Aferry.co.uk publish their top 5 things to do in Belfast
Their number 1 thing to do in Belfast is to visit city hall. Do you agree?
Ferry News
All the latest ferry news can be found here! Although with an emphasis on the Irish Sea and broader European ferry market, we try to cover all the big Global ferry news stories including routes and ships coming and going, newbuilds and all the big stories affecting the ferry companies.
Updates 25/2/14 PM
As posted on Facebook this evening I’m planning a major update of the fleet pages in the next few days. As a result not much changed today as I have been busy getting the fleet pages in order. This is what I have done regarding the site today: Photograph added for Foyle Venture (quality not great so if you have a better one please submit via the contact link). No technical information added yet. Some minor corrections to technical data for Stena Superfast VII and VIII. A few corrections made to more spelling errors (WordPress likes to talk in American). More research completed including for a big article on a particular class of ferry (see Facebook for more details) I may or may not get a chance to update tomorrow, but the next one should double the number of posts on the site.
Updates 23/2/14 & 24/2/14
Less updates than planned due to a hardware upgrade at home yesterday taking a little longer than expected (and my printer having to be returned). I have also been quite active in other places so the website took a bit of a back seat. However, the following have been changed on the website: P&O promotional video added to the European Causeway/European Highlander page. Stena Superfast page updated with new pictures. Some typographical errors corrected. Watermarking plugin removed due to causing site errors and general slowdown of the site. Some ferry industry news added. Added details of the stabiliser and radar systems fitted to European Causeway/European Highlander. New picture on the welcome/landing page. Additionally I have also started the following content:: Started writing the draft for the Stena Lagan and Stena Mersey page as most research now complete. Started researching the Seatruck Fleet.
Brittany Ferries announces order of giant gas-powered cruise-ferry
Reproduced from the Brittany Ferries website: “Leading French ferry and holiday company, Brittany Ferries, today announced that an order has been placed for a new cruise-ferry that will be its largest yet, and one of the biggest such vessels in the world. It will also be the cleanest, most environmentally-friendly ship to operate in UK waters because LNG emits about 25 per cent less carbon dioxide during combustion than marine fuel oil and burns with no smoke. It is entirely free of sulphur and is very low in nitrogen oxide emissions. Brittany Ferries and STX France have been co-operating for two years on a study regarding the feasibility of powering a cruise-ferry by LNG. The ship, costing some 270 million euros (£225 million) will be built by STX France in St. Nazaire and she will enter service in late spring 2017. This new ship will replace Brittany Ferries’ current flagship, Pont-Aven, … Read more
Site update 21/2/14 (PM)
After what seems like an age I finally have the site where it was when it got corrupted. The following are today’s updates AIS Ship tracking page now operational again. Cruise ship calls added for Belfast. Some more pictures added from Scott Mackey. Right click disabled (copy protection measure). Research for some planned articles to be published on the site in the coming weeks/months.
Bad news about the former Stena Antrim (updated)
In particularly sad news for Belfast and Northern Ireland, one of the final passenger vessels built by Harland and Wolff could soon be headed to a beach somewhere for scrapping. The Ibn Batouta (ex Stena Antrim, St Christopher) is one of 4 ferries which have been laid up in Algericas for over 2 years following the failure of owners COMARIT. The port authority is now pushing for them to be declared abandoned so they can be removed and auctioned to the highest bidder. The most likely destination considering the age and condition of the 4 ships is for scrap. Between 1991 and 1996 Stena Antrim served to Stranraer, first from Larne and then from Belfast when Stena moved there in 1995. Of the other veseels (Al Mansour, Banasa, and Boughaz) Al Mansour also served in Irish waters as Stena Nautica for both Sealink and B&I line between Fishguard and Wales. … Read more
SIte update 20/02/14 #2
Some more updates today as I get the site back up and running again Some further changes under the skin to improve performance. New welcome page to stop all previous posts having to fully load (including all media) before site was displayed. Some new pictures from Scott Mackey added with more to come in the coming days. Thanks also to Scott for a few corrections to the Superfast article. Pages created for cruise calls and operator/route information. Content has still to be added to these pages. Videos re-added to the existing articles. Further pictures to follow in due course once I get permission from the owners. Some further formatting of existing pictures so they display better. Disclaimer added to bottom of page. This is a bit untidy and will be modified to display better in the future. [Now Fixed] Jetpack installed and share buttons added to posts. Facebook like widget … Read more
Site update 19/02/2014 and 20/02/2014 (and a disaster)
Due to changing of a few settings I managed to break the permalinks feature in WordPress thus corrupting the entire site. No amount of trying to force a reset of the cache in the database or clearing and modifying the htaccess file would get the site back up (the site was totally inaccessible apart from via ftp) so I had to wipe and start afresh! As a result some of the previously implemented features such as ship AIS, cruise ship listings, and some of the videos in the vessel articles have not been re-implemented yet, however the bulk of the site text was backed up on my hard drive and so this has already been restored. The following where my original updates, items striked through have yet to be re-implemented Switched WordPress theme back to responsive as Prana was not displaying very well on mobile devices. This also seems to … Read more
Update on the former Stena Navigator
The former Stena Navigator (ex Seafrance Manet (SeaFrance), Stena Parisien (Sealink Stena Line), Champs Elysees (SNCF/Sealink) which left the Belfast – Stranraer service when the Stena Superfast‘s entered service has been renamed again. Until November she had been operating as Balearia’s Daniya (Arabic for Denia) between Denia – San Antonio – Palma, and Denia – San Antonio – Barcelona, however following a change of route to Ceuta – Algeciras she was renamed Poeta López Anglada in November. The ship has retained much of its Stena decor, including the “Curious George” children’s play area and “Barista” coffee lounge. Currently Poeta López Anglada is operating the 2 hour voyage between Alcudia (Majorca) and Ciuadela de Menorca (Minorca) Monday to Saturday, and operates between Barcelona and Menorca at weekends after a further change of route in December. Link to ships profile on the Balearia website
