MS Mega Smeralda

MS ''Mega Smeralda'' is a cruiseferry owned by Medinvest and operated by Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries. She was built in 1985 by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland, for Johnson Line as MS ''Svea'' for use in Silja Line traffic. Between 1992 and 1994, she sailed for Silja Line as MS ''Silja Karneval'' and, between 1994 and 2008, for Color Line as MS ''Color Festival''.

History

Silja Line service

MS ''Svea'' and her sister MS ''Wellamo'' were modeled after Silja Line's highly successful Helsinki–Stockholm service ferries MS ''Finlandia'' and MS ''Silvia Regina''. Between the two classes, the aesthetic differences are the most notable; whilst the ''Finlandia'' and her sister followed a "form follows function" design philosophy resulting in a very boxy design for the ships, the new sisters for the Turku–Stockholm routing followed a more rounded and smoother, and overall much less hostile, design.

In 1989, there were plans to rebuild ''Svea'' with rails on the cardeck so that she could also carry railroad carriages on board, but these were shelved. Until 1990, her funnel displayed the colours of Johnson Line, but at that time Silja Line's owners Johnson Line and Effoa merged into one company, EffJohn, and Silja Line's seal logo was moved from the ship's hulls into their funnels.

In 1992, ''Svea'' and her sister underwent a large-scale reconstruction at Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany, where most of the ships' interiors were rebuilt, a new "skybar" added on deck 9, a new more blue-dominated colour scheme replaced the traditional Silja stripes and the ship was renamed ''Silja Karneval'' in accordance with Silja's new name policy. In fact, the funds used to rebuild ''Svea'' and ''Wellamo'' were originally meant for the rebuilding of the GTS ''Finnjet'', but her planned rebuilding would have been too expensive and EffJohn opted to spend what money they had on ''Svea'' and ''Wellamo'' instead.

Color Line service

''Silja Karneval''s service with Silja proved to be short. In early 1994, EffJohn decided to sell her sister ''Silja Festival'' to the Norway-based Color Line. However, when time came to deliver the ship to Color Line, EffJohn for some reason decided to sell them ''Silja Karneval'' instead (the two ships being structurally identical). Problematically for Color Line, it had already printed material advertising its new ship as the ''Color Festival''. As result ''Silja Karneval'' became M/S ''Color Festival'', not ''Color Karneval'' as would have been logical.

After reconstruction at Cityvarvet, Gothenburg, ''Color Festival'' was initially placed on the Oslo–Hirtshals route. In 2002, one of her rudders was damaged in Hirsthals and she had to be docked in Hamburg because of it. In April 2006, she started operating on the Oslo– Fredrikshavn route in direct competition with her old Silja Line fleetmate MS ''Stena Saga''. On 21 November 2007, Color Line sold ''Color Festival'' to Corsica Ferries for €49 million (400 million Norwegian krone), in preparation for the delivery of the new ''Color Superspeed'' vessels in mid-2008.

Corsica Sardinia Ferries service

The ''Color Festival'' was delivered to Corsica Sardinia Ferries in early January 2008, subsequently renamed ''Mega Smeralda'' and re-flagged in Italy with Genoa as her homeport. Reportedly, she was to be placed on Civitavecchia – Golfo Aranci or Livorno – Golfo Aranci service. In 2011, the ferry operated between Tolone, Ajaccio, Bastia, Nice, etc..

2013 Tour de France

In June 2013, the Tour de France visited Corsica for the first time. To accommodate the Tour entourage, the organisers chartered the ''Mega Smeralda'' to house members of the organisation, media and others who worked on the Tour and to host press conferences, although the riders stayed in hotels in Porto-Vecchio.

References

External links

Corsica Ferries
(Company website)

at ''Fakta om Fartyg''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mega Smeralda
Cruiseferries
Ships built in Helsinki
1984 ships
Former Color Line ships