Pont-Aven
Built | 2004 Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany |
Size | 39,900gt 184.6M x 30.9M x 9.7M |
Capacity | Passengers: 2,100 Berths: 2, 011 Cars: 650 |
Engines Speed |
4xMARK (42,300kW) 27kts |
Route | Roscoff-Cork (and UK-France/Spain) |
On April 3rd 2004 the eagerly awaited new flagship made her maiden Roscoff-Cork-Roscoff voyage, greeted in Cork by a civic reception along with Breton and Irish pipers. She is a ferry first offering her more than 2, 000 passengers’ facilities that are usually found on cruise ships, including cabins with balconies and a swimming pool with a retractable roof. With the service speed of 27 knots, provided by her four MARK engines she crosses between Cork and Brittany in just eleven hours. The ship is named after the picturesque fishing village near Lorient famed as a haunt of artists including Paul Gaugin.
The Pont-Aven experienced a number of technical problems as she entered into service. The most serious of which was the flooding of an auxiliary engine room in August 2004 caused by a faulty sea valve leaving the ferry unable to move from her Plymouth berth for two days. However, after repairs, she settled into her regular Irish, France, Spanish sailings, becoming a favourite among passangers.
On 22 May 2006 Pont-Aven sustained damage en route to Santander from Plymouth after a being hit by a 9-metre rogue wave, breaking a number of windows overlooking the bow of the ship, and flooding cabins. She was forced to divert to Roscoff where passengers disembarked. On 26 May 2006 Pont-Aven returned to service, while the refurbishment was carried out onboard throughout the voyage. The windows overlooking the bow were initially replaced by sheet metal, these were later replaced with smaller, round porthole windows in early 2008.
At around 04:00 on 29 April 2019, a fire in the engine room caused the ship to divert to Brest whilst en route from Plymouth to Santander. A French Navy helicopter and a tug were sent to assist, and she proceeded to Brest, France under her own power for emergency repairs, however, after inspection it was found one of her port main engines needed to be rebuilt. Initially, she was out of service for most of May for repairs, with the Armourique initially providing cover on Cork sailings, with these later being cancelled until May 19th. She sailed to Gdansk, Poland for a 10 weeklong winter refit, including replacing the damaged engine in January 2020.
Kerry
Built | 2001 Visentini, Italy |
Size | 24,418gt 186.50 m x 25.6 m x 6.5 |
Capacity | Passengers: 1000 (currently sails at 400 capacity) Berths: 412 Cars: 650 |
Engines Speed | 2 * MAN/B&W 9L48/6 24kts |
Route | Rosslare – Bilbao Rosslare – Roscoff |
Ordered as Cartour, the ship was launched on 8 April 2001 at the Italian Visentini shipyards. In October of the same year he entered service with Caronte & Tourist on their Messina – Salerno route.
She was sold in 2007 to the Vietnamese company Vinashin Ocean Shipping, being renamed Vinashin Prince initially and, later, Hoa Sen sailing between Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong. In 2014 the ship was sold to the Stena RoRo, and was renamed Stena Egeria and sailing between Yantai (China) and Pyeongtaek (South Korea).
After this charter ended in summer 2017, the ship returned to Europe. In October the Stena Egeria was charted to Italy’s Adria Ferries for a year (which was renewed for a second year), replacing the Bridge on the routes to Durres from Ancona and Trieste and was renamed AF Michela.
In October 2019 she was returned to Stena Line for charter to Brittany Ferries. She was renamed the Kerry, and entered service in November 2019 sailing between Cork, Santander and Roscoff.
In February 2020, the Kerry’s home port was changed from Cork to Rosslare, and the Spanish port was changed to Bilbao.
Armorique
Built | 2009 STX Europe, Finland |
Size | 29,468gt 168.3M x 26.8M x 6.5M |
Capacity | Passengers: 1,500 Berths: 788 Cars: 470 |
Engines Speed | 2 * MaK 12M43C 25kts |
Route | Roscoff-Cork (and UK-France) |