UPDATE 14/12/18: HONFLEUR was successfully launched from the slipway at FSG at midday.
UPDATE 13/12/18 PM: According to multiple sources in Germany, W.B. YEATS is expected to leave Flensburg for Dublin on Sunday 16th December. The voyage is expected to take around 5 days in total.
Hot on the heels of the announcement by TT-Line Ab that they have ordered a new RoPax from GSI in China and the long-awaited handover of W.B. YEATS to Irish Ferries, Germany’s Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) plan to launch the hull of Brittany Ferries HONFLEUR tomorrow (Friday) as originally planned. As the below picture shows, her fully painted superstructure blocks have already left Gdansk for Flensburg with the first expected to arrive in the Northern German town of Flensburg this afternoon. Another section is anticipated to arrive during the night with the final to follow in the coming days. The heavy-lift crane ship GULLIVER is already in place to lift the superstructure sections onto the hull after launch, in the same way the superstructure sections of W.B. YEATS were lifted onto her hull before welding and final fit out.
Brittany Ferries posted an update to their dedicated website on Wednesday stating that HONFLEUR‘s electric propulsion motors had arrived and been installed ahead of the planned launch on the 14th of December. Unlike W.B. YEATS, which uses conventional diesel propulsion, HONFLEUR has been designed to use more efficient gas-electric propulsion. This means that instead of conventional controllable pitch propellers being used to control the speed of the vessel, HONFLEUR uses fixed pitch propellers which can be sped up or slowed down in order to achieve the required speed along with the corresponding adjustment in engine load. As a result of this the propellers are always trimmed at their most efficient pitch while, the engines are always only producing the amount of power required rather than running at constant speed. HONFLEUR is also designed to run on LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) as well as diesel, which releases significantly lower amounts of harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Once the hull of HONFLEUR has been launched, FSG will start the assembly of hull 780 – one of two Ro-Ro freighters for parent company SIEM being built for charter to unknown operators. Once hull 780 and the hull of the sister-vessel (yard number 781) have been assembled and launched, FSG will lay the keel for the second (as-yet un-named) ferry for Irish Ferries, hull 777. These latest Ro-Ro freighters are understood to be identical to the recently delivered ALF POLLAK and soon to be delivered MARIA GRAZIA ONORATO which were also built for SIEM. Following the launch of the second Irish Ferries vessel, FSG also have a contract for two fast-Ro-Pax vessels for Australia’s TT-Line Pty – meaning the yard has ferry building work taking them well into 2021.
HONFLEUR Technical Data
|
HONFLEUR |
|
|---|---|
| Length | 187.4m |
| Breadth | 31m |
| Draught | 6.6 |
| Tonnage | 42,400 (approx) |
| Speed | 22 kts |
| Machinery |
LNG/Diesel-Electric 4 x dual-fuel (LNG/Diesel) Marine Diesel engines connected to alternators and electric propulsion motors. Total engine power approx. 39900hp 2 x Bow Thrusters |
| Passenger | 1,680 |
| Passenger Cabins | 261 |
| Passenger areas | 5,200 m2 |
| Vehicle Capacity | 2,600 lm (approx 130 freight trailers , 550 cars and 64 freight trailers) |
For the latest official updates from Brittany Ferries, visit https://www.destinationhonfleur.com/en
Edited on 16.12.18 to clarify that there are 3 superstructure blocks and not two.
