Photos: STX Europe
Celebrating the Spirit
SECOND CAR-PASSENGER FERRY FOR ENGLISH CHANNEL
NEARS COMPLETION AT RAUMA
STX Rauma shipyard is hard at work building Spirit of France – the second
problems during the final stretch. All the
in line of two giant new ferries for the Dover-Calais service. Commissioned
significant trouble-shooting was done al-
by P&O Ferries, Spirit of France is moving into its final stages of construction during summer and will be ready for its autumn delivery.
ready the first time around with the Spirit of Britain:
“We have the same crews working on basically the same assignments, so
they know what they’re doing and mak-
“S
pirit of France will be delivered
Spirit of France was floated out of her
ing good progress.”
to the customer on 1st Septem-
construction dock in February and is now
ber,” confirms Markku Uusitalo, the Pro-
waiting for her sea trials at the end of June.
TRUE TWIN
ject Manager for both Spirit vessels – Spirit
As usually is the case with sister ships, the
From the perspective of STX Rauma, there
of France and Spirit of Britain which was
second one is a lot easier to make than
were no alterations at all to the Spirit of
delivered already in January.
the first one, so Uusitalo expects no real
Britain blueprint, but the customer has
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