MV Stina in Larne
2nd October 2002

Larne Harbour is usually associated with ferries but it does occasionally play host to small general cargo boats and tankers.    One such regular caller is the Stina a red hulled cargo ship that usually carries bulk powder products.  The Stina arrived in from Loch Ewe in Scotland on Wednesday the 2nd of October and berthed on Olderfleet Quay at 0825.

The coaster Stina arriving at Larne on the 2nd of October 2002.  Photo: Jimmy Dowey

It makes a nice change to report about this traffic which at one time provided similar traffic flows through the port as the ferries but now it has almost died out in Larne and the ferry traffic now dominates the port. 

New Fast Ferry Service to Troon, "Plans at an Early Stage"
10th October 2002

P&O has confirmed that they are planning to introduce a new fast ferry service linking Larne with Troon.  The service will begin for the 2003 summer season and will complement the Cairnryan service rather than replace it.  At this stage it appears that the service will be run by the Superstar Express which will have trips from Larne to Troon as well as Cairnyan built into her daily roster.  This announcement confirms speculation and rumours that surrounded the Superstar Express' unexplained berthing trials at Troon on the 1st of May 2002.

The full text of the report contained in the Ayrshire post is below:

Ayrshire Post 10/10/02

P&O has confirmed moves to bring a fast passenger ferry service to rival the SeaCat operation from Troon to Northern Ireland.

A spokeswoman at P&O Irish Sea told the Post plans are at an early stage, and stressed that a final decision has still not been made.

However, she added: "The season for our Cairnryan-Larne service is April to September, so we would be looking at a similar time frame, starting at the same time.

"Just now we are at the stage of looking at what would be needed to make it happen."

She confirmed infrastructure is already in place for a fast passenger vessel to start sailing from the Troon terminal, and P&O would be looking to increase its share at SeaCat's expense.

She also insisted the new Ayrshire run would complement, rather than replace, the service out of Cairnryan where the company operates a one-hour Superstar Express crossing alongside its 105min ferry sailings.

However, the development is bound to cause concern to staff dependent on the Loch Ryan port. Sea Containers expressed the same intention three years ago when it introduced its SeaCat route between Troon and Belfast as a summer service alongside its Stranraer crossings; the Wigtownshire service was terminated at the end of one season.

P&O's new expected crossing time into Larne was not disclosed, though clearly it will have to offer an attractive alternative to SeaCat's 2hr 30min service to Donegall Quay in the centre of Belfast.

At present P&O offers a four-hour no-frills passenger sailing between Troon and Larne aboard its freight vessels during the summer only.

Larne Welcomes Back 4th Seaporter Ship
17th October 2002

The 4th "Stena Seaporter" class ship in the P&O fleet, European Navigator, returned to Larne after her recent overhaul and lay up at Birkenhead.  Replaced only three weeks ago on the Troon service by the European Mariner [see story 26/9/02 here] it was thought that the Navigator would be heading off on charter, possibly to Norfolk Line.  Instead it was her replacement, the European Mariner that was chartered out to Norse Island Ferries for service between Aberdeen and Lerwick.

The European Mariner replaces the Merchant Venture, which has suffered a bearing failure in her port side main engine.  Incidentally, in the early 90's the Merchant Venture and European Mariner were once in the Merchant Ferries fleet together, although back then the European Mariner carried the name Merchant Valiant.

The Merchant Venture also has Larne connections.  She has served here on several occasions in the early 1990's as a relief ship for Pandoro on the Fleetwood service.  In 1999 she went on to become the 3rd ship on the new 3 ship Fleetwood run before being replaced by the European Navigator.  She then went on to serve for a few months on the Cairnryan service.

It is not known just how long it will take to repair the Merchant Venture's engine but a long term charter or even sale of the European Mariner to Norse Island Ferries are two distinct possibilities.  In the meantime the 4 "Seaporter " sisters are reunited at Larne keeping services from the port at full strength.

