P&O Fleet Movements

[giftgrub]

Pride of Kent was beached this morning at an impressive speed of 20 knts, would have been quite a sight to see that size of ferry going ashore at speed.

[giftgrub]

P&O Ferries weird rebranding continues, as Liberte leaves China for Europe they will soon have two double enders on Dover Calais with the new look logo and branding, the Spirit of Britain drydocked in Falmouth and returned to service with the old logo on the hull and a paint touch up rather than full repaint and one assumes Spirit of France will be the same.
Given they only have four ferries on Dover Calais it is strange that they have chosen not to roll out the new logo to their existing Spirt class and then onto their other vessels during the refit season.

Pride of Canterbury has also arrived at the Aliaga anchorage yesterday and has gone up the beach at over 19 kts, a fitting farewell at that speed.

[shipbiulder101]

This whole rebranding fauxpax reminds me of flyBe pre 2020 where they had 3 liveries shortly after their 3rd livery was announced they went bust. P&O have 2 livery designs atm. The Pride of Hull/Rotterdam style livery and the full blue hull with not blue accents as used on the Larne pair and Norbank/bay and add to that the Fusion class having a new logo but old font for ship names/port or registry.

[giftgrub]

This whole rebranding fauxpax reminds me of flyBe pre 2020 where they had 3 liveries shortly after their 3rd livery was announced they went bust. P&O have 2 livery designs atm. The Pride of Hull/Rotterdam style livery and the full blue hull with not blue accents as used on the Larne pair and Norbank/bay and add to that the Fusion class having a new logo but old font for ship names/port or registry.

Its a weird one, I can kind of understand on different routes with refits etc, but when you have the other ships using the same ports with different logos when they come out of drydock its not very uniform and could have been easily fixed, but you are quite right with the North Channel pair having the blue hull and the Hull Rotterdam livery different also, its not a case of one brand fits all when it comes to P&O.

Link below to excellent history of the Canterbury which was beached earlier today.

https://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/mv-pride-of-canterbury-past-and-present/

[giftgrub]

Two years on from the Patrick's day switch to agency crewing the news from P&O never gets better

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/18/po-ferries-crew-minimum-wage

[giftgrub]

P&O's latest addition the Liberté started service today, which leaves the Dover fleet as two Spirits and the two double Enders,

https://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/mv-po-liberte-past-and-present/

Bizarrely they are now apparently planning to offload the Spirit of Britain, obviously purpose built for cross channel service so only suitable for either DFDS or Irish Ferries to purchase, given the massive contrast between their HR policy and having two of the largest and most innovative ferries built (azipod propulsion / hybrid power / double ends etc )to then decide to sell one of their relatively new ferries (Spirits have a decent twenty years left) on this intensive route, you really have to wonder what are they thinking!

Libertè onboard

https://youtu.be/b2wbmmCT0c4?si=pSY91WS2Ou8mJyhS

Pioneer in drydock

https://youtu.be/GlaHuPfgrF4?feature=shared

Spirit of Britain onboard from 7.30

https://youtu.be/VyJdRr93d7Q?si=BZmW08k-bjZ02b-b

[Ferriesbetterfastercheape]

Tja - Irish Ferries is operating ca. 14 dep. / 24 hours in each direction with 3 ferries only.
P&O has now 2 double-ender - they need shorter turnaround-times - so why not reduce down to 3 ferries also ?
Especially if really the new rules about french minimum-wages are coming (i doubt if this is allowed by an EU-country - is also not the sense of EU if each country makes it own laws and rules for international business) to cross-channel-routes. Then logical they will reduce crews and ferries down to an absolute minimum.

Would also - if needed for to offer more dep./day - cheaper to operate 1, 2, 3 knots faster than to operate year-around with 4 ships slowly instead of 3.

The Spirit of Britain is still a big modern short-sea-ferry, with service-speed 22 knots attractive and flexible.
Could be well used f.ex. on Tallin-Helsinki, Gibraltar-Street, Irish Sea - and Interislander need urgent a bigger newer ferry too.

