Finlandia on the Bay of Tallinn, 26 March 2019

Before we move to the main attraction of today's entry, I would like to take a chance to showcase two articles I did this month for a new customer, Ferry Shipping News: I had the chance to interview both Björn Blomqvist, the managing director of Rederi Ab Eckerö (who of course own Eckerö Linjen, Eckerö Line and Birka Cruises), and Jan Hanses, the president and CEO of Viking Line, with both offering fascinating insight on how they view the ferry industry in their business area.

You can read the interview with Eckerö's Blomqvist here, and Viking's Hanses here. Both also showcase some of my photography (that is already familiar to the readers of this blog, of course).

Today's entry, by chance, is related to both companies mentioned: I was out on a day cruise with the Viking XPRS to Tallinn earlier this week, and took these quite neat photos of the Finlandia on the Bay of Tallinn as she was outbound and we were inbound.

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draft 7 m
Ice class 1B
2 080 passengers
1 190 passenger berths*
610 cars
1 900 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

* = The berths figure is for the ship as originally built. In 2015, a number of cabins were converted into public rooms, so this figure is no longer correct, but none of the sources at my disposal were able to provide an up-to-date figure.

For a history of the Finlandia, see this earlier entry on her.

As said above, the photos below show the Finlandia on the Bay of Tallinn on the early afternoon of 26 March 2019, outbound from Tallinn towards Helsinki. Photographed from onboard the Viking XPRS sailing in the opposite direction. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

The ship does look immensely better with the frames of the large forward-facing window painted blue. She might look even better if they added a blue stripe along the bridge windows, too.

If you look closely, you'll notice the small Finland 100 logo (which used to be above the piano keys) has been replaced by an Eckerö Line 25 Years one – the company will have its anniversary in late August.

I really like this shot myself.

The seagulls and the ship's name they added in the previously blank blue part in the rear last year also make the ship look better.

Kships will return.

Finlandia in Helsinki, 14 September 2018

So, I finally managed to go out to take photos of the Finlandia in the current livery this past Friday. So, today we are looking at the Finlandia again, after her being featured here two weeks ago.

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draft 7 m
Ice class 1B
2 080 passengers
1 190 passenger berths*
610 cars
1 808 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

* = The berths figure is for the ship as originally built. In 2015, a number of cabins were converted into public rooms, so this figure is no longer correct, but none of the sources at my disposal were able to provide an up-to-date figure.

For a history of the Finlandia, see the previous entry on her.

The photos below show the Finlandia at, and departing from, Helsinki Länsisatama (West Harbour) in the afternoon of 14 September 2018. Photographed from Vattuniemi. As always, click on the images to see them in larger size.

The two faces of Helsinki: industry and nature. And ferries and (just visible behind the ship) modernist architecture. So... four faces?

Notice the window frames of the big forward window are now painted blue, instead of the original white.

The lighting on the ship was not ideal, but the foreground certainly was. Sapphire Princess peeking from behind the bushes there, but she was due to depart three hours after the Finlandia – even if I had had the time to stay, I wouldn't have wanted to do so in the nippy weather.

I haven't done too many direct side views in this blog. But here's one.

Note the seagulls and the ship's name aft, added some time during this summer.

Slightly different point of view from the usual, with Sisä-Hattu there in front, rather than under, the camera.

As always, Kships will return. Probably not next weekend (I don't know if anyone's actually noticed my attempts at weekend updates) as we will be moving to a new apartment then. But the week after that probably.

Finlandia in Helsinki, 4 April 2014

As is obvious from the title, today's entry is a bit of a blast from the past. When going through the blog recently, I noticed a surprising lack of photos featuring Eckerö Line's Finlandia; despite the fact I've photographed her many times, there are just two entries on her with exterior photos. So, in order to rectify this, we're going back to 2014 for an additional set.

