Stena Line fleet movements

Started by Collision-course, October 12, 2008, 04:54:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

IFPete

#1770
I travelled on Both Superfast VIII and Superfast VII the weekend of the Ireland Scotland match.

As you can image the services  were very full and the staff did there best to cope,

coming back on Sunday evening from Cairnryan we loaded on the bottom deck of Superfast VII which had just come out of a compressed drydock,

The car deck was like a building site with hazardous chemicals and oil drums scattered around the car deck and not locked away in a secure fireproof area as you would normally expect.

There was no fireproof paint left on the car deck floor and there appeared that the car decks had not received any attention during the refit at H&W.

This ferry was a fire hazard and the word shipshape appears to be missing from the Stena vocabularly.

In all my years travelling with many ferry operators around the world i have never seen anything as bad. 

This falls down because the Northern Marine experiment has badly failed.

No suitable maintenance plan and no suitable tonnage to allow proper planned maintenance to be carried out.

I also noticed the ships forktruck powered by LPG which i felt was inapproapriate in a hazardous area. 

The problems with Superfast X are a simpton of this too.

Steven

Just a few bits and bobs, so chucking them all into one post.

Stena Feronia has been renamed Strait Feronia (New Zealand flag) and is currently at Landskrona being prepared for her new life on the Cook Strait.

As above, Stena Nordica has been renamed Malo Seaways.  To the surprise of some people (myself included) she is being repainted with a blue DFDS hull.  Her cow catcher is in place on the bow and the rear ramps have been removed.

Stena Superfast X had a coming together with the berth at Holyhead last night.  She made it across to Dublin but has been cancelled today.

Finally, reports from Italy indicate that Trinacria and Partenope are to be returned to Stena RoRo early next week.  Trinacria has a summer charter lined up with Balearia and is to be renamed Sicilia.  There has been a major reorganisation at TTT lines (which is outside the scope of this thread), but in brief they have formed a new company in partnership with Cartour/Caronte and Tourist and taken Cartour Gamma and either Sorento or Catania on charter from Grimaldi as their tonnage.  As a result, some in the Italian press have speculated/indicated that Epsilon could be recalled if Cartour resolve their dispute with the Messina authorities to return their own route to a 2 ship operation - personally I don't see it (and I'm sure ICG wouldn't be too amused either!).
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline

Matt73

Quote from: IFPete on April 10, 2015, 08:06:43 PM
I travelled on Both Superfast VIII and Superfast VII the weekend of the Ireland Scotland match.

As you can image the services  were very full and the staff did there best to cope,

coming back on Sunday evening from Cairnryan we loaded on the bottom deck of Superfast VII which had just come out of a compressed drydock,

The car deck was like a building site with hazardous chemicals and oil drums scattered around the car deck and not locked away in a secure fireproof area as you would normally expect.

There was no fireproof paint left on the car deck floor and there appeared that the car decks had not received any attention during the refit at H&W.

This ferry was a fire hazard and the word shipshape appears to be missing from the Stena vocabularly.

In all my years travelling with many ferry operators around the world i have never seen anything as bad. 

This falls down because the Northern Marine experiment has badly failed.

No suitable maintenance plan and no suitable tonnage to allow proper planned maintenance to be carried out.

I also noticed the ships forktruck powered by LPG which i felt was inapproapriate in a hazardous area. 

The problems with Superfast X are a simpton of this too.

Oh dear.  The old saying "don't spoil the ship for for a ha'porth of tar" springs to mind here.  I shall be travelling on the Lagan in the summer and then the Hollandica and Britannica. I do hope that this lapse in standards has not become endemic, or I shall have a few things to say to customer services!  There simply is no excuse for it and it does not take very long for a company's reputation to be ruined by this sort of sloppy penny pinching.

Matt 

Matt73

So they have built in the nonsense we have on the railways with Network Rail responsble for tracks and signals and the operators the rest.  What an utter nonsense!  How on earth is this managed? 

Matt

MerseyMan

Quote from: IFPete on April 10, 2015, 08:06:43 PM
I travelled on Both Superfast VIII and Superfast VII the weekend of the Ireland Scotland match.

As you can image the services  were very full and the staff did there best to cope,

coming back on Sunday evening from Cairnryan we loaded on the bottom deck of Superfast VII which had just come out of a compressed drydock,

The car deck was like a building site with hazardous chemicals and oil drums scattered around the car deck and not locked away in a secure fireproof area as you would normally expect.

There was no fireproof paint left on the car deck floor and there appeared that the car decks had not received any attention during the refit at H&W.

This ferry was a fire hazard and the word shipshape appears to be missing from the Stena vocabularly.

In all my years travelling with many ferry operators around the world i have never seen anything as bad. 

This falls down because the Northern Marine experiment has badly failed.

No suitable maintenance plan and no suitable tonnage to allow proper planned maintenance to be carried out.

I also noticed the ships forktruck powered by LPG which i felt was inapproapriate in a hazardous area. 

The problems with Superfast X are a simpton of this too.

Absolutely everything you have mentioned there is a failing of the ship board management, and nothing to do with Northern Marine. The loading officer should have stopped the operation to make the decks safe if it was in such a state. Blaming someone who isn't on the ship is just ridiculous. 