The European Mariner left Larne on the 17th of October after discharging from her morning sailing from Troon and is due to take up service to the Northern Isles on the 19th.  The European Navigator commenced running to Troon with the 1900 sailing from Larne on the Thursday the 17th so there was no break in service.

Power Station Chimneys Arrive in Larne
18th October 2002

The 89m coaster MV Marjolein arrived at 0509 on Friday the 18th of October with chimneys for installation in the new combined gas cycle turbine power station at Ballylumford.  The chimneys were off loaded by crane at Olderfleet quay.  Transferring the chimneys across the mouth of Larne Lough took place the following week.  Local towage company John McLoughlin and Son towed the load across on barges using their tugs Donna, Sarah McLoughlin and Maria McLoughlin.  

Later on in the year, on the 15th of December 2002 the floating crane Mersey Mammoth arrived in Larne also in conjunction with this work.

Port of Larne Resilient Against Downturn
27th October 2002

A recently published article in Lloyds List has confirmed Larne is fighting back against the 2001 downturn in trade due to foot and mouth disease and the continued terrorist threat in Northern Ireland.  

2002 traffic figures for the port have been encouraging so far thanks mainly to the expansion in services at the port.  A new service to Liverpool was started in January and the Cairnryan service was upgraded with the arrival of the newly built European Highlander which took up service on the 3rd of July this year.  Both of these new developments have helped boost freight figures.  The Liverpool and Cairnryan routes as well as the Fleetwood route from Larne were all singled out in P&O's half year report as performing well.  

Full text of Lloyds List report is below:

Lloyds List; Oct 04, 2002

The foot and mouth disease crisis and the effects of terrorism combined to make 2001 a tough year for transport and tourism in Northern Ireland, but the P&O group company Port of Larne has shown itself to be resilient against downturn.

Tourist traffic fell more than 10% last year but has gone some way towards recovery this time, with tourist vehicle traffic increasing by 7%.  At the same time freight volumes have proved strong. With nine ferries making up to 40 arrivals and departures each day to and from four ports in Great Britain, the port handled 350,000 freight units, 155,000 tourist vehicles and almost 750,000 passengers, continuing the growth that has characterised volumes in recent years.

This year commercial vehicle moves increased 12% over the first eight months, to reach 257,000.

Denis Galway, managing director of the port of Larne, attributes the recent success to its commitment to meeting customer requirements.

'We work very closely with operators to ensure that our facilities enable them to offer a first-class service to their customers,' he says. 'In recent years P&O Irish Sea has introduced new vessels with greater capacity, which indicates their confidence in our capabilities.'

The 7.9% increase in freight traffic last year underlined the preference for Larne of commercial operators, the port says, with the continuing dedication to achieving shorter turn round times driven by a widening choice of sea crossings and the higher frequency of calls.

There are signs that the growth trend is set to continue.

The Larne-Cairnryan route, the shortest and fastest crossing between Ireland and Great Britain, is proving very attractive to tourists.

P&O released European Highlander into the service earlier this year, calling for berth modifications.

P&O Irish Sea&'s Superstar Express continues to provide a record-breaking one-hour crossing from Larne to Cairnryan complemented by European Causeway, which makes the crossing in 105 minutes.

Early last year the Larne-Fleetwood service welcomed a third ship and has seen significant growth both in freight traffic and in the number of tourists choosing this route.

Relocation of the Larne-Ardrossan freight service to Larne-Troon offered improved facilities to handle the increasing traffic on the popular Northern Ireland- Scotland sailings.

In response to a growing demand for high quality storage, the port of Larne has developed a dedicated distribution centre with a total 11,000 sq m of storage space.

The centre, which includes frozen, chilled and ambient areas, offers a complete range of service including next day delivery, break bulk and order picking from stock.

Now being used by more than 30 leading British and Irish importers and exporters, it is an essential port facility.

'The pressure of demand is such that we will have to look at developing further facilities in the near future', says Mr Galway.

Larne is a deep-water port close to the open sea with no tidal restrictions, but its natural advantages will be enhanced through landside investments.

