Irish Ferries Crew Schedule retains the Swift operation until the end of 2016.

Dublin Port very busy tonight. No room for Epsilon  so she has had to sail out into the bay and circle for a couple of hours until Ulysses departed.

According to Irish Ferries Press Release yesterday, Epsilon has had her lease extended for 24 months to Nov 2018.

With the new ferry due to arrive in May 2018 this raises the question of further route or frequency expansion within the Irish Ferries Network,

I suspect Epsilon will operate an expanded Dublin / Rosslare - Cherbourg Frequency with the occasional visit to Holyhead between Dublin - Cherbourg sailings.

According to Irish Ferries Press Release yesterday, Epsilon has had her lease extended for 24 months to Nov 2018.

With the new ferry due to arrive in May 2018 this raises the question of further route or frequency expansion within the Irish Ferries Network,

I suspect Epsilon will operate an expanded Dublin / Rosslare - Cherbourg Frequency with the occasional visit to Holyhead between Dublin - Cherbourg sailings.

We've known for a while that Epsilon was now with IF until Nov 2018 tbh.  Theres every possibility (especially given the short build time) that the new vessel will arrive late, though FSG are pretty prompt usually.  In any case it, is prudent to have backup to cover for any technical issues on introduction.  There may well be scope to terminate the agreement for Epsilon early for all any of us know.

Both Epsilon and Stena Horizon daily charter rate costs $15,000 U.S. Dollars per day, (according to Ferry & Cruise Review) deals were recently renewed at same rate for each ship.

I think the IF new build is going to be the biggest passenger vessel built by FSG, it would not take much to cause delivery delays, as building passenger ships of this size is a complicated job.

I agree it is prudent to have a back up when bringing a new ship or aircraft type into service. we kept three Boeing 747s flying in support of A330s when we introduced the A330 on the Atlantic at Aer Lingus in 1994. When the A330 settled down two Boeing 747s were retired and one was used for summer growth in 1995.

I doubt Epsilon will go back early. Oscar Wilde struggles to take freight during the summer due to high passenger and car numbers on Cherbourg and Rosscoff Routes. I would see Epsilon running freight into cherbourg and allowing Oscar Wilde to spend more time running to Rosscoff. The New Ferry could be very successful on France route at weekends and may end up being permanently on continental routes when the second new build comes on line.

Latest image of the newbuild.

Don't much like the turned down nose. The rest of her looks very Ulysses, which I think is good to continue the format.

I wish they would give some thought to putting the black window banding (as per Ulysses and Swift) on the Isle of Inishmore. She always looks "uncompleted" to me.

I am looking forward to seeing the interior spec , keep in mind this is the first time ICG have built a cruise ferry , their ropax designs set standards when introduced so I am very curious to see what their concept for a cruise ferry is.

I am looking forward to seeing the interior spec , keep in mind this is the first time ICG have built a cruise ferry , their ropax designs set standards when introduced so I am very curious to see what their concept for a cruise ferry is.

It will be interesting to see how loosely the term "cruise ferry" is applied.  After all, depending on where she is sailing too Epsilon is termed as a cruise ferry by ICG!

I doubt Epsilon will go back early. Oscar Wilde struggles to take freight during the summer due to high passenger and car numbers on Cherbourg and Rosscoff Routes. I would see Epsilon running freight into cherbourg and allowing Oscar Wilde to spend more time running to Rosscoff. The New Ferry could be very successful on France route at weekends and may end up being permanently on continental routes when the second new build comes on line.

Personally I think the option will be Oscar's long term replacement.  The experience of operating the new build on the weekly France rotation could be very useful in tweaking the design for the longer route.  I wonder how quickly FSG could crank out a repeat given the quick build time of the initial vessel from scratch!

I would say 90 % plus of the specification was agreed prior to contract.

Irish Ferries employ their own naval archictects and specified 80 % of the Ulysses prior to contract.

The Nose is a good idea to protect deck equipment and for fuel saving.

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anybody knows whether or not Isle Of Inishmore is having technical difficulties at the moment? Has been running around 30 - 40 minutes late per sailing over the last couple of days and the delay has reached about an hour today...weather seems to be ok?

thanks,

Andy

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anybody knows whether or not Isle Of Inishmore is having technical difficulties at the moment? Has been running around 30 - 40 minutes late per sailing over the last couple of days and the delay has reached about an hour today...weather seems to be ok?

thanks,

Andy

Ok they just updated the website...."weather and technical."

Swift berthed at T3 Holyhead again this morning meaning Ulysses is not able to dock on time. I have noticed this before but have no idea as to the reason for it. Any ideas?

Wednesday 28th sept at 6.17
Ulysses badly delayed still in Holyhead  believe the fingers on upper linkspan damaged