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draft 7 m
Ice class 1B
2 080 passengers
1 190 passenger berths*
610 cars
1 808 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

* = The berths figure is for the ship as originally built. In 2015, a number of cabins were converted into public rooms, so this figure is no longer correct, but none of the sources at my disposal were able to provide an up-to-date figure.

The Finlandia begun her life as as Moby Lines' Moby Freedom. The ship was built in 2001 by Daewoo in South Korea as a sister ship to Moby Wonder, completed some months previously. The ship's conceptual design was by Knud E. Hansen and, as said, they were built by Daewoo, but it seems that ownership of the plans lays with Fincantieri, who later built two slightly refined examples of the same class, Moby Aki to Moby and Superstar to Tallink, and are known to have offered further examples of the type to other operators.

But returning to the ship in question, the Moby Freedom entered service with Moby in July 2001, sailing on their routes conencting Olbia to Genoa, Civitavcchia and Livorno. The ship was designed for flexible operations, sailing in cruiseferry mode during weekends and the summer high season, and in ropax mode with less passenger services during weekdays. Originally, the Moby Freedom was painted in a fairly traditional livery: all-white with the Moby name painted in large blue letters and a light blue funnel. However, soon Moby entered an agreement with Warner Bros. to use their Looney Tunes characters on the Moby ships and the Moby Freedom was repainted with Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Tasmanian Devil, Tweety, Sylvester and Daddy Duck on her sides.

After serving with Moby for a little over a decade, in February 2012 the Moby Freedom was sold, with delivery in March, to Rederi Ab Eckerö in Finland, for use by their Eckerö Line subsidiary between Helsinki and Tallinn. Once sold the ship's name was shortened to Freedom and it sailed to the Öresundsvarved in Landskrona, Sweden. The ship lay at the shipyard for two months while negotiations for her refit were carried out and eventually the refit started in May. In June Eckerö Line announced that as a result of a naming competition the ship would be renamed Finlandia.

After the lengthy refit at Öresundsvarvet, Tallinn and Helsinki, the Finlandia entered service on New Year's Eve in 2012. I visited the ship shortly before the refit was completed on 20 December, of which visit photos here, and the following January when it was in service, of which photos here. After that, the ship settled into routine service between Helsinki and Tallinn. However, the public rooms were found to be somewhat insufficient on the popular route, and in early 2015 the interiors were rebuilt, with a large block of cabins turned into a new conference center, the former Extra Class lounge converted into an extension of the main shop, and the former conference rooms turned into an additional bar. Recently (I presume in a docking during the past winter, though I'm not certain), the ship's livery has also been slightly amended; I plan to of course photograph it at some point, but finding a suitable time has proven surprisingly hard.

Anyway, the photos below show the Finlandia arriving at Helsinki Länsisatama (South Harbour) on the afternoon of 4 April 2014. Photographed from Vattuniemi. As always, click on the images to see them in larger size.

Pine trees providing suitable foreground crap.

You could think the notes on the sides of the bow are from Sibelius' Finlandia (or just random), but they are actually the first notes of the Finnish and Estonian national anthems (which share the same melody, although naturally different words).

Lo and behold, entirely different lighting!

Linda Line's Karolin in the background. Linda have since sold both their ships and it seems unlikely the company will restart operations. Eckerö and the Finlandia are going strong, however.

Kships will return.

Finlandia in Helsinki, 2 April 2013

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draught 7 m
2080 passengers
1190 berth
665 cars
1950 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

For a history of the Finlandia, see the first entry on her.

The photographs below show the Finlandia arriving in Helsinki West Harbour in the evening of 2 April 2013, photographed from Sisä-Hattu. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Photogenic ice feat. the Finlandia.

This photo shows why, contraty to the popular belief, the diagonal line separating the blue and white on the side of the ship is pure genious: it continues directly from the angle of the funnel. When viewed directly from the side (alas, I didn't include any photos like that) they line up perfectly.