From what i've read, it is no experiment either. Seems like it is a measure that is here to stay and the sooner Stena Line realize it, the better for all of us passengers. I'm tired listening to them moan about Northern Marine. This whole "anti-NMM" thing is getting old.

The bottom line is that if the ships on board management think it is a fire hazard they have a responsibility to stop the boat and inform whomever is responsible for it ashore and stop everything until it is made safe.

Steven

Quote from: Steven on April 10, 2015, 10:19:06 PM
Just a few bits and bobs, so chucking them all into one post.

Stena Feronia has been renamed Strait Feronia (New Zealand flag) and is currently at Landskrona being prepared for her new life on the Cook Strait.

As above, Stena Nordica has been renamed Malo Seaways.  To the surprise of some people (myself included) she is being repainted with a blue DFDS hull.  Her cow catcher is in place on the bow and the rear ramps have been removed.


from photos taken yesterday it would appear that the starboard side of the hull is now totally DFDS blue.  It looks like they have finished welding the ledges on to the stern - I assume this is for the fingers of the berth(s) in Dover to rest on.  The St arboard side of the funnel is now blue as well, and scaffolding has been erected to the stern side already..  It has been said she will be in Dover in the 15th - if so there is much painting to be done in that short space of time! 
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline

Steven

QuoteWith increasingly mixed reaction on Dun Laoghaire Harbour's plans for a proposed new €18m cruise berth facility, what will happen to the existing albeit redundant Stena HSS fast-ferry linkspan berth, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Afloat.ie has inquired with Stena Line to confirm the status of the unique ro-ro port infrastructure on St. Michaels Wharf. The ro-ro linkspan berth was exclusively designed to serve the High Speed Seaservice (HSS) car-carrying and freight craft catamaran, Stena Explorer. She made her debut on the Dun Laoghaire-Holyhead route in April 1996.

It is now almost seven months ago since the route to Holyhead closed with the final sailing departing Dun Laoghaire Harbour on 9 September. Stena say as part of their agreement with Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, they will have to remove the linkspan and that they are making plans to do so with the assistance of Stena Metall and Stena Teknik.

The end of the Ireland-Wales route, came as no surprise as there was widespread speculation in recent years over the service's ability to be viable. It was in February when Stena announced the permanent closure of the route and that there would be no service in 2015.

This led to Stena pulling out of Dun Laoghaire Harbour and concentrate instead out of neighbouring Dublin Port on the existing route to Holyhead and launch of Stena Superfast X alongside Stena Adventurer.

When the HSS Stena Explorer entered service almost two decades ago, the Dun Laoghaire linkspan was custom built for the fast-ferry. Incidently, she was the first HSS launched and would become the last of the trio of HSS 1500 series to remain serving Stena Line.

When berthing at the linkspan, the HSS Stena Explorer did not require mooring ropes alongside St. Michaels Wharf, but instead satellite technology guided the 19,638 tonnes fast-ferry to the linkspan. Shore-based arms would clamp at the craft-stern upon arrival and released for the departing sailing on the 52-nautical mile crossing to Anglesey.

An Irish Sea serving sister, HSS Stena Voyager which served Belfast-Stranrear (since closed) had on occasions appeared on the central corridor route to cover for 'Explorer's dry-docking. As for the third sister, HSS Stena Discovery, she served on the southern North Sea on the Harwich-Hook van Holland route.

Currently, a public consultation process on the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company's cruise-berth proposal is underway with an expiry date for submissions / observations next Monday 13 April (for further details click HERE).

The consultation is in advance of an expected planning application by DLHC on behalf of the Dun Laoghaire Cruise Stakeholder Group to An Board Pleanala.

If the plan goes ahead the cruise facility would incorporate use of the former Stena ferry terminal on St. Michaels Wharf which was built in the 60's and originally featured a pair of ro-ro ferry berths.

The former Stena terminal as previously reported would also be transformed as the ferry vehicle marshalling area would be turned into coach, taxi and mini-bus parking use.

In addition the project would involve constructing a new boardwalk overlooking the adjoining 820-boat marina.
Source: http://afloat.ie/port-news/ferry-news/item/28289-hss-ferry-linkspan-to-be-removed-with-backdrop-of-cruise-berth-plans
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline


giftgrub


Normandy

Am I mistaken or has the Stena Adventurer missed its afternoon sailing from Holyhead, The 2040 departure from Dublin is marked as cancelled. Anyone know why?

ferryfan

Adventurer is still in Holyhead she has been on Ulysses berth and is now back on her own to let Ulysses berth. Nobody in Stena Line office at weekend to update website properly. Hope passengers got accommodated on Ulysses and they are not going to stuff them all onto the 02.30 Superfast X sailing (that ship is a disaster).

FerryMan

Quote from: Normandy on April 18, 2015, 07:40:43 PM
Am I mistaken or has the Stena Adventurer missed its afternoon sailing from Holyhead, The 2040 departure from Dublin is marked as cancelled. Anyone know why?

Ferry Check had it as a planned in water survey, but has now been removed.
Ferry Master

Davy Jones

Isn't she still due a dry-docking around now?

giftgrub

Visually due a repainting at the very least, certificate wise can probably be delayed for awhile, they need to get another ship to cover, so unlikely to get done this year.