 95 year old Doulos (which saw action with the US Coast Guard in 2 world wars) was withdrawn in December due to non conformity with Solas 2010.
Secondly , the collapse of ship prices globally due to the reccession and subsequent drop in shipping has led to a situation where many ships values have fallen below the scrap metel price of its hull and as such many ships are heading to the breakers prematurly , it is a pitty the former Quiberon is one of them.

Collision-course wrote on 07/26/10 at 03:52:34:


Pass the tissues....

Collision-course wrote on 07/26/10 at 19:59:25:


Fixed, I'll try put together a feature on her for the site later...she was the first ship a lot of people my age traveled on....