She has exactly the Tallinn-size (212/213m) !
If i would be Viking Line or Eckerö i would buy the Spirit of Britain directly !
Interior a little bit upgraded with Sauna, Whirlpool, Buffet-restaurant, show-stage etc. it would be biggest competition for Tallink.
((Actually on this booming route to Helsinki Tallink has 2 biggest ferries, Eckerö 1 mid-size and 1 smaller and Viking 1 mid-size ferry - so these both companies could be very well use an own biggest ferry))

A sale to competitor Irish Ferries is not possible ?
Would be perfect also for Holyhead-Dublin. Ulysses and the Spirit in Holyhead, Oscar Wilde in Pembroke. Or P&O take it self for Larne ? Are the ports there big enough for 213 x 31 m ?

So it will be interesting to see what happens with this ferry... .
Is still nowhere to find on officially sales-lists from ship-brokers... .   

[giftgrub]

The Dover Calais design for the Spirit class includes a bow which is offset and for use exclusively on this route, pretty much any else would require major rebuilding ie a new bow onto the vessel, not sure if they included internal ramps between the car decks, would be a first if they did.

Not every ferry sale goes through online brokerage firms, but rumours are just rumours until something happens, however if P&O could operate with two ferries on this route, why did they not just stick to the Spirits and save the 300+ millions they spent on the double Enders, a fleet with four ferries on Dover Calais would have been the normal for P&O a few years ago, just amazing how they are managing themselves at the moment, the former dominant operator on the route.

[scomac]

Or P&O take it self for Larne ? Are the ports there big enough for 213 x 31 m ?
 

Spirit of Britain would not fit in either Larne or Cairnryan.

[Ferriesbetterfastercheape]

Ok, thank`s - so we can forget Irish Sea. But i can not see that the Spirit of Britain shall be available:

This year all 4 P&O Dover-ferries are in the timetable, example 18.july Calais-Dover:
The both Spirits makes 3 round-trips/24 hours and the both Doubleenders 4 round-trips/24 hours.
Capacity is 44.900 lane-meter/24 hours = more today than in the past with 5 or 6 smaller ferries - and also more capacity than what DFDS or Irish Ferries offers there.

And - as said - the Spirits could be really more difficult to sale than thought - indeed the bow-section must be rebuilt, Viking Line CEO has said they want only buy new ships and not used, so there remain only Eckerö and Interislander as theoretic possible buy-candidates... .

But what could happen with the new law from France to pay 9,95 Pound per hour to the crews ?
A) P&O and/or Irish Ferries "makes the Olau" = closing their route Dover-route short term
B) They follow the law and operate which much higher costs in future and take much higher ticket-prices = some customers will stay home or choose other travel-options = less ferries needed.
C) They are fighting against the new law - a lot of new laws in different EU-countries in the last years was not allowed by national law or EU-law and has taken back then after 1-2 years again.
D) They change / move their routes from Calais to Ostende and / or Zeebrugge in Belgium, and continue with 92% super-cheap crews (the reported ca. 4-5 Pound / Euro per hour are not so bad compared with other international ships with cheapest Asian crews) working for only ca. 2,- per hour and 8% Belgium-Crew (speaking usually french also).
Would mean much higher fuel-costs - but much much less crew-costs than f.ex. DFDS, maybe also ports in Belgium would offer lower port-fees for to get the new routes. For most customers also from/to Germany and Netherlands shorter travel-times and lower fuel-costs on land also, longer time on sea, but shorter time on land. P&O has just now new started Zeebrugge-Tilbury (for freight) already also.
If both companies (IrishF. + P&O) would do this, then the France Government would get problems... - would mean a very big loss for the complete region of Calais, for all the hotels, shopping-center, the port etc. there.   

Big winner with A): DFDS and Brittany Ferries, Channel-tunnel
Big winner with B): Airlines and Rental-car-companies, Channel-tunnel

[giftgrub]

Spirit of Britain currently off service in Dunkerque alongside Cote D'opale which is the DFDS EFlexer in drydock.

Instead of P&O running their fleet of the four newest vessels on the crossing at max capacity and max frequency to essentially crush any opposition in the Dover Calais business, it really does appear that one of the Spirits will be leaving the fleet soon to end up in competition with the company that created it.

Leaving aside their bizarre approach to HR and employment rights etc this is a fall from grace that would have been hard to predict in the days when the Prides of Dover & Calais were in operation and dominated the route.