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The new hub port in the outer harbour in Boulogne is now open and that is where the Norman Arrow is running to and where the Norman Spirit will berth. I believe that it has excellent motorway links. The ports of Calais and Boulogne now have an agreement to co-operate rather than compete.
The main problem with the Norman Arrow would appear to be the time taken to load and discharge. She can hurtle across the Dover Strait at high speed and great expense burning lots of fuel but the time advantage is dissipated hanging about waiting to get on and off. As she is only single deck loading, all over the stern, presumably all the freight has to be turned around inside the ship and all the tourist stuff on the top deck has to negotiate internal ramps.
Also, there is the usual problem with fast craft that she cannot operate in bad weather. She is now going to be laid up for the winter in Portsmouth and then run in the summer months from Portsmouth to Le Havre.
I think her wash has also been causing problems, requiring her to slow down well before port entry. She was causing berth surges in the Eastern Docks when entering via the Eastern Entrance. Additionally, all these fast craft appear very unmanoeuvrable for berthing at the best of times, let alone in high winds. They are limited to directing the thrust from the waterjets at the stern, there are no bow thrusters for obvious reasons.
After all the hype, LD say they are now going to wait for the next generation of high speed craft to resume the high speed service to Boulogne.
The Norman Spirit is the old Aquitaine ex Prins Filip. She is the ship with which LD started on the channel, running from Pompey to Le Havre, and has been very successful. However, she has had a lot of changes to acccommodate overnight passengers which may make her less suitable for Boulogne than in her previous incarnation Dover - Calais or her original route Dover - Ostend.
Meanwhile, the Cote d'Albatre is operating Portsmouth - Le Havre to help subsidise the Newhaven - Dieppe route which is now operated purely by the Seven Sisters. LD tried her out briefly Dover - Dieppe but the route did not take off.
The Norman Voyager, an off the shelf Visentini newbuild which proved most unpopular running in conjunction with Norman Spirit, has been chartered out to Celtic Link to run direct from Rosslare to Cherbourg. Another newbuilding, the Norman Leader, is being delivered next year.
All in all, LD Lines give the impression of being something of a headless chicken running around trying all sorts of things with all the wrong ships and it will be interesting to see what the future holds. They have the financial clout of the Louis Dreyfus group behind them but how long they can enjoy being subsidised for all these experiments in the present recession must be open to question.