MV Pont-Aven

Last updated

Pont-Aven approaching Millbay.jpg
Pont-Aven approaching Millbay Docks (Plymouth)
History
NamePont-Aven
OwnerSOMABRET (2004 - 2020) Brittany Ferries (2020 - Present)
Operator Brittany Ferries
Port of registry Morlaix, Flag of France.svg  France
Route
Ordered2002
Builder Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany
Cost£100m
Laid down9 April 2003 [1]
Launched13 September 2003
Completed2004
Maiden voyage23 March 2004
In service23 March 2004
Identification
StatusIn Service
General characteristics [2]
Tonnage40,859 GT
Length184.3 m (604.7 ft)
Beam30.9 m (101.4 ft)
Draught6.8 m (22.3 ft)
Depth9.7 m (31.8 ft)
Decks10
Ice class1B
Installed powerFour MaK 12M43 diesels, 14,675bhp each
Speed
  • Cruising: 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
  • Maximum: 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph) [3]
Capacity
  • 2,415 passengers
  • 600 vehicles
Crew185

Pont-Aven is a cruiseferry operated by Brittany Ferries. She was built at Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany and has been sailing for Brittany Ferries since March 2004. She is the current and longest serving Brittany Ferries flagship; sailing between the UK, France, Spain and Ireland. Pont Aven is the fastest and largest purpose-built cruise-ferry on the English Channel.

Contents

Prior to being named, Pont-Aven was referred to as Bretagne 2; this was then the codename for the new Brittany Ferries vessel for the PlymouthRoscoff route, the Armorique. Pont-Aven's layout is similar in many respects to that of another Brittany Ferries vessel, Bretagne.

Service history

A model of the Pont-Aven as built. Model ms brittany ferries.JPG
A model of the Pont-Aven as built.

Pont-Aven was ordered by Brittany Ferries from the Meyer Werft shipyard on the river Ems, gt Papenburg, Germany on 22 February 2002. She was laid down on 9 April 2003, launched 13 September the same year and completed on 7 February 2004, ahead of schedule. She completed sea trials and was handed over on 27 February, making her maiden voyage on 24 March, from Roscoff to Santander. [3]

Pont-Aven experienced a number of technical problems in her 1st year of service. Most serious was the flooding of an auxiliary engine room in August 2004 caused by a faulty sea valve leaving the ferry unable to move from the Plymouth terminal for two days. [4] Many services were disrupted at the height of the holiday season, many passengers having to be transferred to services from Poole and Portsmouth. The problem occurred at the same time as a major breakdown on the Irish Ferries vessel Normandy, which operates on the Rosslare - Cherbourg route. This situation left no passenger ferry link between Ìreland and France and as a result many holidaymakers were forced to use the so-called Land Bridge route, travelling from Ìreland to Wales by ferry and driving to Plymouth or Portsmouth to board a ferry for France, or vice versa. Other problems included the bow door jamming shut and the unusual roll when travelling at high speed even in calm weather. However most faults have now been corrected and the vessel has become a popular member of the Brittany Ferries fleet.

On 22 May 2006 Pont-Aven sustained damage en route to Santander from Plymouth. Several forward windows were smashed by a 9-metre wave which resulted in a number of cabins flooding. She was forced to divert to Roscoff where passengers disembarked. [5] On 26 May 2006 Pont-Aven returned to service, while refurbishment was carried out on board throughout the voyage. The windows were covered by metal. These windows were later replaced with smaller, round porthole windows in late 2007 - early 2008.

On 18 August 2008 the ship experienced problems opening the bow door in Santander for cars to be off-loaded. As a result of this the ship had to re-dock, aft into the port first, and the vehicles had to reverse off. This led to further delays and the problem was not fixed before the next crossing to Plymouth later that day; meaning that vehicles had to reverse or make a U-turn to disembark.

At around 04:00 on 29 April 2019, a fire in the engine room caused the ship to divert to Brest whilst on route from Plymouth to Santander. [6] [7]

Name

Pont-Aven was named for the town of Pont-Aven in Brittany. The town is famous as the home of a group of artists known as the Pont-Aven School, and the interior decor of the ship commemorates this link. [3]

Routes

The glass lifts in the atrium are one of the Pont-Aven's cruise ship-like features. Liftatrium.JPG
The glass lifts in the atrium are one of the Pont-Aven's cruise ship-like features.

