Superstar in Tallinn, 4 March 2012

Clearly there weren't enough images featuring the Superstar in this blog yet, so here are some more. There is a futher reason to featuring these photos however, as I discovered yesterday that Tallink will be introducing a new graphic identity to their fleet (and the fleet of Silja Line) - you can see the new look in a graphic guidelines booklet here. If the guidelines in the booklet will be rigidly introduced on the Tallink and Silja Line fleets (the example images specify the ships as all-white apart from funnel markings and hull texts), the Superstar might look rather different not too soon.

Superstar

IMO 9365398
Built 2008, Fincantieri Ancona, Italy
Tonnage 36 400 GT
Length 175,10 m
Width 27,60 m
Draugth 7,00 m
Ice class 1A
2 080 passengers
520 berths
665 cars
1 930 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27,5 knots

The photographs below were taken in Tallinn harbour on 4 March 2012 from onboard the Nordlandia. Click on the images to see in larger size.

Spiffing image, even if most of the ship is in shadows. Ideally one would be at this same quay to observe one of the departures later during the day...

Two months ago we still had ice and snow. Today the summer cruise season opens in Helsinki with AIDAsol being the first ship to call (most unsual, normally the Fram is always the first).

Notice the damage to the paintwork caused by navigating in the ice.

Hopefully Tallink will not be too rigid about their new look - the Superstar would look awful in all-white. And the Tallink Shuttle hull text wouldn't look too good centrally located either. But, we'll see.

Looking back the trip when this photo was taken was an opportune time - getting both good light and ice at the same time is frightfully difficult.

Two hours later, Helsinki.