IMO 9134543
Built 1996, Kvaerner Fjellstrand Omastrand, Norway
Tonnage 467 GT
Length 40 m
Width 10,10 m
Draught 1,69 m
342 passengers
2 MTU diesels, combined 4 000 kW
2 waterjets
Speed 36 knots
The Flyingcat 5 was one in a series of 11 identical catamarans built by Kvaerner in Norway for various owners (Finnish readers might recognise her as a sister of the Viking Express II and Viking Express III that sailed between Helsinki and Tallinn for Viking Line in the 1990s). This particular ship was delivered as the Hanse Jet for Weisse Flotte Ostsee in 1996, placed on the Greifswalder-Bodden, Warnemünde-Travemünde-Rødby Havn-Gedser-Burgstaken and Lauterbach-Swinoujscie -routes. In the summers of 2000 and 2001 she was chartered to FRS Iberia for Tanger-Tarifa and Tanger-Gibraltar routes, followed by a charter to Larivera Lines from Italy-Croatia service in summer 2002, and a charter to SNAV on the same area in summer 2003. Clearly excess to the needs of her owners, the Hanse Jet was sold to Minoan Flying Dolphins in late 2004, renamed Flyingcat 5. Her sister Hanse Jet II (originally delivered as the Baltic Jet, not to be confused with the Nordic Jet Line ferry with the same name), was sold at the same time, becoming the Flyingcat 6. Minoan Flying Dolphins became a part of Hellenic Seaways already in January 2005, and it is uncertain if the Flyingcat 5 ever sailed in active service with Minoan Flying Dolphins. Like all Hellenic Seaways fast ferries, she was painted in an advertisement livery, first advertising Vodaphone but changing in 2013 to Cosmote.
The photograph below show the Flyingcat 5 at the port of Volos on 11 November 2013. Click on the image to see it in larger size.
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| The red of Hellenic Seaways dolphins logo really does not mesh all that well with Cosmote's lime green. Surely they could have used the dark blue Hellenic Seaways hull colour for the dolphins here? |
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