Current routes

Previous routes

Other routes served

In addition to her regular routes, Pont-Aven has seen occasional use between Plymouth and St Malo, Plymouth and Cherbourg and Portsmouth and Cherbourg. In most cases these were position moves during the winter though passengers and freight were carried.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roscoff</span> Commune in Brittany, France

Roscoff is a commune in the Finistère département of Brittany in northwestern France.

Quiberon was a ferry operated by Brittany Ferries between 1982 and 2002. She then operated on the Mediterranean for Euroferrys under the name Guila D'Abundo. In 2010, she was renamed D'Abundo and sent to Alang for scrapping.

Condor Ferries Operator of ferry services for the UK and France

Condor Ferries is an operator of passenger and freight ferry services between The United Kingdom, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Bailiwick of Jersey and France.

MS <i>Barfleur</i> (1992) Ferry launched in 1991

MS Barfleur is a ferry operated by Brittany Ferries on the route between Poole on the south coast of England and Cherbourg, France. She was built at Masa Yards Turku New Shipyard in Finland for the Brittany Ferries subsidiary Truckline and entered service in 1992. In 1999 she was repainted in Brittany Ferries standard livery. Barfleur was the last ship to carry the 1983–2002 version of the Brittany Ferries logo and livery which was replaced by the post-2002 version in March 2009. She sails under the French flag and is registered in Cherbourg. Excluding the HSC Normandie Express and RoRo cargo vessels, she is the smallest passenger vessel in Brittany Ferries' fleet.

MV Bretagne is a ferry operated by Brittany Ferries. She was built at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France and has been sailing for Brittany Ferries since 1989. She was Brittany Ferries flagship until the arrival of MV Val de Loire in 1993.

MV <i>Moby Corse</i>

Moby Corse is a ferry owned and operated by Moby Lines. She was built at Aalborg Værft A/S in Denmark for DFDS Seaways as MV Dana Anglia and entered service with them in 1978. She sailed between Esbjerg, Denmark and Harwich, United Kingdom between 1978 and 2002 before being renamed MV Duke of Scandinavia for service between Copenhagen, Denmark and Gdańsk, Poland. She returned to the North Sea in 2003 to sail between Newcastle and IJmuiden.

The M/V Rosa Eugenia, formerly the Coutances and Outances is a freight ferry owned by Conferry and previously operated by Brittany Ferries. It was built at Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre shipyard in France for Truckline Ferries and entered service in 1977. In 1985 Truckline was purchased by Brittany Ferries and in 1986 they sent Coutances and her sister Purbeck to be lengthened which increased their capacity by 34%. In 2004 Coutances was repainted in Brittany Ferries livery. She has sailed for most of her life between Poole and Cherbourg though was briefly replaced by the Normandie Shipper in the early nineties. In November 2007 Coutances was replaced on most Poole-Cherbourg sailings by the Cotentin, a new freight ferry constructed by Aker Finnyards. Coutances was withdrawn from service on 1 May 2008. In late July 2008 she was sold to Conferry of Venezuela owners of the former Purbeck, Coutances' sister ship.

HSC <i>Condor Voyager</i> Condor ferries

HSC Condor Voyager is a high-speed catamaran ferry, owned by Brittany Ferries and chartered to Condor Ferries. Since being built in 2000, the vessel has borne the names Incat Tasmania, The Lynx and Normandie Express. She is designed to travel at speeds of up to 46-and-a-half knots, giving a journey time between Portsmouth and the Normandy ports of three hours per crossing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port of Bilbao</span> Port in Biscay, Spain

The Port of Bilbao is located on the Bilbao Abra bay, and along the Estuary of Bilbao, in Biscay. The main facilities are in the Santurtzi and Zierbena municipalities, approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) west of Bilbao. Also called Exterior Port and Superpuerto, the port complex occupies 3.13 km2 of land and 16.94 km2 of water along 17 km (10.6 mi) of waterfront.

MV <i>Duc de Normandie</i>

MV Duc de Normandie was a passenger car ferry built in 1978 as the Prinses Beatrix. She subsequently operated under the names Wisteria, Vronskiy and Damla.

MS <i>King Seaways</i>

MS King Seaways is a cruiseferry operated and owned by the Danish shipping company DFDS Seaways on a route connecting North Shields, effectively the port of Newcastle upon Tyne,, England to IJmuiden in the Netherlands. She was built in 1987 as MS Nils Holgersson by Seebeckwerft, Bremerhaven, West Germany for TT-Line. Between 1993 and 2006 the ship was named MV Val de Loire, owned by Brittany Ferries and used on traffic across the English Channel. A DFDS vessel since 2006, she was originally named MS King of Scandinavia, before being given her current name in 2011.

