Stena Line officially took ownership of fleet's newest cruiseferry - Stena Estrid. The ship is currently enroute to Holyhead UK. The China-made vessel was handed over at AVIC Weihai Shipyard (northwestern China).
The ferry will embark on a 6-week journey to her new home on the Irish Sea, where she will begin service on the Holyhead-Dublin route in January 2020. At 215 meters in length, she is larger than standard RoPax ships and has cargo capacity 3100 lanemeters (120 cars) and passenger capacity 1000.
Two more fleetmates (of the same E-Flexer series) are also destined for Irish Sea crossings. Stena Edda starts operations on the Liverpool-Belfast route in 2020 spring. Stena Embla will serve the same line starting in January 2021.
Dan Sten Olsson, Stena Line's owner, attended a service officiated by Reverend Stephen Miller of the Mission to Seafarers, who undertook the maritime tradition of blessing the new vessel, in order to bring her good luck at sea.