SeaCat was a marketing name used by Sea Containers (SeaCo) ferry operating subsidiaries Hoverspeed, Sea Containers Ferries (Scotland), and Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for services operated by InCat built 74/81m catamarans from 1992 – 2004. The SuperSeaCat marketing name was later used for services using Fincantieri built MDV 1200 monohull fast-craft. The last SeaCat service between Northern Ireland and Scotland was operated by the 81m InCat SeaCat Rapide from Toon to Belfast, leaving Troon at 19:30 on Monday 1st November 2004. Just over a year later, sister vessel SeaCat Diamant operated the last Hoverspeed service on 7th November 2005 between Calais and Dover.
A photographic look back at some of the ferries which have operated to or within Northern Ireland, including those which operated both for present operators and those which no longer exist. Part 4 focuses on the Isle of Man Steam Packet and Seacat.
Take a look back at some of the ferries which have operated to NI. In part 3 we take a look at some of the ferries of Merchant Ferries, Norse Irish Ferries, Belfast Car Ferries, Belfast Freight Ferries, Norfolk Line, DFDS, and Seatruck.
Facing growing competition from the airlines in the late 90’s and early 00’s, SeaCat responded with this tongue in cheek TV ad.
The 2nd of Hoverspeed’s 5 74m “Seacat” car carrying catamarans was built by International Catamarans (InCat) in Australia and launched as Hoverspeed France on April 28th 1990. Despite being hull number 26, she was launched some months before hull 23 (Seacat Tasmania), but 3 months after hull 25 (Hoverspeed Great Britain). All 5 of these “SeaCat” vessels where built to the same “Mark 1” design and specification, with a further 4 built afterwards for other operators to modified specifications. 4 out of the 5 original 74m long Seacat’s would operate from Belfast over the years, with the only craft never to operate from the port being that launched as Seacat Tasmania. InCat 026, in common with the other original Hoverspeed ‘SeaCat’s’ was well-travelled over the years. While initially she operated on Hoverspeed’s own English Channel services from July 1991, she was chartered out to Sardinia Express (and renamed Sardegna Express) the following June. However, that charter … Read more
Hoverspeed Great Britain was the first of Hoverspeeds 74m long car-carrying catamarans, dubbed “SeaCat”‘s. Find out more here.
P&O Ferries Express has completed her final sailing for the company, also potentially the final fast-craft sailing between Scotland & Northern Ireland
News Im delighted to be able to announce that Alan Geddes has agreed that his photographs may be used on NIFerrySite. Alan’s photographs are mainly taken within the Belfast harbour area, and often from an elevated position, giving them a perspective not often seen elsewhere. Alan’s photographs will continue to be added to many of the profiles (and also the former ferries photo feature) in the coming weeks – a number have already been added. In the meantime, why not check out Alan’s Flickr page. Don’t forget you can also find links to the flickr accounts (where applicable) of the other photographers featured on this site on the links page. New ferries added The following vessel profiles which where added recently, have had technical data, photographs, and some history added: Seacat Scotland Seacat Danmark The Seacat Isle of Man/Snaefell and Hoverspeed Great Britain pages should be finished in the coming week. Changes to … Read more
New ferries added The following vessel profiles have had technical data, photographs, and some history added: Seacat Scotland Seacat Danmark The Seacat Isle of Man/Snaefell and Hoverspeed Great Britain pages should be finished in the coming week. Changes to existing ferry posts The following vessel profiles have had material added or changed European Causeway/European Highlander (new photographs added and reformatted with headings) Stena Superfast VII/Stena Superfast VIII (reformatted, added headings, and updated to reflect the introduction of Stena Superfast X) Changes to pages and navigation Ferry routes and operators page rewritten due to a formatting issue on some browsers. New category added “NI Ferry Profiles (current)” and added to menu (filed under “The NI Ferry Fleet” to allow easier navigation to current ship profiles. Some minor changes to formatting have also been made to a number of the posts and pages on the site so that they appear better with … Read more
Seacat Danmark (also known as Golden Blaze, Zara Jet, Pescara Jet, SeaCatamaran Danmark, Hoverspeed Boulogne, Hoverspeed Belgium) The 4th and final but one of Hoverspeed’s 74m “Seacat” car carrying catamarans built by International Catamarans (InCat) in Australia, was launched as SEACAT BELGIUM on February 15th 1991. All 5 of these vessels where built to the same “Mark 1” design and specification, with a further 4 built afterwards for other operators to modified specifications. SEACAT BELGIUM commenced service on the 18th of March 1992 between Dover and Calais/Boulogne having been renamed HOVERSPEED BOULOGNE. On April 11th 1992 she moved to inaugurate the new Folkestone to Boulogne route, where she stayed until she moved to the North Channel in April 1993 to operate between Belfast and Stranraer. In May 1993 she was again renamed, this time to SEACATAMARAN DANMARK, and moved to Scandinavia to operate between Fredrikshavn and Gothenburg. However, due to ice she could … Read more
SEACAT SCOTLAND was 5th and final of Hoverspeed’s 74m “Seacat” car carrying catamarans built by International Catamarans (InCat) in Australia. She was launched on the 29th October 1991 and inaugurated the new Belfast – Stranraer service on 1st of June 1992.
This post has been replaced by a new dedicated page here. Photographs of some of the ferries which previously plied their trade in our waters. Note, that due to the age of these photographs (many of which where originally taken with film cameras and scanned), picture quality is sometimes not up to modern standards.
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