Veøy on the Geirangerfjord, 29 August 2017

During the recent trip to Norway with Cruise Norway, I took a crapload of photos of local Norwegian road ferries. I'm still debating whether or not to post the photos of most of them, as road ferries are not exactly a focus for this blog. But, in addition to the road ferries, there was one "proper" ferry photographed during the trip: the Veøy, which runs a summer service between Geiranger and Hellesylt, sailing through the pictoresque Geirangerfjord.

Veøy

IMO 7368748
Built 1974, Hjørungavåg Mekaniske Verksted, Norway
Tonnage 1 870 GT
Length 74,98 m
Width 12,01 m
Draught 2,60 m
345 passengers
50 cars
2 Wichmann diesels, combined 1 870 kW
2 propellers
Speed 15 knots

(Please be aware that I'm not 100% certain about the figures above; different sources give different dimensions and tonnage figures for the ship).

The Veøy was built in 1974 by the Hjørnungvaag Mekaniske Verksted for Møre og Romsdal Fylkesbåtar's (MRF) service linking Molde to Vestnes via Vikebukt, which remained the ship's primary route until 1988. After 1988, it served on a variety of different routes, which I won't bore you with, until 1997, when the ship became a regular on the Hellesylt-Geiranger -route during the summer seasons. During the winters the Veøy is a reserve ferry, and as such has sailed on several different routes for shorter or longer periods of time.

In 2001, MRF merged with Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane. The combined company first took the name Nordvestlandske, but already in 2002 this was altered to Fjord1. The actual structure of the Fjord1 company is rather complex, with numerous subsidiaries to the main company owning and/or operating the various individual ships, which is why the Veøy's official owners are Fjord1 MRF.

The photos below show the Veøy on the Geirangerfjord, and the ferry quay in Geiranger, on 29 August 2017. Photographed from onboard the excursion ship Geirangerfjord. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

The forward rake of the superstructure is interesting; the angle will reduce glare and therefore improve views from inside, but such stylings are relatively rare, except for dedicated onservation longes.

I quite like the classic style of the Fjord1 flag in the logo, but I do wish they would paint the funnels entirely with the red and blue stripe, rather than a white funnel with the stripes just "stamped on".

On the left is the Friaren ("Suitor") waterfall; across the fjord is the better-known De syv søstrene ("The Seven Sisters") waterfall. Personally, I thought Friaren looked more impressive, but maybe that's just me. In any case you're only getting to see that one, as getting De syv søstrene in the same photo as the ferry would have been abviously problematic.

As is common oon ferries that do not venture far into the open sea, the car deck is open to the elements aft.

At Geiranger. The size of the bow visor is rather impressive.

Returning to the livery for a bit, based on photos it seems the masts were originally painted yellow (matching MRF's funnel colours, which were yellow with a black stripe). At least arguably the white masts are not an improvement, even if they are in keeping with Fjord1's corporate image.