Irish Ferries Fleet movements

[Steven]

Feels a bit like that - Stena haven't cancelled any sailings yet.

When I checked at 15:30 they had!  As had P&O on Dublin - Liverpool.

[munchkin]

Irish Ferries have just stopped taking bookings on all midweek sailings the week before christmas between France and Ireland in both directions. I'm booked on one of those sailings and not (yet) cancelled.

I cannot see any way that they are suddenly sold out in both directions, so is this them hedging their bets and looking to have Epsilon as a potential relief ship from the UK for that busy pre christmas period, maybe to compensate for WB Yates still not being operational, or is there something else going on?

The Oscar Wilde only has half the vehicle capacity of Epsilon so not ideal for any really busy period.

[IFPete]

Oscar can hold more passengers and cars than epsilon

Epsilon is set up for freight.

Last Christmas Oscar mist a lot of sailings on Dublin - Holyhead due to the direction of the winds at Holyhead because she does not have the Thruster manouvorability of Ulysses or Epsilon.

[Cillian]

It seems that Ulysses is to get a few days off. Her sailings are been replaced by the Inishmore, who's sailings are been replaced by the Oscar Wilde.
According to the booking site, Ulysses last sailing is 08.05 on Monday 29th and back for Thursday 1st for the 20.55 sailing.

[giftgrub]

Ulysses still has technical issues not resolved after a month in H&W, time for IF to bump up the maintenance budget, and spend on the fleet.

[ferryfan]

It looks like any repairs/work to Ulysses will be carried out in Dublin, she is to be berthed at P&O 25 from Monday

[ferryfan]

Meanwhile the Isle of Inishmore arrived in Dublin this morning to take over from Ulysses from tonight. Haven't been on her for years need to find an excuse...

[Davy Jones]

Good to see Ol' Faithful back again! Don't think she's ever let anybody down!

[jgf]

Oscar Wilde struggling with prolonged turn around times especially at Pembroke.

[IFPete]

There appears to have been a problem with cars and freight arriving late at the port of Pembroke

[A83]

Ulysses rambling around Dublin bay this evening prior to returning to duty for the sailing to Holyhead tonight. Inishmore heading from Dublin to Pembroke for the 2.45 am sailing tomorrow to Rosslare and the much delayed Oscar Wilde heading to Rosslare this evening from Pembroke. All back to normal from tomorrow.

[conor]

Inishmore just passing Wicklow at an impressive 23.2 kts.

[giftgrub]

As the Irish Sea fleet returns to their normal places after a few days of musical chairs, it came to my attention today that apparently IF have not released any sailings from Jan 6th 2019 (source their own Facebook site) even if you are waiting to see what vessels you will have available this is a strange business decision.

For instance all their existing fleet is available and WB is an additional vessel, makes no sense not to take bookings, if Stena were to run a  2019 promo they would clean up at the moment.

[Ulysses17]

Has anyone else thought that tonight may well have been the last time that we will see the inishmore in Dublin? Assuming that Yeats will cover Ulysses and epsilon will cover yeats during dry dock season.

[IFPete]

She might be back in Dublin next summer when WB Yeats goes full time on France.
IF will want to build up the epsilons roster on Dublin - Holyhead to accomodate Ulysses in Summer 2020,

Putting Epsilon back on Holyhead would be a backward move.

The key issue issue is finding a suitable vessel to cover Pembroke next summer.

A vessel capable of accomodating 1500 passengers and 2000 lane meters would be needed.