Improved access is promised through a GBP12m ($18.8m) improvement programme to the road between Larne and Belfast, with work due to be complete by the end of next year.

With a new freight route from Larne to Liverpool in operation since the beginning of the year and the GBP36m new sister ship to European Causeway introduced in July, it is easy to see why Larne is displaying quiet confidence for the remainder of the year.

Larne Ferries Keep Sailing Despite Rough Weather
Saturday 26th and Sunday the 27th of October

Despite most of Britain being rocked by wind gusting up to 100mph the P&O ferries based in Larne managed to battle through the waves and keep traffic moving.  Cairnryan only suffered minor delays of around 20 minutes while Fleetwood was unaffected.  

During the height of the storm from early Sunday up to tea time P&O was the only link to Northern Ireland.  The European Causeway and European Highlander battled through waves that at times crashed right over their superstructures.

The Troon and Liverpool routes are both normally off at the weekend so both the Northern Star and European Navigator were able to watch proceedings from their anchorages.

European Mariner Finding Things Tough in the Northern Isles
6th November 2002

In the gales of the past weekend (2nd and 3rd of November) the European Mariner, on charter to Norse Island ferries for the Aberdeen to Lerwick service, had to run for cover after a refrigerated lorry was lost overboard from her open upper freight deck.  The vessel was on a routine crossing when she hit bad weather and had to run for shelter in Invergordon.  Four other trailers on the upper deck were damaged all in addition to the one lost overboard.  The European Mariner finally got back on track 12 hours behind schedule.  

Later, on the 2nd of December, European Mariner stood by the Merchant Venture, which had lost her engines during another gale.  The Merchant Venture, which had only just returned to service after her previous engine repairs, had an electrical system fault causing the engines to shut down in force 12 winds.  The engineers of the Merchant Venture managed to partially restore power to the engines allowing the Merchant Venture to get into Lerwick under her own power, escorted by the European Mariner.

The European Pathfinder's Sale Saga
12th November 2002

After a protracted lay up in Liverpool since being replaced on the Larne to Cairnryan service by the new European Highlander on the 19th of July, the European Pathfinder was finally sold by P&O on the 20th of October 2002.  She was sold with her engine problems that she had during her final few weeks in service at Larne still not repaired by P&O so she has went cheaply .  Her last reported asking price was 390,000 US dollars (about 260,000 GBP).  Her new owners from Greece renamed her Regina I for her new service but she never left Liverpool under that name.

The new owners were unable to raise the finance to finalise the deal and instead resold her to Trans Europa Ferries.  TEF have renamed her Begonia and a crew made up of Eastern Europeans arrived at A&P's Birkenhead yard to remove her.  She sailed from the Mersey for lay up and refitting in Ostend on Friday the 15th of November.  Her refit is expected to last 6 months and she is due in service during the summer of 2003.

Superstar Express Troon Schedules for Summer 2003
13th November 2002

The sailing schedule for the Superstar Express next summer has just become available.  Built into her roster are two return trips to Troon and two to Cairnryan.  She will operate from the 15th of April to the 15th of September.

Her roster in detail is given below:

Each day begins and ends with a round trip to Troon, with an estimated sailing time of 109 minutes (1hr 49 mins).  In addition, there are 2 round sailings to Cairnryan with the already well established 1 hour sailing time.

This is a bold move from P&O and it will be interesting to see whether they attract significant traffic from their competitors Stena Line and Seacat both sailing from Belfast.  

News of the former European Trader
12th December 2002

The European Trader left Larne for the last time on the 14th of April 2001 and information about her hasn't been all that easy to find.  Luckily for us all ferry sleuth extraordinaire, Gary Andrews has dug up a recent picture of the former European Trader, so now is an appropriate time to take a look at what she has been up to over the past 18 months or so.

What happened to the European Trader after she left Larne?

