Smyril in Tórshavn, 26 May 2011

Smyril

IMO 9275218
Built 2005, IZAR San Fernando, Spain
Tonnage 12 320 GT
Length 135,00 m
Width 22,70 m
Draught 5,60 m
800 passengers (winter) / 975 passengers (summer)
96 passenger cabins
200 cars or 30 trailers
1 830 lane metres
4 MAN B&W diesels, combined 13 440 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

Smyril is a small(ish) local ferry belonging to Strandfaraskip Landsins, a public transport company owned by the Faroese Government (the company also operate buses in addition to ferries). Smyril is also the name of a local subspecies of the Merlin (Pigeon Hawk) and it has been a traditional name in the Strandfaraskip Landsins fleet, with five different ships carrying that name having sailed for the company since the 1890s.

The current Smyril was built in 2005 by the IZAR shipyard in San Fernando, Spain as a replacement for the aged Smyril (4). Since October 2005 the (current) Smyril has sailed on a route connecting the Faroese capital Tórshavn to Tvøroyri in Suðuroy (South Island). The crossing takes about two hours with 3 daily departures from each port. Between September and October 2010 the Smyril was docked for four weeks in Denmark, during which time she was replaced by the chartered Tallink ferry Regina Baltica. Sometime after 2006 the Smyril's funnel was rebuilt with extended exhausts, possibly during this 2010 docking.

The photographs below show the Smyril at, and departing from,the harbour of Tórshavn on 26 May 2011. All photos are taken from onboard the MSC Poesia. Click on the individual images to view larger size.

In Tórshavn for a very quick turnaround. Notice the mooring line from the MSC Poesia in front of the Smyril's bow; there was very little extra space between the two ships.

Barele fitting in the image taken from the aft decks of the MSC Poesia. Smyril Line's Norröna on the left.

Departing. Again in the background is the Norröna and also the Faroese parliament buildings (Tinganes) on the left (the red buildings on the point of the peninsula).

A "little" bit of fisheye-like distortion in this picture - though it's not nescessarily a bad thing.

Heading south and (eventually) towards Tvøroyri, with the "suburbs" of Tórshavn in the background.

No caption needed, really.

The bolt-upright exhausts in the funnel (very similar to those of the Norröna, actually) are a later addition but in actual fact they somewhat improve the ship's looks in my opinion.

Norröna in Tórshavn, 26 May 2011

Norröna

IMO 9227390
Built 2003, Flender Werft Lübeck, Germany
Tonnage 36 966 GT
Length 165,74 m
Width 30,00 m
Draught 6,50 m
1 482 passengers
1 012 berths
800 cars or 130 trailers
1 830 lane metres
4 diesels, combined 21 600 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 21 knots

The Norröna is the only passenger ship in addition to Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 to operate a regular passenger service on the North Atlantic. She sails from Hirsthals in Denmark to Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands, continuing during the summer months further to Seyðisfjörður in Iceland.

Smyril Line had begun operations in 1983 with the second-hand ferry Gustav Vasa, which was renamed Norröna (I) for service with her new owners. In 2003 the original Norröna was replaced by a new, purpose-built ferry also named Norröna. The new Norröna was contracted fom the Flensburger Schiffbaugeshellschaft (FSG) in Flensburg, Germany, with concept design by Knud E. Hansen AS, but due to FSG's thick orderbook the ship was subcontracted to Flender Werft in Lübeck, Germany. Coinciding with the delivery of the new Norröna the old Norröna was renamed Norröna I.

The new Norröna's career start was not without problems, and in January 2004 the Norröna I had to be briefly drafted back to service as a replacement. The ports of call in the Norröna's service have varied, with calls in Bergen (Norway) and Lerwick (Shetland Islands) being included in addition to the Danish, Faroese and Icelandic ports, and originally the Danish port of call was Hanstholm rather than Hirsthals. In January 2006 a water measurement system was installed on the Norröna in collaboration with the Stony Brook University and the University of Rhode Island in an effort to monitor the Gulf Stream. An improved version of this system remains in use in 2011.

In 2008, the ship's somewhat complex timetable of linking the Faroe Islands to Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the UK was simplified, now concentrating solely in providing a Denmark-Faroes-Iceland service. Since 2010, the exact route has remained Hirtshals–Tórshavn–Seyðisfjörður.

The photographs below show the Norröna arriving in, and in the port of, Tórshavn on 26 May 2011. As you can see the weather was less than ideal, but despite the occasionally poor quality of the images I felt such an unusual ship deserved to have multiple images of it posted. Click on the individual images to view full size.

Coming in from Seyðisfjörður at high speed.

Outside the harbour breakwater, the Norröna made a very fast turn, with a somehwta dangerous-looking list.

Practicality, rather than beauty, has clearly been the guiding principle in designing the ship. Though she's not ugly either, in my opinion.

Originally the ship's side-text read just Smyril Line without the web url. The text appears to have been changed sometime before 2010.

Very unusually for 2000s-built ship, the Norröna features a cabins forward, public spaces aft -arrangement that had been popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s ferry design.

Drawings of the ship show she was originally planned to have a more streamlined, swept-back funnel. The final result is perhaps more fitting of her design.

Entering the harbour proper. The aft of MSC Poesia is visible behind the Norröna's bow.

At quay, having alreadt unloaded most freight.

Norröna against the backdrop of her home port Tórshavn, photographed from onboard the MSC Poesia.