MV <i>Cotentin</i>

Cotentin is a ROPAX ferry owned and operated by Brittany Ferries between Poole and Cherbourg from January until March 2021 and then Portsmouth and Le Havre from March 2021 until June 2021. She previously operated for Brittany Ferries between 2007 and 2013 between Poole–Cherbourg before being chartered to Stena Line as Stena Baltica serving the route between Gdynia and Karlskrona. The vessel was constructed by Aker Finnyards in Finland and delivered to Brittany Ferries on 9 November 2007. Cotentin sails under the French flag and is registered in Morlaix. The ship's gross tonnage is 22,308.

MV <i>Armorique</i> (2008)

The MV Armorique is a passenger and freight ferry built for Brittany Ferries by STX Europe in Finland at a cost of £81 million. The vessel was delivered to Brittany Ferries on 26 January 2009, it was originally planned for her to be delivered in September 2008. Armorique is named after a national park of outstanding beauty in western Brittany. Armorique was also the name of a previous Brittany Ferries vessel purchased for service between Portsmouth and St Malo in 1975 and sold in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millbay</span>

Millbay, also known as Millbay Docks, is an area of dockland in Plymouth, Devon, England. It lies south of Union Street, between West Hoe in the east and Stonehouse in the west. The area is currently subject to a public-private regeneration creating new homes, business premises, marina, a 1000-pupil school and opening up the waterfront to greater public access.

MV <i>Musthika Kencana II</i> Ship built in 1972

Musthika Kencana II was a passenger ferry which was built in 1973 as Terje Vigen for DA-NO Linien. She was sold to Brittany Ferries in 1975 and renamed Armorique. She was sold to Xiamen Ocean Shipping Co in 1993 and renamed Min Nan. In 1998, she was sold to the Weihai Ferry Co and renamed Sheng Sheng. In 2003, she was sold to Dharma Lautan Utama, Belize. In 2005, she was sold to Jalan Kangina, Surabaya and was renamed Tirta Kencana I. She was renamed Musthika Kencana II in 2009. She caught fire off Java on 4 July 2011 and sank the next day.

GNV Spirit is a cruiseferry owned by GNV and operated by GNV between Tyrrhenian Sea & Spain. She was acquired in 2022 by Grandi Navi Veloci from Brittany Ferries for an undisclosed amount.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brittany Ferries</span> French (Breton) ferry operator

Brittany Ferries is the trading name of the French shipping company, BAI Bretagne Angleterre Irlande S.A. founded in 1973 by Alexis Gourvennec, that operates a fleet of ferries and cruiseferries between France and the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain, and between Spain and Ireland and the United Kingdom.

MF <i>Prince</i>

The MF Prince is a ferry currently owned by Greek company A-Ships Management. She previously sailed for B+I Line as the Connacht, Brittany Ferries as the Duchesse Anne and Jadrolinija as the Dubrovnik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port of Bloscon-Roscoff</span>

Roscoff is a town situated on the north coast of Finistère, Brittany. Its favorable position at the western end of the channel along with the efforts of the economic administrators have allowed the port to survive and develop itself within the different fields surrounding the sea. Amongst the 13 main Breton ports, Roscoff is one of the largest commercial harbours on the list.

<i>E-Flexer</i>-class ferry Class of Ro-Pax ferries

The E-Flexer is a class of Chinese-built Ro-Pax ferries ordered by Stena RoRo for European line service. Twelve vessels of the class are on order, and upon delivery will be operated by Stena Line, Brittany Ferries, DFDS Seaways and Marine Atlantic. Stena Line are to take five vessels of the class, Brittany Ferries five, and a single vessel each to DFDS and Marine Atlantic, of which the latter's vessel will also be hybrid electric. All of the vessels will be delivered to Stena RoRo with the Stena Line vessels transferred to that company and the Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Marine Atlantic examples long-term chartered to those operators, with an option to purchase at the end of the charter.

References

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20030608230208fw_/http://www.meyerwerft.de/frames.asp?lang=d&id=news_press_detail&pid=81
  2. Specifications at bfenthusiast.com Archived 9 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 "Brittany Ferries Enthusiasts". Brittany Ferries Enthusiasts. Archived from the original on 22 December 2009.
  4. "Ferry fault strands passengers". 10 August 2004 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. "Six injured as ferry hit by storm". 22 May 2006 via news.bbc.co.uk.
  6. "Incident involving Brittany Ferries Pont-Aven".
  7. "Update on the incident involving Pont-Aven – 13:00 on 29th April 2019".