Victoria I in Helsinki, 6 January 2013

Victoria I

IMO 9281281
Built 2004, Aker Finnyards Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 40 975 GT
Length 193,80 m
Width 29,00 m
Draugth 6,50 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 252 berths
400 cars
1 000 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 26 240 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Contrary to the advertised programming I did have the time today to visit the South Harbour and photographs the Victoria I on her winter cruise visit to the city. As those who follow this blog reguarly perhaps remember, in the Baltic Sea there are two distinct cruise seasons: the self-explanatory summer season and the more unusual winter season around new year, when Russian travel agencies charter local cruiseferries to do longer cruises from St. Petersburg. The logic behind this is the fact that due to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, Eastern Orthodox countries celebrate Christamas on 7 January. Hence these are in fact Christmas cruises.

One of the ships chartered this year to do Christmas cruises for the Russian market has been Tallink's Victoria I, which did a four-night and a five-night cruise from St. Petersburg. The second of these will terminate in SPB tomorrow, but today the ship was in Helsinki and I had a chance to photograph her.

For a brief history of the Victoria I, see this entry.

Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Winter Victoria.

Backlit by the neat trick of positioning myself so that the sun is behind the funnel. Note that these photos were taken at around 14.00 and yet the sun was already that low.

The ice cover was far from even, thanks to us having "enjoyed" several days of slightly-above-zero weather.

Victoria I and Silja Symphony are usually in Stockholm at the same time, but getting them into the same photo in Helsinki is much rarer.

I admit I did some fidgeting to get the hues in the clouds to stand out better. But in this case the ends justify the means I think.

Next time: In all likelyhood the Silja Festival I already promised in the previous entry.

Victoria I in Stockholm, 26 February 2012

This blog is hopefully now awaking from it's hibernation of the past two months, as today I have finalized my master's thesis and will be submitting it to the university tomorrow. This will (hopefully) give me the time and energy to start updating this blog more often again. I still have a notable backlog of images from this winter and the summer cruise season will begin in a little over a week, so there is and will be plenty of stuff to add.

Also, I am now back to workin on my old computer (the one used at the time this blog was started), which has been upgraded with a new graphic card and a new screen. Since the colours with this new combination are not quite the same as with the old one, please let me know if there is a notable shift in the way the "new" images in this and upcoming entries look like compared to the old ones. Now, on to today's entry:

Victoria I

IMO 9281281
Built 2004, Aker Finnyards Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 40 975 GT
Length 193,80 m
Width 29,00 m
Draugth 6,50 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 252 berths
400 cars
1 000 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 26 240 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Very little to say about the ship that would not already have been covered in previous entries. For a brief history of the ship see here. The photographs here show the Victoria I arriving in Stockholm's Värtahamnen on the morning of 26 February 2012. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Inbound to Värtan, with Lidingö in the background.

Notice the ice on the sides of the ship (most notably on the Tallink-text and the black window stripe), the result of spray from the open sea freezing when it hits the ship.

The ship did quite a complex turn when coming in; here she is actually sailing away from Värtan and towards Lidingö before reversing to quay.

Reversing into quay, with Scandic Hotel Ariadne (originally the Silja Hotel Ariadne) in the background. If this image and the two above look slightly "fake", that's because they are. The ship and the background have been treated separately to get the ship to stand out of from the background with needing to sacrifice the rich colours of the sky and other background objects.

Victoria I in Helsinki, 3 January 2012

Victoria I

IMO 9281281
Built 2004, Aker Finnyards Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 40 975 GT
Length 193,80 m
Width 29,00 m
Draugth 6,50 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 252 berths
400 cars
1 000 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 26 240 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

 As I have noted before, Helsinki has in effect two cruise seasons: the self-explanatory summer cruise season and a more unusual winter cruise season around new year, when Russian travel agencies charter ships for Baltic Sea cruising out of St. Petersburg (Russians also form the majority of passengers on regular cruiseferry services around this time of the year - even on those that don't actually call in Russian ports). Since the time of the year can require ships with icebreaking capability, the ships used are usually normal ferries.

This year, three ships are making four to five nights long cruises out of St. Petersburg: St. Peter Line's Princess Maria and Princess Anastasia, as well as Tallink's Victoria I. Since the first two commonly visit Helsinki anyway I did not bother photographing them, but the Victoria I is a rarer visitor and hence I went out to get some night-time (actually around 6 PM) photographs of her.

Victoria I at Kanavaterminaali in Helsinki, photographed from various locations around the South Harbour. Click on the images to see in larger size.

It was a bit too dark for really good photographs, but these will have to do. ;)

Victoria I and the two cathedrals of Helsinki: the Helsinki Cathedral on the left and Uspenski Cathedral on the right, behind the Victoria I's radar mast.

A different point of view showing the the various quays at Katajanokka.

