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P&O Express TTo the Isle of Man TT

P&O's Larne based fast craft Express was once again chartered by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for sailings from Larne to Douglas in conjunction with the annual TT motorbike races.  

For 2007 the Express has been given her toughest assignment yet in what is now the 3rd year she has been on charter to the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for the TT fortnight.  Chartered for 11 sailings, including one service direct from Troon to the island, the Express was one of seven ferries that the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company used to help them cope with the large influx of traffic to the island for the TT races.  Along with Express, former Larne ferries Stena Caledonia and Riverdance also visited the Isle of Man this year helping out over the TT fortnight.

The timetable for the 11 trips by Express to the Isle of Man were:

29- 31 May and 1 June: Larne - Douglas dep 2359 (return to Larne 0600 next day)
2 June Larne - Douglas via Troon dep Larne 1730, Troon 2100 returning to Larne 0600 next day
4-6 June & 9-11 June: Larne - Douglas dep 2315 (return to Larne 0600 next day)

In addition to these direct Isle of Man sailings, provision was also made for Troon passengers to use the 2020 Troon - Larne P&O sailing to connect with a Larne - Douglas sailing.  The 0715 Larne - Troon P&O service also served for passengers returning to Troon using a Douglas to Larne sailing.

With the sheer volume of traffic wishing to get over to the Isle of Man for what was the 100th year of the TT races most of the sailings by Express ran late as a result.  The craft was stretched to capacity on a number of sailings with the sailings in May and early June heavily loaded from Larne while the balance of traffic filled up the sailings from Douglas during the second week of June.

The first Isle of Man sailing by Express scheduled for 2359 on Tuesday 29/5/07 got away from Larne just slightly late at 0010 the following morning.  The delay being due having to load the large volume of vehicles booked for the crossing.  The vessel picked up more delays discharging all the vehicles in Douglas and didn't return to Larne until 0730 that morning instead of the booked arrival time of 0600.

Her own P&O sailings on the 30th were completed successfully and the vessel picked up considerable lost time during the day finishing her P&O schedule that evening with the arrival from Troon only 15 minutes late at 2225.  

Her 2359 scheduled charter sailing to the Isle of Man on the evening of the 30th departed 30 minutes late at 0030 on the 31st, again the large volume of Isle of Man bound traffic extending loading operations.  This sailing arrived in Douglas around 0400 and did not return to Larne until 0815 that morning after Manx police had to go aboard to the vessel in Douglas to break up a fight that had broken out during the crossing.

Despite her late arrival in Larne, once Express had been discharged and refuelled she departed for Troon at 0845 and completed all her scheduled crossings that day to Troon and Cairnryan, picking up much of the lost time.

Her 2359 Isle of Man charter sailings on the 31/5/07 and 1/6/07 followed a similar pattern to the previous two nights with both of them departing later than scheduled with maximum loads.  Departure timings for the two nights were 0040 and 0130 respectively.  

On the morning of the 2/6/07 the late departure from Larne at 0130 the previous night meant Express didn't make it to Larne until 0900.  She had tug Sarah McLoughlin on standby to assist her berthing when a steering problem developed enroute to Larne and weather conditions in the port were less than favourable with fresh south easterly gales in excess of 20kts.  In the event Express didn't use the tug as her engineers had managed to solve the steering fault during final approach to the port.  No time was lost in getting the fast ferry on her way again to Troon at 0945.

The Douglas trip on the 2/6/07, which was scheduled to depart Larne at 1730 operating via Troon, was delayed until 1840.  With fresh south easterly gales persisting all day Express was unable to make up much time that had accumulated due to the late running from the previous Douglas trip that morning.  This sailing carried a mixture of traffic with Douglas bound passengers mixed with P&O's own passengers bound for Troon.  The majority of the load was bound for Douglas and on arrival at Troon the load had to be discharged to get the Troon bound cars off while the Douglas bound vehicles were reloaded along with the Troon to Douglas traffic.  This caused some disquiet onboard the ship as some Larne originating passengers had not realised this service was sailing to the Isle of Man via Troon.  P&O's own 2020 Troon to Larne service that evening was subsequently cancelled and passengers rerouted via Cairnryan to allow the Express to operate the Troon to Douglas crossing.

