Superfast V

GNV Spirit is a cruiseferry owned by GNV (Grandi Navi Veloci) and operated by GNV between Tyrrhenian Sea & Spain. She was acquired in 2022 by Grandi Navi Veloci from Brittany Ferries where before she was used to serve Spain.

SECA 2015 refit

On 1 January 2015, the EU (including the North Sea, English Channel, Eastern side of the Western Channel and Baltic Sea) had a sulphur in marine fuel cut from the allowance in 2014 of 1% to 0.1% of sulphur allowed, Brittany Ferries then abundantly announced in January 2014 that they were going to fit scrubbers to a number of elder vessels, convert newer vessels to LNG and construct a new LNG powered ferry but Brittany Ferries later withdrew and cancelled the order and the LNG conversions, instead they announced that all vessels were to have scrubbers systems fitted.

'' Normandie'' was the first vessel in the fleet to have these installed at the Astillero shipyard in Santander in late 2014 re-entering service in January 2015. ''Cap Finistère'' sailed from Portsmouth to Santander on 11 January 2015 with a commercial sailing, before proceeding to the shipyard for refit and installation of scrubber technology which will also necessitate a new funnel arrangement. After the re-entry into service of ''Cap Finistère'' on 24 March 2015 with the 10:30 sailing from Bilbao ( Zierbena) to Portsmouth, she will be followed into the shipyard by Barfleur in March returning to service in May 2015.

Brief history

''Superfast V'' was built at HDW in Kiel for Superfast Ferries' Adriatic Sea services, Patras— Igoumenitsa- Ancona along with her sister ship '' Superfast VI''. She was the first ship in the third pair of ropax ferries built for Superfast Ferries from various ship yards in Northern Europe. She was ordered in July 1998, alongside sister ship and another pair for Baltic sea services, Superfast VII and VIII In March 2010 Brittany Ferries purchased the ship from Attica Group for €82 million to expand Spanish services.

MV ''Cap Finistère'' was delivered to Brittany Ferries under her new name in February 2010. During October 2010 she conducted berthing trials in Cherbourg and Portsmouth before heading for work to be completed in Dunkerque prior to entering service running Portsmouth to Cherbourg as her first route eventually running a Portsmouth to Bilbao route with occasional stops to Roscoff Santander and Plymouth

Current Routes

* Portsmouth <> Bilbao (Via Roscoff)
* Portsmouth <> Santander

Previous Routes for Brittany Ferries

Shortly after MV ''Cap Finistère'' started operating commercially for Brittany Ferries, it operated the Portsmouth to Cherbourg-Octeville route alongside HSC Normandie Express. The route is still operated by Brittany Ferries' cruise ferries, but they do not operate a regular timetable, like the MV Cap Finistère did.

Portsmouth to Bilbao Route

Brittany Ferries announced on 24 September 2010 their intention to begin operating to Bilbao in Northern Spain, just hours before P&O were due to withdraw from the route. This route was originally opened by P&O Ferries in 1993 with Pride of Bilbao.

''Cap Finistere'' commenced service on the route in April 2011 with two sailings per week in both direction. Some departures from Portsmouth stop at Roscoff en route to Bilbao in order to allow a crew change to take place (the MV Cap Finistère being the only Brittany Ferries ship not to have a French route in its weekly schedule). The route via Roscoff takes 33 hours; the direct Portsmouth to Bilbao route 23 hours.

References

External links

Official Brittany Ferries Website

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Ferries of the United Kingdom
Ferries of France
Ships built in Kiel
2000 ships
05
2022 mergers and acquisitions