MV ''St Catherine'' is a

Roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

car and passenger ferry. She served the

Wightlink Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south of England. It operates car ferries between Lymington and Yarmouth, and Portsmouth and Fishbourne and a fast passenger-only ...

crossing from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Fishbourne, Isle of Wight Fishbourne is a village between Wootton and Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. The name "Fishbourne" might mean "stream of fish" or "fish spring." It is positioned on the eastern bank of Wootton Creek, and includes the terminal for the Wightlink c ...

from 1983 to 2009. In 2010, she was sold to Delcomar and renamed ''GB Conte.''

History

''St Catherine'' was built by

Robb Caledon Shipbuilders Henry Robb, Limited, known colloquially as Robbs, was a Scottish shipyard, shipbuilding company based at Leith, Leith Docks in Edinburgh. Robbs was notable for building small-to-medium sized vessels, particularly tugboat, tugs and dredgers. Hist ...

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

at a cost of £5 million. When she entered service on 3 July 1983, she was the biggest ferry ever in the

Sealink Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland. Ports served by the company included: Dover, Folkesto ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

fleet, and the first able to carry more than 100 cars. Local papers reported that she made the other Isle of Wight ferries looked like toys in comparison. ''St Catherine'' remained the largest ship in the fleet only until her sister, St Helen entered service later in 1983. ''St Catherine'' was present at the International Fleet Review in 2005, representing Wightlink with a number of her sisters. She was later laid up at Hythe in Hampshire. In 2010 ''St Catherine'' was sold to Delcomar and sailed from Hythe to

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

as ''GB Conte'' on 31 July 2010, with a crew of 11 on board. In March 2015, it was announced that sisters 'St Catherine' and 'St Helen' were being reunited, after spending five years apart, as ''St Helen'' had also been sold to Delcomar. She was renamed ''Anna Mur''.

Layout

''St Catherine'' was the first of the Isle of Wight ferries to use a Voith Schneider asymmetric three-

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

layout with a bridge mounted forward. Two decks of passenger accommodation are provided above the car deck, with two bar areas and seating space. One of the fastest car ferries in the company at the time, she allowed Wightlink to provide a 35-minute crossing of the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

. Two older ferries on the route were withdrawn from service, while another, Caedmon was transferred to join her sisters on the

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

route.

Service

''St Catherine'' entered service with

in 1983; the company becoming

in 1991. She sailed between Portsmouth, on the English mainland and Fishbourne, Isle of Wight until 2009. ''GB Conte'' and ''Anna Mur'' currently sail between the Isola di San Pietro and

Portovesme Portoscuso (Portescusi in Sardinian language) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region Sardinia, located about west of Cagliari and about northwest of Carbonia. The languages used here are Italian ...

; an approximately 40-minute service with a frequency of 17 ferries a day in each direction during the summer season.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:St Catherine Ferries of England Ferries of Italy Ferry transport on the Isle of Wight Ships built in Leith 1983 ships