The crossing from Troon to Douglas was reported to be quite lively as south easterly gales were still blowing.  Some vehicles on board were damaged as a result of the craft's motion in the large swell running in the Irish Sea.

The Express got a break on the following night of the 3/6/07 with no Isle of Man voyage scheduled.  Her crew spent the night doing maintenance work which had been just impossible to do with the vessel working 24 hours a day the previous 5 days.

The next trip to the Isle of Man on Monday 4/6/07 departed on time at 2315.  By now loads had become much more manageable as the bulk of the outbound traffic had already departed for Douglas on the previous sailings as well as on scheduled Steam Packet sailings from Belfast.  Subsequent sailings from Larne were to see a dramatic drop in traffic outbound while the inbound services from Douglas arriving in Larne in the morning picked up more and more traffic as race fans began to return home.

Problems arose on the inbound 0300 sailing from Douglas on the 10/6/07 when a number of passengers bound for other ports ended up on the wrong ferry.  Passengers for Dublin and Liverpool ended up on the Express by mistake as Douglas was very busy dealing with departures to Larne, Belfast, Dublin and Liverpool all within the space of an hour or two.

For the record the fast craft's Isle of Man performance is tabulated below:

For the record Stena Seafarer's Stranraer service was as follows:

Saturday 2/6/07: 

Arrived Larne 1230 discharge Fleetwood cargo and sail light to Belfast at 1345
Took up Stranraer service with 2000 ex Belfast and 2359 ex Stranraer.

Sunday 3/6/07:

Operated ex Belfast to Stranraer at 1150 and 2000.  Ex Stranraer at 1550 and 2359.

Monday 4/6/07:

Returned to Larne light ship at 1300 sailed at 1600 to Fleetwood

Saturday 9/6/07:

Arrived Larne 1300 discharged Fleetwood cargo and sailed light for Belfast 1410
Entered service to Stranraer with 2000 ex Belfast and 2359 ex Stranraer

Sunday 10/6/07:

Operated ex Belfast 2000 and ex Stranraer at 2359. 1150 ex Belfast cancelled to allow Stena Caledonia use of the berth to discharge a Douglas to Belfast trip.

Monday 11/6/07

Returned to Larne light ship at 1300, loaded and sailed for Fleetwood at 1600.

Larne Ferry Web Takes a Manx TTrip Aboard Past and Present Larne Ships

In recent times there has been an ever increasing list of former Larne based ships that have made the journey to the Isle of Man.  Indeed, in recent years with the Isle of Man Steam Packet chartering P&O's fast craft Express it is even possible to travel direct from Larne to the island.  During 2007's centenary TT fortnight Larne Ferry Web decided to sample a journey to the Isle of Man and was able to manage it aboard past and present Larne ships.

The outward journey from Northern Ireland was via Belfast to Douglas aboard former Larne - Stranraer stalwart Stena Caledonia.  Built for Sealink at Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard as St David in 1981, the Stena Caledonia took up permanent service at Larne in 1985 alongside her sister Galloway Princess and the freighter Darnia. The transfer of St David to Larne in 1985 brings up another Isle of Man link as this move allowed the Stranraer based Antrim Princess to move to the Heysham to Douglas route, a route she served for several subsequent years as Tynwald.

On the 10/6/07 Stena Caledonia was scheduled to make a 0500 sailing from Douglas to Belfast and return from Belfast at 1045 replacing the normal Sunday morning trip by either of the Steam Packet's fast craft Superseacat Two or Emeraude France, both of which were then available to make early morning voyages from Douglas to Liverpool and Dublin respectively.

Stena Caledonia arrived at her regular Belfast berth on the Albert Quay at 1030 after Stena Seafarer had earlier slipped her moorings and went to sea at 1000 to make room for her to use it.  The 'Caledonia berthed as normal stern first and commenced discharging a large cargo of high vehicles such as camper vans and cars towing caravans from her main deck.  All of this awkward traffic would have been a struggle to fit on the limited high deck space on the Express which had operated a 0300 Douglas - Larne service earlier that morning.  Once a mobile crane was offloaded from her poop deck there followed a swarm of motorbikes which streamed off the upper vehicle ramp while the foot passenger gangway echoed to the tramping of dozens of feet.  Not normally seeing volumes of passenger traffic like this in her regular Stranraer service except when the HSS is off, I was reminded of the 'Caledonia's past days at Larne when she would depart on her busy 1530 sailing from Larne in summer time with her rails lined with passengers.

