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More information on the Napoleon Bonaparte here:

http://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/marseille-le-napoleon-bonaparte-toujours-en-attente-de-renflouement

While the Stena Europe and Oscar Wilde were having an interesting time in Rosslare, some other ferries where having an interesting time in Dover and Marseille.

The Europe and Oscar Wilde got of lightly compared to these.

http://www.seanews.com.tr/article/ACCIDENTS/88647/Berlioz-Pride-of-Burgundy-collision/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224764/French-passenger-ferry-Napoleon-Bonaparte-left-listing-ocean-moorings-snap-60mph-winds.html?ITO=1490

Very good report on the Finlandia available here:

https://sites.google.com/site/finlandiamaidenvoyage/home

You can see the rebuilt interior of the Finlandia on this interesting blog.

http://kships.blogspot.fi/2012/12/finlandia-interiors-20-december-2012.html

The Finlandia has now arrived in Helsinki ready to enter service on New Years Eve. Looks good now the refit is finished.

https://www.eckeroline.fi/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Content_10151_10001_-1?krypto=ICySu2Y8%2BnjcBFrfG9vlu1LHFar9jO8iPDNi5NwadthpHQxiz8t9URJesUAi9e0v2BdOxYfwP%2F2G%0Au8sdtGK4pdthdHxrN1U78RF6NFZfZW16r335oOxjfpOEWK58DLa3oBtsyDUKzFsmz%2FkPegDZyHf7%0AK5DxCpwToBJP4vfxLgm9cXXirwP1x9AQiS62HQUf

The Finlandia has arrived in Tallin to continue its internal fit out prior to entering service on New Years eve.

Some interesting images of the Finlandia leaving the shipyard here:

http://www.landgangen.se/forumsmf10/index.php?topic=26184.0

The Finlandia has left the shipyard in Landskrona and is sailing to Tallin, one imagines to finish the internal refit.

Image from Shipspotting.com

They got an offer of around €75,000,000 that they could not refuse and took it. It is costing around €15 million to refit for use in the Baltic.

Links:

http://www.news2biz.com/article/2012/2/9/estonia_eckero_brings_fast_ferry_on_tallinn_helsinki_line


http://www.fairplay.co.uk/login.aspx?reason=denied_empty&script_name=/secure/display.aspx&path_info=/secure/display.aspx&articlename=dn0020120202000006

REDERI AB Eckero, the Finnish ferry company, said today it has acquired the 2001-built ro-pax Moby Freedom from Italy's Moby Lines. The purchase price and planned refit of the 36,100gt vessel will amount to about €90M ($120M), the company said. The ship can take 2,080 passengers and 665 cars or 100 trucks. It will be introduced on Eckero's service linking Helsinki with Tallinn after an upgrade, plus modification. The ship will replace the 1980-built Nordlandia, of about 21,000gt. "It has not been a secret that we have been looking for suitable tonnage to replace Nordlandia," said Bjorn Blomqvist, managing director of the Aland Islands-based Eckero. The company carries about 1M passengers and 75,000 freight units between the Finnish and Estonian capitals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnaNS6X9kNI

Images from


https://www.facebook.com/eckeroline

More images of the Finlandia refit here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151303831949104.531553.171677074103&type=1

The Finlandia has got its new paint job.

Eckero Line have released images of what the former Moby Freedom will look like when it enter service on New Years Eve.

image from:

https://www.facebook.com/eckeroline

Its current white colour scheme and its Moby colour scheme are also below.

Among the jobs to be carried out before the vessel enters service:

Strengthen Hull to Ice Class
Install Heavy Fuel Oil heaters
Rebuild passenger space interiors
Insulate the ship
New Propellers and Rudders
Paint the ship exterior

http://bp-tillhavs.blogspot.fi/2012/08/eckero-och-viking-i-kris.html

I hope they factored all that into the purchase price which was rumoured to be between €80-€90 Million Euro

Here is the show, now available on Youtube

[media width=600]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ87ROzLacg[/media]

Your welcome, found all three programmes very interesting, I have been to the BA Maintenance facility in Cardiff and it really is an amazing place with the work that they are able to do there refurbishing the 747's. They also do work on the other wide body craft - 767,777 etc.

As for the P&O programme, never knew they would have to fit new steel onto a worn car deck and the work involved in doing so, really informative television.

Image below we took at the top of the tailfin of a 747 with 2 more 747's in the background while at BA Cardiff.

On tonight on BBC 2, repeated on BBC HD at 00.00 and on BBC 2 at 00.30 on Friday 3 Aug 2012.

Very interesting for anyone who likes the ferry business.