''Cotentin'' is a ROPAX

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

owned and operated by Brittany Ferries between

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

from January until March 2021 and then Portsmouth and Le Havre from March 2021 until June 2021. She previously operated for Brittany Ferries between 2007 and 2013 between Poole–Cherbourg before being chartered to

Stena Line Stena Line is a Swedish shipping line company and one of the largest ferry operators in the world. It services Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Stena Line is a major unit of Ste ...

as ''Stena Baltica'' serving the route between Gdynia and

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Swed ...

. The vessel was constructed by

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companie ...

in Finland and delivered to Brittany Ferries on 9 November 2007. ''Cotentin'' sails under the French flag and is registered in Morlaix. The ship's

gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weigh ...

is 22,308.

Description

''Cotentin'' is a ROPAX

that is long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The vessel has a , a and measures . ''Cotentin'' is powered by two

MaK Mak may refer to: People *Mak Dizdar (1917 - 1971), Bosnian poet *Muhammad Arshad Khan, Pakistani painter popularly known as "MAK" *Alan Mak (director) (born 1968), Hong Kong film director *Alan Mak (politician) (born 1984), British Member of Par ...

diesel engines creating a combined . This gives the vessel a maximum speed of . The ferry has capacity for 213 passengers and is equipped with 216 cabins and has 10 decks. ''Cotentin'' has the ability to carry 120 freight vehicles and has 2,188 lane meters of vehicle storage area.

Construction and service

Brittany Ferries service

The vessel was ordered on 2 August 2005 for construction by

in Finland for Brittany Ferries. The vessel was named after the Cotentin Peninsula of France of which Cherbourg is the largest town. Sea trials commenced on 26 September 2007, after which she returned to the shipyard for completion. She was delivered to Brittany Ferries on 9 November 2007 and undertook berthing trials in Portsmouth and

on 14 November 2007 prior to sailing to her homeport of Cherbourg arriving the next day. The ship was christened and her first commercial sailing was the 23:45 Cherbourg–Poole service on 26 November 2007. ''Cotentin'' replaced on weekday Poole–Cherbourg sailings. *Poole–

*Poole– Santander ''Weekend service'' An October 2006 article in ''International Freighting Weekly'' included comments from a Brittany Ferries executive which suggested that the ship would be placed on the Poole–Cherbourg route and that the timetable currently operated by would be amended to give more "social" departure times, specifically changing the 02:00 summer time departure from Cherbourg. Up to mid-July 2007 the Brittany Ferries Freight timetable showed a two-ship service on Poole–Cherbourg after the delivery of ''Cotentin'', and no Portsmouth–Cherbourg sailings, indicating the company's intention to place the ship on the Poole–Cherbourg route alongside . Newspaper articles covering the launch of the vessel stated that the vessel would primarily be used on the Poole route. Despite the initial announcement that the ship would run to Santander at the weekend a decision had not been made at the time as to whether this will be the ships Spanish destination due to port fees. Other ports that were in the running to receive ''Cotentin'' were Bilbao and Gijon. On 21 July 2007 it was announced by Brittany Ferries that ''Cotentin'' would operate from Poole, a partially amended timetable for the Poole–Cherbourg route had been posted prior to the announcement though ''Cotentin'' sailings were absent until the delivery date was confirmed. The amendments allowed for ''Cotentin''s Poole–Santander weekend sailings. The 2008 timetable revealed on 12 September 2007 showed ''Cotentin'' entering service in mid-November 2007 on the Poole–Cherbourg route with services to Santander commencing shortly after. Initially the 2008 timetable showed that after Christmas ''Cotentin'' would move to the

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,

Stena Line

In 2013 ''Cotentin'' was chartered to

for their service between

, Sweden and Gdynia, Poland. She was renamed ''Stena Baltica'' and transferred from French to British

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

with London as port of registry.

Return to Brittany Ferries

Amid rumours that the vessel would return to Brittany Ferries after the charter to Stena Line expired at the end of October 2020, the vessel emerged from dry dock in Gdansk in Brittany Ferries' new livery. The ship later departed for Le Havre, where the vessel had its original name of ''Cotentin'' restored, and was reflagged back to Cherbourg, France. ''Cotentin'' was confirmed to re-enter service from January 2021, between Poole and Cherbourg, providing extra capacity as part of the company's Brexit capacity agreement with the UK Government. The vessel would move to the Portsmouth to Le Havre service in April 2021, replacing the . The latter would be returned to Stena RoRo, having itself been replaced at Poole by fleetmate ''Barfleur''. However, after delays in bringing ''Barfleur'' back into service, ''Cotentin'' will not leave the Cherbourg–Poole route. On 13 November 2021 Rosslare EuroPort reported the vessel had entered service on the Rosslare to Le Havre route. In December 2022, Brittany Ferries announced that from March 1st 2023, Cotentin will start taking passengers onboard, excluding foot passengers and cyclists, to finally allow passengers to use the Portsmouth to Le Havre route, which has been closed to passengers since 2020. Cotentin will also take passengers on the Rosslare to Le Havre route, which was previously freight only.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotentin Ferries of the United Kingdom Ferries of France 2007 ships Baltica