The return load to the Isle of Man, although light in comparison to the inward load came as quite a surprise for Stena as nobody from the Steam Packet had advised them that the 'Caledonia was returning with passengers.  It was only when Douglas bound cars and passengers started turning up at their terminal earlier that morning did Stena find out about it.  Despite their surprise Stena staff quickly handled everything with minimum fuss.  The main fear among them being that Douglas bound passengers would end up mixed up with passengers arriving for the 1220 Stranraer sailing by Stena Voyager and that travellers would end up on the wrong ships.  Once discharge was completed and bunkers taken aboard the light return load to the Isle of Man was embarked and Stena Caledonia set sail for Douglas at 1115.  

Arrival in Douglas was just after 1600, the 'Caledonia making up 15 minutes on the scheduled 5 hour crossing time.  On the way into port she passed the anchored freight ferries Hoburgen and Phocine, both ships like the 'Caledonia on charter to the Steam Packet Company for the TT.  The 26 year old saint then demonstrated she still hasn't lost any of her legendary maneuvering power by completing a neat and tidy swing in the tight confines of Douglas harbour prior to berthing stern first at the Edward Pier ramp.

Now came the complicated part and the reason why she was carrying a mobile crane on her poop deck.  Built as what is termed in the industry a 'female' ship Stena Caledonia relies on the link between ship and shore being made by shore based ramps landing on her vehicle decks.  The loading ramp at Douglas is set up for 'male' ships, which carry their own ramp to make the ship to shore connection and allow vehicles to drive off.  In order to make the connection for the Stena Caledonia a small platform was lifted by the mobile crane on her poop deck and placed over the gap between her main vehicle deck and the shore ramp.  This allowed her wheeled traffic to disembark and once they were clear foot passengers walked ashore over the ramp.  Already waiting in the marshalling yard was what looked like a capacity load for Stena Caledonia's next sailing scheduled at 1700 to Heysham.

With Douglas harbour exceedingly busy with traffic the entire Steam Packet fleet paid a visit to the port in the next few hours, each vessel departing with large loads as race fans returned home at the conclusion of the TT races.  My return home was early the following morning aboard P&O's Express, which was making her last of her scheduled visits to the Isle of Man for 2007's TT.  The ship arrived late in Douglas and by her scheduled departure time of 0300 had only just commenced loading for Larne at the Edward Pier ramp.  Foot passengers were taken aboard via the vehicle deck at 0315 and by this time the forward end was filling up fast with motorbikes.  Loading of high vehicles into the high headroom areas at the aft end of the car deck followed and this was completed by 0345.  Under the command of Captain Robin Wasson, the Express let go from Douglas at 0355, passing Superseacat Two laid up on Victoria Pier and Stena Caledonia just off the breakwater awaiting entry to the berth Express had just vacated.  Despite a large load of vehicles loaded aboard Express, by the time she sailed the marshalling yard was already filled with more traffic awaiting Stena Caledonia's early morning service to Heysham.

In his welcome aboard announcement Captain Wasson had indicated that he was taking Express around the south of the island on her way to Larne with an ETA around 0700.  After some breakfast in the Fables restaurant on board I along with the rest of the passenger load settled down to sleep away the journey to Larne.  With the high vehicle load on board there was surprisingly more room in the passenger spaces than I expected.  There were plenty of quiet corners for everyone to be comfortable and get stretched out for a nap during the passage to Larne.  One well muscled biker settled down on the floor behind my chair and pulled out of his bag a pillow patterned with stars and moons.  It wasn't quite the sort of bed linen I would have thought someone this butch would like to be seen with!

The passage to Larne was smooth and uneventful.  By 0700 Express was alongside her Chaine Quay berth at Larne in the company of Stena Pioneer, European Causeway and European Mariner.  It took her in excess of 30 minutes to discharge the load in from Douglas and for quite a while after her arrival Larne Harbour was echoing to the sound of high powered motorcycles revving their engines - the final reminder of Larne's involvement in TT 2007.