Color Fantasy in Kiel, 23 May 2011

Color Fantasy

IMO 9278234
Built 2004, Kvaerner Masa-Yards Turku New Shipyard, Finland
Tonnage 74 500 GT
Length 223,70 m
Width 35,00 m
Draught 6,80 m
Ice class 1B
2 750 passengers
2 667 berths
750 cars
1 270 lane metres
4 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 31 200 kW
2 propellers
3 bow thrusters
2 stern thrusters
Speed 22 knots

Color Fantasy was Color Line's first ever newbuilding. When delivered in 2004 she was also the world's largest ferry, surpassing the previous record holders (P&O Ferries' Pride of Rotterdam and Pride of Hull) by an impressive 16 000 GT. On delivery the Color Fantasy was placed on the Oslo-Kiel route, replacing the Prinsesse Ragnhild (which was moved to a new Bergen-Stavanger-Hirsthals service). The Color Fantasy lost her accolade of being the world's largest ferry in 2007 when her sister Color Magic was delivered.

The photographs below show the Color Fantasy in the Kiel Fjord, shortly after departure from the Norwegenkai terminal on 23 May 2011. Click on the images to view larger size.

Color Fantasy passing the famous HDW Kiel shipyard. The west side of the Kiel Fjord is far from an ideal photo spot around the time the Color Line ships depart and as you can see I had to heavily treat the first two images to get anything presentable out of them.

Side elevation of the futuristic Fantasy.

Towards the mouth of the fjord, in much nicer lighting.

Farväl, Fakta om Fartyg

Fakta om Fartyg, my all-time favourite ship information database website, has closed down due to technical difficulties. Which is a sad, sad thing as it was by far the best free information database related to ships that could be found online. I even learned to speak (or at least read) Swedish largely thanks to FoF. Thank you, Micke Asklander, for keeping up such a fabulous website for such a long time.

The closure of Fakta om Fartyg can also mean a reduction in factual accuracy of this blog, as FoF has been my primary source of information for the ship histories and technical data. Any tips on a comparable free information database would be much appriciated if I'm going to keep up the current level of factual accuracy for this place.

Igen, många tackar Micke!

Edit 20. 6. 2011: Thanks to the large-scalle support, herr Asklander is now planning on reopening his website.

Nordnorge in Bergen, 25 May 2011

Nordnorge

IMO 9107784
Built 1997, Kvaerner Kleven Ulsteinvik, Norway
Tonnage 11 386 GT
Length 123,30 m
Width 19,50 m
Draught 4,90 m
694 passengers
457 berths
45 cars
2 MaK diesels, combined 9 000 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
2 stern thrusters
Speed 18 knots

Nordnorge is one of the newest generation of coastal express ships belonging to Hurtigruten (formerly known in English as Norwegian Coastal Voyages). She was the sixth ship in Hurtigruten's ambitious fleet rebuilding programme that ran from 1993 to 2003 and produced nine similar but not identical ships, replacing most of the previous generations of Hurtigruten ships, though to date one ship built in the 1980s and two of the 1950s/1960s pocket liners remain in use.

Following the initial three new Hurtigruten ships delivered in 1993-1994, the company's owners OVDS (Ofotens og Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskap) and TFDS (Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap) ordered a second series of three slightly larger ships. Whereas for the first trio ships belonging to different companies had been externally identical except for funnel colours, for the new trio TFDS opted for a streamlined design for their Polarlys, while OVDS retained a more angular, functionalist design for their Nordkapp and Nordnorge.

Following delivery in March 1997 the Nordnorge embarked on an extensive cruise around northern Europe, before entering service on Hurtigruten's traditional Bergen-Kirkenes coastal service in late April. Cruising would subsequently form an important part of the Nordnorge's yearly pattern: she would spent most of the year in the coastal service, but for the midwinter slow season she sailed to the southern hemisphere, making cruises to the Antarctica out of Chile (occasionally she was joined in this service by her sister Nordkapp). During spring and autumn the Nordnorge also made occasional cruises around northern Europe. In November 2007 the Nordnorge gained a degree of fame during one of her Antarctica cruises when the crew and passengers of the sinking cruise ship Explorer were evacuated onboard the Nordnorge.

Sometime before this, in March 2006, OVDS and TFDS had merged to form Hurtigruten ASA. As a result of the amalgamization, the Nordnorge and her fleetmates lost their previous funnel colours. The Nordnorge's original OVDS colours with a red band flanked by two narrower white band on a buff background were now replaced by the new Hurtigruten colours seen below, a black funnel with the company's new red-white funnel symbol. In the interim she also briefly sailed with an all-black funnel without the symbol. Following the delivery of Hurtigruten's new purpose-built cruise ship Fram in 2007, the Nordnorge has seen a lot less cruising action, spending winters laid up or under charter instead.

In June 2011 (that is to say, right now) the Norwegian TV station NRK made a live broadcast of the Nordnorge's passage from Bergen to Kirkenes, billed as the longest TV broadcast ever. You can watch "Hurtigruten minutt for minutt" here.

The photographs below show the Nordnorge arriving in Bergen from a round trip to Kirkenes and back on 25 May 2011. The photos were taken from onboard the departing MSC Poesia and due to the distance they are not perhaps in the best of quality. Click on the individual images to see larger size.

The Hurtigruten-side text is a recent addition, probably from 2010.

Passing the beautiful fjord and grain silos of Norway. The current funnel colours aren't as attractive as the previous OVDS colours (or even the black-heavy TFDS colours) - espcially in pictures like these, where the dark funnel easily merges into the background.

She looks very workmanlike, doesn't she? It's interesting how the basic model of the 1993-2003 built ships is the same, yet there is quite a lot of variance from one design to another. Not that you could actually see it here, as the Nordnorge is thus far the only ship of the series I've photographed.