Passing the competition; the Finlandia's current timetable is planned to perfectly match the arrival/depoarture times of the Star/Superstar, as the three have to temporarily use the same quay.

About to turn in order to reverse into quay.

This is a photo that needs to be retaken during the summer; setting sun and photogenic foreground rocks.

The Photogenic Tree makes a cameo appearance.

Next time: Well, this shall be a surprise to all of us.

Finlandia interiors, 23 January 2013

Yes, this is yet another entry on the Finlandia. What can I say? It's not every day we get a brand-new ferry sailing from Helsinki - particularly not one with such attractive interiors. So, in this entry we shall be taking another look at the Finlandia's interiors, this time taken during my day cruise to Tallinn on the ship on 23 January.

Those interested in more than just photographs can also read my trip report from the ship at MaritimeMatters here.

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draught 7 m
2080 passengers
1190 berth
665 cars
1950 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

It might be of interest to compare the images in this entry with the images taken of the still-incomplete interior of the ship a month before as featured in the previous Finlandia entry.

All photographs below were taken on 23 January 2013. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

Deck 9 houses the bridge, sun deck and the upper level of Cafeteria Satama.

As is often the case in my photographs, a not-very-sunny suc deck.

The ship's pool in the shape of Moby Lines' whale was undoubtedly useful in the Mediterranean, but for the Baltic is was plated over. I guess you can sit on the edge of that thing? During summertime at least, it's bound to be very cold right now.

Deck 8 houses the principal public rooms, from fore to aft: Bar Nosturi (which extends down to deck 7), Pub Jätkäsaari, Pub Telakka, Shop Bellezza, Bar Naissaar, Buffet Eckerö, and Cafeteria Satama.

Bar Nosturi as seen from deck 7.

The mezzanine level between decks 7 and 8.

View down from deck 8, with the band just finishing their set after arrival in Tallinn-

The aft seating area of Bar Nosturi. Due the layout of the room this space doesn't really give much views forward and you can't hear the music too well either.

Pub Jätkäsaari looks much better with the chairs unwrapped...

...but the same cannot be said of Pub Telakka.

Another Pub Telakka shot, facing forward and towards the bar.

Pub Jätkäsaari, Pub Telakka and Bar Naissaar all have wall decor panels somehow relating to the space's name of theme. Here is the one for Pub Telakka, showing (amongst other things) the old Eckerö Linjen ferry Roslagen being lenghtened in 1973 (the text actually reads 1986 but that is an error).

My favourite space onboard in terms of decor: Bar Naissaar.

Alas, the chairs were rather uncomfortable due to being quite small. And while I liked the space, my wife disliked it due to the "grandmotherly" carpet patterns.

Naissaar ceiling light detail.

The blue staircase, located between Bar Naissaar and Buffet Eckerö.

The aft part of Buffet Eckerö. The blue leaf decor in the ceiling is a remnant from the ship's previous incatnation as the Moby Freedom, and the current decor of the space has been inspired by the leaf.

The forward part of Buffet Eckerö. In the background on the left is the servery area for warm foods, desserts and drinks. The servery area for starters is out-of-frame to the right.

The main level of Cafeteria Satama, as seen from the balcony level.

The multipurpose room port and forward of Cafeteria Satama's main space. This area serves either as a part of the buffet (accessible from the door at the back) or the cafeteria depending on the need.

The same space, viewed aft towards the cafeteria. The chairs here - as those in Bar Nosturi - are Moby Freedom originals that have simply been reupholstered.

Another lamp close-up, this time the floral-shaped lamp in the Satama multi-purpose room.

The balcony level of Cafeteria Satama on deck 9.

Deck 7 houses the lower level of Bar Nosturi, and passenger cabins.

Deck 6 has the EckeröMarket, Extra Class lounge (see the previous entry for photos of these), entrance vestibule and cabins.

The entrance vestibule.