The European Trader was withdrawn from the P&O fleet in April 2001 after serving at Larne since June 1996.  She sailed to Belfast for lay up, which lasted for several weeks before she was eventually sold from the fleet to Taygran Shipping and renamed Taygran Trader.  Her new owners had the backing of a consortium of freight hauliers from the Outer Hebrides who had become disgruntled at the service provided by the established operator in the area, Caledonian MacBrayne.  They placed her on the Ullapool to Stornoway freight run in an ambitious attempt to compete with Caledonian MacBrayne and for quite a few weeks they succeeding in taking traffic from their competitors.  

Unfortunately the new service failed through a number of things not going their way.  They were hit with a series of bills for unpaid repair charges from Harland and Wolff as well as port dues that their fragile financial situation just couldn't cope with.  In addition, Caledonian MacBrayne had eventually got their act together and brought a bit of muscle to bear on their fledgling rivals so that they began winning back traffic.  The new Taygran service ended in September 2001 but it did make Caledonian MacBrayne take note and they decided to bring in a dedicated freight ship in addition to their own vessel Isle of Lewis to provide a much better service for the truckers.  In a curious twist the additional freight ship now on the route is the Muirneag, a vessel with Larne connections as she used to be the Larne to Ardrossan ship Belard.

The withdrawn Taygran Trader (ex European Trader) was laid up in Leith for three months before being sold to El Salam Shipping of Egypt.  Renamed Lina Trader, she sailed from Leith bound for Egypt and an extensive refit on the 26th of December 2001.  Her new owners drastically rebuilt the Trader with her upper freight deck being converted into cabins and the passenger accommodation extended further aft of the funnels.

For comparison here is a picture shot from a similar angle, although it shows the port side instead of the starboard side.  At this time the only things on her aft freight deck was a handful of 40 foot trailers.  As was customary on this class of ship when loading at Larne the first trailers to be loaded were sent onto the upper deck, put into the wing lanes and reversed back tight to the ventilation 'mushroom' on the aft mooring deck.  The European Trader's sister, the European Endeavour's port side ventilation 'mushroom' was badly dented for several months, probably caused by an enthusiastic tug driver backing a trailer into it.

Mersey Mammoth Visits Larne
15th December 2002

The giant floating crane Mersey Mammoth was in Larne over the weekend 14-15th of December 2002.  She was involved in transferring chimney components from the Larne side of the lough over to the Islandmagee side where they will be used in the new Ballylumford "C" combined gas cycle turbine power station being built at Islandmagee.

Anyone with pictures of Mersey Mammoth in Larne then I'd very much like to see them.  Email me at plebstar2000@yahoo.co.uk

Larne to Liverpool Route Terminated
19th December 2002

The final sailing in the latest chapter in the Larne to Liverpool route was the 1500 service from Larne on Thursday the 19th of December 2002.  The charter of the Northern Star expired the next day and P&O did not see fit to renew it or seek another vessel to cover the route.

Resurrected in January 2002 the Larne to Liverpool route had been enjoying some initial success but the down turn in the North West England traffic finally hit the Northern Star's loadings and in recent months her loads have declined sharply.  At the end up she was getting only six runners and a handful of trailers per sailing.  In the new year her regular traffic will be transferred to the European Seafarer's afternoon departure from Larne to Fleetwood where there apparently is plenty of space.

After completing service on Friday (20/12) morning the Northern Star went to lay up in Gladstone Dock in Liverpool.  

This is by no means the final word on the Liverpool service, with P&O's main competitor, Norse Merchant Ferries, in severe financial difficulties the Liverpool route could well be resurrected once again.

The Wandering Mariner Returns to Larne
22nd December 2002

The European Mariner  returned to Larne after her recent charter sailing to the Shetland Islands from Aberdeen.  She berthed on Chaine Quay in the early evening on Sunday the 22nd December 2002, where she is expected to lay up until the New Year. 

Unless another charter is arranged for her it is highly probably that the European Mariner will re-enter service on the Larne to Troon service in place of the European Navigator.  The future of the Navigator is again in doubt and there are rumours flying around that she has already been sold to Middle Eastern owners, although if another lucrative charter is found for the Mariner the Navigator will have to be retained.

