Residents of Saaremaa and the Laaneranna municipality on Estonia’s mainland are in favor of a road link, such as a bridge or a tunnel between the mainland and the island of Muhu, while Muhu residents are opposed, a survey commissioned by the Estonian Road Administration shows.
Ten of Alaska’s 11 ferries are currently in layup or unable to sail. Hundreds of people attended protests across Alaska calling for the state’s ferry service to be restored.
Roro C.T.M.A. VOYAGEUR Purchased by a Greek Interests Company
According to a Canadian article, the small roro C.T.M.A. VOYAGEUR [link MarineTraffic] is claimed to have been sold to a Greek interest operator for less than CAD 500k.
The ship has been laid up in Montreal since 5 September 2019 and was replaced by the larger and newer CTMA VOYAGEUR II (former CLIPPER RANGER) on the Montreal – Cap-aux-Meules and Matane – Cap-aux-Meules lines.
Information in Greece said that Ainaftis Shipping Co (Kallimasias), which mainly serves the North Aegean, is probably her mysterious buyer.
Photo: Steve Geronazzo (Marine Traffic)
Minoan Lines’ FESTOS PALACE Renamed KYDON PALACE
Eventually, Minoan Lines’ new restructuring plan in Crete is coming into force.
FESTOS PALACE has been renamed KYDON PALACE and from 17 February 2020 she will be introduced on the Piraeus – Chania line.
The rest of this ambitious plan is that KNOSSOS PALACE will be introduced -under the Grimaldi colours- on the Civitavecchia – Olbia line.
CRUISE BONARIA (ex. OLYMPIA PALACE) will be renamed either FESTOS or KNOSSOS PALACE, sport the Minoan Lines livery and serve the Piraeus – Heraklion run along with her sister MYKONOS PALACE, which will be renamed FESTOS or KNOSSOS PALACE.
That fleet reshuffling at Heraklion port mainly reveals Minoan Lines intention to offer more lane meters and less hotel services as the twins that are going to replace the classic Heraklion pair offer more freight space and less interior amenities.
About Last Week in Italy
Last week I was in Civitavecchia and Livorno on two different cruise assignments. These jobs are always good to combine with ferry photography. Especially with ISPS it has been increasingly difficult to see and photograph ferries. A cruise ship is a nice alternative.
Let’s start with Civitavecchia. The pictures shows (from left to right) CRUISE BARCELONA, MOBY DADA and MOBY TOMMY.
Don’t you expect a cappuccino in Italy? No, it was CAPUCINE showing up. This CLdN vessel has been chartered by the Italian MoD.
A fantastic sunrise asks for a FANTASTIC ship, like the one from GNV.
I visited Livorno with SEVEN SEAS SPLENDOR on Tuesday 4 February 2020.
The first ferry I saw leaving was the ELIANA MARINO. Only later on I realised she was the former PORTO EXPRESS / LOUISE RUSS.
Although the sky was blue the weather was extremely windy. After a while all ferries in and out needed tugs.
Low season means a few ferries are not in service or are in reduced service. Some are in Livorno for maintenance.
Moby is currently not covering the connection between Santa Teresa di Gallura, in Sardinia, and Bonifacio, in Corsica, after the ferry GIRAGLIA grounded and suffered an 8-metre hole in hull. Moby is now looking to charter a small ferry. It is likely that the sistership BASTIA (currently in dry dock in Livorno, see on the picture on the right) will be deployed on the line as soon as possible.
Corsica Linea To Charter STENA SUPERFAST X
Corsica Linea has agreed with Stena RoRo to charter ropax STENA SUPERFAST X long term.
She is actually operating in the Irish Sea on Dublin – Holyhead
- To be renamed A NEPITA
- To serve the Marseille – Algeria route as from summer 2020
- To be rebuilt with scrubber and with an extra 100 cabins, bringing total cabins to 158
- French flagged and French crew (an extra 150 jobs)
On Friday 31 January 2020 Stena Line closed the Varberg-Grenaa route. The day after, on Saturday 1 February the Halmstad – Grenaa route was officially opened. The inauguration started early Saturday morning in Grenaa with almost a thousand visitors attending. The Transport minister of Denmark Benny Engelbrecht attended the ceremony in Grenaa and joined the sea journey to Halmstad where 8,000 people waited for Stena Nautica on the quay.
There was an open day for the ferry during where thousands of people visited the ship. The official inauguration ceremony was conducted by Dan Sten Olsson, the owner and CEO of Stena AB, the infrastructure minister of Sweden Tomas Eneroth, the governor of Halland Lena Sommestad and Transport minister of Denmark Benny Engelbrecht.
The new route will be operated by STENA NAUTICA with a capacity of 900 passengers and 1265 lane meters. Crossing time is 4h35. Up to two departures per day.
Stena Line’s ambition is to double both the passenger and freight volumes within five years.
This ferry is the first CoCo Yachts designed ferry for Xiamen Marine Passenger and Tourist Transportation Group,
and will be sailing between Xiamen and Jinmen. The new designed Coastal Cruiser 350 will be designed
and built in accordance with the China Classification Society Rules 2017.
The hull, including the propeller tunnel, have been designed and optimized by using the in house HPC cluster, running Numeca FineMarine CFD software in order to achieve the best possible performance. Not only the resistance has been optimized for the highest possible efficiency, also seakeeping at 25 knots service speed has been optimized.
The interior design will be very comfortable for passengers, with low noise and vibrations levels, and high capacity air conditioning system. 210 Comfortable economy seats will be placed on the main deck, and 135 business class seats as well as 5 VIP seats on the upper deck. Kiosks will be located both on main and upper deck.
The aluminium high speed passenger ferries will be built at Plenty Ships – Yaguang Group in Zhuhai
In a letter sent to the editor in chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, replying to an article published a few hours earlier, Vincenzo Onorato, head of Moby Group, revealed some details of the business plan that he was trying to perform until the action taken from the bondholders to the Court of Milan made the things going worse.
One of the most interesting details is that both the roro ships MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO and ALF POLLAK bareboat chartered by Fratelli Onorato Armatori and sub-chartered to Tirrenia Cin was not done directly with Moby, in order not to increase the company’s financial exposure. “At least until we were able to obtain a financial deleverage of the group” and this plan was possible with the sale and purchase of two ferries with DFDS since “EUR 66 millions of the total 75 million expected should have gone to the banks as anticipated payment of the mortgage”. The deal was not completed also because Unicredit did not give the needed green light.
Going back to the two roro ships, Onorato added: “We already informed the banks about our availability to put them inside Moby group” thus transferring the control from Fratelli Onorato Armatory, separated company controlled by Vincenzo Onorato’s sons, Achille and Alessandro.
The seasoned Italian shipowner concluded anticipating that “the group controlled by Onorato Armatori will close 2019 in profit and with better results compared with the previous year”. He further stated that Moby’s fleet has a value in his opinion of EUR 1.2 billion.