The original operator failed to specify a luggage room. Eckerö solved this problem by taking matresses out of two cabins and making them into luggage rooms. I can't help thinking that a part of the multi-million-euro refit the ship recieved could have been put to demolising these cabins and converting them into a proper luggage room.

The yellow (midship) staircase on deck 6.

Next time: Superstar.

Finlandia interiors, 20 December 2012

This is going to be the third entry in a row that says "Next time: Baltic Princess" as the end. What can I say? The Finlandia came along and stole my undivided attention. I had a chance to visit the new ship today (well, technically yesterday as it's past midnight here) and hence I can give you a sneak peek of the (not quite finished) interiors. Be warned that this entry contains a record-breaking 39 images, so the page might take a while to load.

Finlandia

IMO 9214379
Name history: Moby Freedom, Freedom, Finlandia
Built 2001 Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Okpo, South Korea
Tonnage 36 093 GT
Length 175 m
Width 27,60 m
Draught 7 m
2080 passengers
1190 berth
665 cars
1950 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 50 400 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 27 knots

On taking over of the Moby Freedom from Moby Line, Eckerö Line decided to rebuild almost the entire interior (even though the originals were in quite good condition). The new interiors are by the Finnish interior architect Bettina Ingves, who had previously worked on the interiors of both the Nordlandia and Eckerö's Eckerö-Grisslehamn ferry Eckerö. Almost all interiors are named after locations in Helsinki's West Harbour.

When viewing this entry it may also be of interest to look at the interiors of the Finlandia's sister ship Superstar, featured in a previous entry here.

Deck 8 is where almost all of the public rooms are located. In the bow there is a two-deck high observation lounge (spanning down to deck 7), Nosturi, followed by small conference room (that we could not access), the pubs Jätkäsaari and Nosturi, a shop (Bellezza), champagne bar Naissaar, buffet restaurant Eckerö and cafeteria Satama.

Nosturi as seen from the front of the space, facing starboard and aft. The area where I was standing on is the new floor added in the recent refit, originally the space was three decks high but the lowest deck was given over to the main tax-free shop and an extra-charge lounge.

A close-up of the seating.

Nosturi, looking down from the mezzanine level between decks 7 and 8. The name Nosturi (Finnish for a mechanical crane) honours a combined culture & music hall-nightclub near the Arctech Helsinki shipyard in West Harbour.

More Nosturi, looking down from deck 8.

The slightly more sedate seating area on deck 8, without a direct view of the dance floor.

The deck 8 entrance to Nosturi; don't know if this will be the final arrangement of the bar stools.

As a leftover from the Moby days, the staircases are colour-coded. Here is the forward staircase (green). From fore to aft the colours are green, yellow, red and blue.

Pub Jätkäsaari (named after the part of the city where the West Harbour is located in Helsinki) is an intimate space between Nosturi and the larger Pub Telakka. The ceiling lights are made to look like upside-down table lamps, which certainly sounded like a bizarre idea. At the moment they are still lacking lampshades.

Moving further aft, we come to Pub Telakka ("shipyard"), which will  have live music,

As you can see, Pub Telakka is decorated with an industrial theme. I'm not at all sure if I like it. Nothing against industrial themes, but the direction taken here just looks strange to me.

Close-up view of pub Telakka's chairs... which at least to me look like they're either plastic or enamelled metal.

A somewhat tastier take on the industrial theme in the corridor that passes by Pub Telakka.

In the aft end of Pub Telakka there's also a little corner for slot machines.

Moving aft from Pub Telakka we come to champagne bar Naissaar (name after an island on Estonia's north coast). Here the room is seen as we first entered, with the chairs under wraps...

And here is the same space later during the day, with nicely vibrant chairs out of their wrappings.

Not sure about the chrome chairs in the middle, but the rest of the space looks very nice. Unfortunately the floral-patter carpet is still under a semi-transparent plastic film here and not fully visible.