The car deck was in use, as you can see, and apparently tour buses started directly from inside the ship.

Lastly, as a hopefully final update on the too small diplayed images problem I wrote about here, I have now gone through all the affected entries and all images in this blog should display normally. If there are any problems, please let me know.

Victoria I, 31 May 2007

Victoria I

IMO 9281281
Built 2004, Aker Finnyards Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 40 975 GT
Length 193,80 m
Width 29,00 m
Draught 6,50 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 252 berths
400 cars
1 000 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 26 240 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Victoria I was the second newbuilt ship built for Tallink, delivered in 2004 from (what was then) the Aker Finnyards shipyard in Rauma, Finland. She is a sister ship of the Romantika, built in 2002, but the Victoria I has a larger number of cabins. There are also some exterior differences in the ships, most notably the large flower motif painted on the sides of the bow of the Victoria I. Both the Romantika and the Victoria I are based on Viking Line's Cinderella from 1989, with a similar (albeit arguably superior) interior layout.

On delivery in March 2004 the Victoria I was placed on Tallink's service between Tallinn and Stockholm, running parallel to the older and notably inferior Regina Baltica. In May 2004 an intermediate call at Mariehamn on the Åland Islands was added to retain tax-free sales onboard after Estonia joining the EU. (The Åland Islands are an autonymous province of Finland that is not a part of the EU taxation system. Resultingly ships calling at the islands can still sell tax-free goods, even though tax-free sales have been abolished in intra-EU traffic).

In 2005-2006 the Victoria I was also occasionally used for trips between Tallinn and Helsinki. Her running mate on the Tallinn-Stockholm service changed in May 2006 when, following the delivery of the new Galaxy the Romantika was transferred to the Tallinn-Mariehamn-Stockholm route. The two sisters sailed parallel to each other on the route until May 2009, when the new Baltic Queen replaced the Romantika (which was moved to the Riga-Stockholm service). As Tallink have since run into financial difficulties after their rapid expansion during the latter half of the 00's, it seems there is no danger of the Victoria I herself getting replaced with another ship in the near future.

The photographs below show the Victoria I in Tallinn on 31 May 2007. Click on the individual images to view full size.

Victoria I  at Tallinn's Resisadan terminal D, with the Galaxy on the background on the right. Photographed from onboard the Superfast VIII.

Shifting berths at Reisisadam; due to there not being enough berths with passenger linkspans at terminal D, the Victoria I had to vacate her berth for the incoming Star. Once the Galaxy departed, the Victoria I then moved to her berth. Photographed from onboard the Star.

More of the same. In addition to the flower on the bow, the Victoria I  can be told apart from her sister Romantika by the protective sidings on the aft sundeck (the topmost black stripe below the funnel). On the Victoria I this extands all the way to the aft, on the Romantika  it does not. Photo taken from onboard the Star.

Baltic Queen & Victoria I, 23 March 2009

Baltic Queen

IMO 9443255
Built 2009, STX Europe Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 48 915 GT
Length 212,10 m
Width 29,00 m
Draft 6,42 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 800 passengers
2 500 berths
600 cars
1 130 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 32 000 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 24,5 knots

Victoria I

IMO 9281281
Built 2004, Aker Finnyards Rauma, Finland
Tonnage 40 975 GT
Length 193,80 m
Width 29,00 m
Draft 6,50 m
Ice class 1A Super
2 500 passengers
2 252 berths
400 cars
1 000 lanemeters
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 26 240 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Victoria I (referred to in Tallnk marketing material as "Victoria" without the number, but Victoria I is her registered name) was Tallink's second new-built ship, delivered in 2004 from the Aker Finnyards shipyard in Rauma. She is a sister ship of the Romantika delivered two years previously. Since her entry into service the Victoria I has sailed on the Tallinn-Stockholm route, but her running mates have changed several times. Originally she ran parallel to the Regina Baltica, but in 2006 following the delivery of the new Galaxy the Romantika moved on the Tallinn-Stockholm service replacing the Regina Baltica.

In 2009 the Baltic Queen, the third ship of the Galaxy-class (that one in itself an enlarged version of the Romantika/Victoria I design) was delivered from the Rauma shipyard, which meanwhile had passed under the ownership of STX Europe. The Baltic Queen was placed on the Tallinn-Stockholm service, replacing the Romantika and running parallel to the Victoria I. (The Romantika transferred to the Riga-Stockholm route, where she again replaced the Regina Baltica).

Photographs below were taken in Tallinn on 23 March 2009, the day before the Baltic Queen entered service. Resulting she was in port at the same time as her running mate Victoria I. Photos taken from onboard the Viking XPRS. Click on the individual images to view full size.

Brand new Baltic Queen in the afternoon sun.

Aft of the Baltic Queen, the Victoria I is preparing to leave for Stockholm.