Honfleur’s keel only set to be laid in two weeks time
French ferry operator Brittany Ferries published their 2019 timetable earlier today, which shows their new ferry HONFLEUR will debut on her Portsmouth to Caen route on 10th July 2019. The date is almost a year to the day from when Irish Ferries W.B. YEATS, which is under construction at the same yard, was meant to debut. The superstructure for the 42,400gt ferry is already under construction with Marine Project in Poland. This is the same sub-contractor charged with the construction of the superstructure modules of W.B. YEATS which have apparently been the source of that vessels delayed delivery (though NIFS understands the problematic section was actually subcontracted to another contractor by Marine Project).
The keel of the new Brittany Ferries vessel is due to be laid at Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Germany on August 6thaccording to the originally published build schedule, with the hull expected to be launched this December. HONFLEUR‘s superstructure will then be lifted onto the hull in sections, as it was on W.B. YEATS, and welded to the hull. Any remaining ancillaries will then be connected up and fitting out completed before sea trials begin which were originally scheduled for March.
Delivery of HONFLEUR was originally scheduled for May 2019 with entry into service in June, so it appears that the originally published build schedule has slipped slightly, not unusual in itself. Despite the recent issues with W.B. YEATS, which are said (though not confirmed) to have been caused by the mis-alignment of the deckhead’s (ceiling’s) of the central accommodation section, FSG have a good reputation for building vessels quickly and on-time. An example of this is our own STENA PRECISION and STENA PERFORMER (soon to revert to their original names of SEATRUCK PRECISION and SEATRUCK PERFORMANCE for Seatruck’s Warrenpoint – Heysham service). W.B. YEATS however was the first passenger vessel of her size to be built by the yard, and Brittany Ferries will hope that valuable lessons have been learned from the construction of the Irish Ferries vessel and the mistakes made will not be repeated on HONFLEUR.
For more information on HONFLEUR, visit Brittany Ferries dedicated website at www.destinationhonfleur.com (external link).
Portmouth – Caen timetable
Meanwhile NORMANDIE appears to be switching directly to the Portsmouth to Le Havre route.
About New-Build
New-build is the NI Ferry Site section were we step away from our NI-based focus and take a look at significant ferries under construction around the world. New-build consists of news updates on the ordering and construction of new vessels, as well as in-depth pages on the construction of selected vessels such as the Stena E-Flexer class and W.B. YEATS.
