Interesting new addition to the Dover ferries. She was built as the Superfast X for Superfast Ferries. This is a Greek company which was formed in the nineties to operate large RORO ferries at a higher speed than the norm, as you might expect. Unfortunately this means a high consumption of fuel, the cost of which has since gone through the roof. As a result, Superfast have been flogging off ships and Superfast X is one of them.
She originally operated briefly in the Baltic. Superfast then obtained the contract to run a new service from Rosyth to Zeebrugge and put two ships on the run. With their high speed, they were ideally suited for a long run like this. The escalating cost of fuel made the run uneconomic and Superfast first reduced to one ship and are now pulling out altogether. Superfast X then went to the Meddy as the Jean Nicoli. Now SeaFrance have purchased her to replace the old and small Manet and Renoir. Together with the Rodin and Berlioz, this will give them three modern superferries. Cezanne will become freight only and Nord Pas de Calais will continue as a dedicated freight ferry. Renoir will remain for a time for refit reliefs.
Their problem is that she is built for long runs at high speed and is therefore comparatively long and thin. For example, she is 203 metres long and 25.4 metres wide with a tonnage of 30,000 as compared with the Maersk vessels which are 186 metres long and 28.4 metres wide with a tonnage of 34,500. This is going to give her manoeuvring problems when berthing and an extra bow thrust has been installed to help compensate.
She is capable of nearly 30 knots but will obviously operate at a much lower speed on the Dover-Calais run. The name of the game for all ferry companies in the present climate is fuel economy and speeds are adjusted to maintain the correct service times.
As she is longer than any of the purpose built ferries in Dover, she overhangs the end of the berths and will be using berth No.9 normally as the pier is longer than the others. In the photo below, she is conducting berthing trials on No.3 and was overhanging the end. Maersk Delft had to negotiate her way round her, given the prevailing wind direction, in order to berth on No.2 and was accordingly given the use of the tug standing by the Moliere to facilitate this.
She has not had Dover or Calais gangways installed and will not be carrying foot passengers. I understand that the French unions will not permit footies to be conveyed on and off by buses.
She is presently operating in freight mode for a few days to gain experience and will then commence operation in full passenger and freight mode.
Complete sequence of photos showing her manoeuvring from berth 3 to berth 9 at:
http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/