In the meantime the European Navigator will maintain the Troon service until her arrival in Larne on the morning of Christmas Eve.  The Troon service will then be suspended until the New Year.

Mariner on Tour 2002

The European Mariner has been by far the most travelled ship in the current P&O fleet this year.  Since she was replaced on the Larne to Troon service she has visited the Isle of Man, Heysham, Warrenpoint, Barrow, Kristiansand, Hirtshals, Portsmouth, the Channel Islands, Aberdeen and the Shetland Islands.  Even with all this travelling she even managed stints on the Larne to Troon crossing during March and September as well as the Fleetwood service during June.

The European Mariner's Tour Schedule 2002

Christmas and New Year Lay Ups in Larne
26th December 2002

This year Larne is due to have 4 ships laid over during the Christmas break.  The Fleetwood service finished with the morning arrival of the European Pioneer from Fleetwood on Christmas Eve.  She is not due to sail again until Friday the 27th of December at 2200.  The European Pioneer will lay up on Continental Quay until then.

The Troon service finished with the European Navigator's arrival on Christmas Eve morning at 0545.  She will lay up on Curran Quay until the New Year.

The same ships were also in port over the New Year and all 4 ships, along with 2 Northern Ireland Railways trains blasted in 2003 with an extended "sound your hooter" contest at midnight on New Year's Eve.  Of course European Navigator won it hands down, her hooter is unmistakably the loudest in the harbour.

Former European Endeavour Gets Ready for New Service
26th December 2002

The one time Larne to Cairnryan stalwart European Endeavour has emerged from her extensive refit in Dunkirk ready for action.  Since her final departure from Larne on the 20th of July 2002, her new owners, Trans Europa Ferries, have renamed her Gardenia and re-registered her in Limassol, Cyprus.  During her refit she has been freshly painted in Trans Europa Ferries' livery of white hull and superstructure with yellow funnels and she is looking splendid as the picture below shows.  

The Gardenia entered service on Trans Europa Ferries' route between Ramsgate and Ostend in the second week in January 2003.  She will no doubt be an excellent addition to the fleet already on the Ostend service, since her previous track record in Larne has been second to none.  

Her introduction on the Ramsgate to Ostend route brings her career full circle since she was originally built for the adjacent Dover to Zeebrugge route for Townsend Thoresen in 1978.

If you want to keep up to date with all the latest happenings in the European Endeavour's new port of operation, then join the Ostend Ferries Yahoo Group here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ostendferries/

Christmas Season Visitors to Larne
30th December 2002

Two visitors have appeared at Larne over the past few days.  One vessel is a stranger to Larne while the other drops by from time to time to renew old acquaintances.

The stranger is Fisher's coastal tanker Irishgate (registered in Gibraltar), but over the next few weeks she will no longer be a stranger.  The tanker is carrying diesel oil for the new Ballylumford 'C' power station.  

The new power station has been built on the site of the old Ballylumford 'A' station and the Irishgate berthed at the Ballylumford 'A' jetty for the first time on Friday the 27th of December to discharge her cargo.  Over the next few weeks she will bring in several loads of diesel so will become a familiar site in Larne Lough.

The Irishgate entering Larne on her second trip to the port on the 30th of December 2002.

The second visitor was the Irish Lights Vessel Granuaille III, which was last in Larne around the middle of November tending the buoys.  She worked on the buoys for two days over the 29th and 30th of December before departing Larne and heading north at 1230 on the 30th of December.  Ferris Point lighthouse on Islandmagee is an Irish Lights buoy store and the Granuaille frequently calls by to pick up new buoys.

The Granuaille III leaving Larne on the 30th December 2002

The Granuaille II was notorious in Larne since it was said that she caused bad weather every time she visited the port.  She earned the rather harsh nickname of 'the bad weather boat.'  The jury is still out on whether her successor, Granuaille III, causes similar unexplained weather fluctuations.  I can safely say that as I write this its so far so good, although there was subsequently one bad day of rain on the 2nd of January.  I'll leave it up to you to decide whether she deserves 'the bad weather boat' title!

Updated: 18/02/05

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