Naissaar wall decor next to the blue staircase entrance. The caption reads: "No other form of travel is as soothing to the nerves in these hectic times filled with competition, work and politics as a voyage by a ship" -- Carl-Eric Creutz, 1950. Naissaar was originally inhabited by Swedish-speaking people, hence the appearance of the island's Swedish name Närgö (the Swedish-speaking Estonians fled after the Soviet Union occupied Estonia during World War II).

Buffet Eckerö on the port side of the ship, across from Bar Naissaar on the starboard. The blue ceiling decorations are (supposedly at least) the sole surviving relic of the Moby era and their colour and shape informed the new decor.

More of Buffet Eckerö under wraps.

And this is what the entire space will look like when it's no longer under wraps. Fantastic, I say!

On the right are the foor counters for desserts.

The foor counters for warm foods are located in a semi-enclosed nook of their own near the front of the space. The carvery station will be at the corner seen here - I strongly suspect there will be crowding here, as there is on the Viking XPRS' buffet that has a similar segregated service room.

On the aft of deck 8 there is another double-height space, cafeteria Satama ("Harbour"). This was a sports bar on the Moby Freedom; the TV sceens from that era have been retained and apparently they will be filled with (fake) flowers. Not sure if I like that idea, but otherwise the space looks fine.

Looking down from the balcony level on deck 9. Wintertime lighting just does not look good in this space; the problem was the same when I visited the Superstar. The problem could perhaps been alleviated with more vibrant colours.

The carpets of Satama feature the coordinates of three principal harbours connected to the Finlandia: Eckerö, Helsinki and Tallinn.

Off of Satama and decorated in a similar style (albeit with different chairs; they are in fact re-upholstered Moby Freedom originals) is a multi-purpose room that can function on it's own for groups, be combined to the cafeteria or to the buffet (the grey door in the middle of the photo leads directly to the buffet).

The balcony level of Satama on deck 9. The "wooden" floor looks very neat.

Don't know why they covered some of the windows to the sun deck with leaf-pattern film, but it looks quite nice.

The sundeck in Finnish winter. Forward on deck 9 there is also an outside summer bar (Laituri, "wharf"), but in the winter cold I did not venture further.

Deck 7 is - apart from the lower level of Bar Nosturi - given entirely over to cabins.

Deck 6 had the Eckerö Market and Extra class lounge in the front, followed by the entrance vestibule and more cabins that fill most of the deck.

The Eckerö Market doesn't exactly shine with bright colours when none of the wares are yet in place. Still, it's not a bad-looking place.

At the bow there will be a "tasting station" for alcoholic drinks (hopefully other stuff as well, for the benifit of those of us who don't drink). This part of the shop was originally a part of the three-deck high forward lounge.

The price tags not matching the size of the plastic thingies they should go in and the typo in "kermalikööri" don't give a particularly good impression.

By the exit there is a large advert for Finlandia Vodka that changes colour (apparently the different colours representing different flavours).

Next to the Eckerö Market there is a separate added-cost  Extra Class lounge with additional services. The principle is the same as in other Helsinki-Tallinn ships' Business Class, but sensibly (and perhaps taking their cue from the Finnish rail operator VR) Eckerö have decided to name the class Extra to make it appealing to a wider demographic.

The abundant use of wood patterns in the walls and ceiling as well as the colour of the carpeting really makes this space resemble a sauna rather than a lounge.

Extra class unwrapped. The orange chair was lovely.

A part of the entrance vestibule, still in rather unfinished state. On the right (partially obscured by the blue movable screens) is the information booth and next to it the foor to Extra class.

Decks 4 and 5 contain the upper car deck.

Deck 3 contains the lower car deck, and since the Finlandia was berthed at a quay without normal passenger access, we also entered and exited the ship via the car deck.

In my very limited experience of car decks, this is one rather nice and clean.

A little memory of the Moby Freedom at the door to the car deck from the blue staircase.

Next time: Baltic Princess (this time for real)