Our ferries
- 10 July 2011 17:43114114took a trip across this morning, took a few shots of our ferries.
all 3 ferry comanies represented in this shot, seafrance moliere, pride of calais and i think the dover seaway.
- 10 July 2011 17:47114116about an hour and a half before that shot the moliere was loading up in calais as pictured here.
i think my ferry was a bit slower, the captain seemed to be an old fashioned disciplinarian.
i saw 3 of the crew walk the plank.
- 10 July 2011 17:59114119Ah, proper employment law...........
- 10 July 2011 19:09114124More than likely they wanted more selling time on the Ferry
Audere est facere. - 10 July 2011 19:19114125surprising how quickly they can cross at night with fewer spending passengers on board.
let's hope blue barry does not see the bit about the plank walking, he will be bending the ear of the home secretary within minutes. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
10 July 2011 19:51114129howard,during the day when they got most passengers on they slow down.when asked why we are told its a fuel saving thingy.all 3 seafrance ferries and the new p&o ferry are capabale of doing the crossing in under an hour.dfds [ex norfolk line] have told to slow down to save fuel,the dfds ferrys used to dover to dunkirk in 1 hour 45 its now 2 hours 15.i hope that answers your query.
ps.the molilere is first class on the passenger front,shame they are not taking foot passengers. - 11 July 2011 03:10114144The old days of everybody hurtling backwards and forwards across the Dover Strait are long gone. The price of fuel has gone through the roof and every expedient is being explored to reduce consumption. Reducing speed by just a few knots effects a dramatic saving. It lengthens the voyage time marginally and is compensated for by reducing the turnaround time in port to maintain the same schedule.
The alternative is to put prices up very substantially which is not in the interest of the travelling public or of the ferry companies who might thereby lose custom to their competitors. The principal competitor is the tunnel who are unaffected by the rise in the price of oil as they are powered by electricity from the nuclear power system in France. They also have the benefit of having had seven tenths of the cost of construction wiped off. If the ferry companies similarly only had to pay 30% of the price of construction of new ferries with the remaining 70% written off then it would be a different ballpark.
Nevertheless, even the tunnel is losing money in the present economic climate. The big two ferry companies, P&O and DFDS, are little more than breaking even. SeaFrance is losing money despite huge cuts in ships and crew. Up until now they have been bankrolled by the state through their owner, SNCF. Both Eurotunnel and P&O have raised objections to these subsidies as unfair competition and the EU looks set to prohibit a futher massive proposed injection of funds. The French unions are adamantly opposed to any further cuts and the prospect of bankruptcy looms for SeaFrance.
P.S. Howard, the DFDS ship in the top photo is indeed my ship, the Dover Seaways. The little white dot on the front of the funnel is a new electric whistle we fitted a few months ago after our old one blew itself apart in dense fog. The Korean manufacturer SARACOM had gone out of business so we had to fit an equivalent from Kockum Sonics. The Delft Seaways and the Dunkerque Seaways have the original black whistles. Not a lot of people know that! - 11 July 2011 09:09114155thanks for info ed, about time there was a level playing field.
even if the e.u. told the french government not to inject more money in i have doubts they will take heed. - 12 July 2011 12:42114366sea france has announced that the freight only ferrry "nord pas de calais" wil be taken out of service.
this is unlikely to affect staffing levels in dover.
rumours are circulating that the "renoir" and the "cezanne" are in the process of being sold. - 13 July 2011 11:53114581This is the Cezanne over a year ago laid up in Dunkerque, during the Operation Dynamo commemorations with the Dunkirk Little Ships passing by. She was in a dreadful state then so will be even worse now. The Renoir can be seen in the background and was in better condition.
They have both finally been sold and apparently renamed Western Light and Eastern Light. Purchaser undisclosed but apparently close to but not in Europe, possibly North Africa as per other ex Dover ferries such as the St Christopher.
The Nord Pas de Calais is long in the tooth, built 1987, but has been a mainstay carrying freight throughout her career, originally sailing as a train ferry. Lovely little ship. SeaFrance want to take her off the run and possibly keep her as a back-up as this only leaves them with three ferries, the Rodin, Berlioz and Moliere. Unions will certainly be kicking up about this as it will mean even more redundancies.
SNCF have tried to flog off SeaFrance in the past but nobody was interested. If they do go bankrupt, other operators may be interested in the Rodin and Berlioz which are thoroughbreds. The Moliere is a bit of a lash-up being converted from one of the Superfast ferries which have all gone to different owners for longer distance routes.
