Craig

Re: LD Lines Poole to Santander/Gijon (was Norman Asturais to Santander) Depends on their definition of commercial success ? Perhaps they mean it attracts a lot of commercial traffic......though they may not make money from it ! At the end of the day, unless they make no mention of the route then any mention is going to be positively spun rather than saying "we also go from here to here but it's a bit of a dud!"

Re: ETRETAT: Brittany Ferries Economie Not all hazardous cargo has to go open deck but does she not have an open deck at the stern for that which does ?

Re: ETRETAT: Brittany Ferries Economie Monday afternoons aren't necessarily that busy. Freighters used to lay over in Poole until 16h00 and then not go that full. There is the afternoon to Caen that goes before and you have to remember that the sailings may be configured just to get something over to the other side for a busier crossing back. Not every sailing in both directions will have the same demand, plus the Etretat in freight mode can take the hazardous cargo that may be restricted on other ships. May be a niche market but for hauliers that ship a variety of loads and have an account, it is one way to keep that traffic with BF and not send it Dover.

Re: ETRETAT: Brittany Ferries Economie Not really. If all the booked freight is there and the loading is finished, if there is no reason to wait then they may as well go. Unlike passengers, freight offices can usually call the haulier and work out if the late runners are going to make it or not and work accordingly. If a haulier knows there is no hope, it's in their interest to get on the phone and get a later confirmed space or move something that has arrived early for a later sailing. This then frees up a confirmed space later. Freight is very different from passenger operations in that sense. Hauliers will often have several bookings and provide reg numbers throughout the day. Bookings can be a mixture of confirmed or waitlist and is often an indication of the value of the account.

Re: Things you'd like to see from BF Have to wonder if they or other operators would receive bad publicity for skirting around the regs and running non compliant ships as part of a fleet that is being made compliant. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of how polluting shipping actually is, it might be a publicity own goal. Their website has made much of how environmentally friendly they have attempted to be and how respectful of the seas they are for many years. Dumping a 'dirty old polluter' on a route just to avoid the rules might be see as cynical profiteering.....

Re: Harwich-Esbjerg route to close Either way, far from scientific or professional. There are lots of things I like that I'd never use or be able to afford. That doesn't mean a business plan to satisfy investors can be built around it. I think asking the question if you would like something to be available is very different from would you actually use it at X amount of times and pay X amount of money.

Re: Harwich-Esbjerg route to close Had a look at their website. Have to say that a company that is asking people to 'Like' them on Facebook to show investors how popular a service would be, doesn't really suggest a serious proposition with financing or a decent business plan in place.

Re: Scrubbers & GNL Conversions Or not if you don't want or don't need to put all your eggs in one basket. With so many different ages and configurations of vessels, getting one company to do the lot is probably harder then tendering for the fleet and seeing who offers the best proposition.

Re: Scrubbers & GNL Conversions I would imagine that they are way ahead of us !

Re: Scrubbers & GNL Conversions Hamworthy Engineering used to pop up to do work or supply equipment to Barfleur regularly. I'm sure if the equipment could be used and at the right price, that relationship would continue.

Re: Barfleur new season (2014) It was always worth getting in there, that's for sure.

Re: Barfleur new season (2014) As Hawser says, economics. Small unit and a short crossing so you struggle to get as many sittings in. Factor in the sailing timetable and where that sits with people's normal mealtimes and you can see where a cost saving could be made by withdrawing it.

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates So the French state wades in to say they will back MFLs right to operate. I wonder if there might be a compromise agreememt with one vessel being pulled and retaining the other and the freighter? The restrictions on vessel use if the decision stands seems highly uncompetitive.

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates Where are the Straits ships at in terms of compliance. I do quite like the thought of DFDS chartering one of the MFL ships whilst updating their own tonnage

Re: My Ferry Link - Updates It'll go to the European Court i assume, so that will take a while. With France being pretty militant on a good day, the fact that their government is unpopular won't help keep the burning tyres off the roads! I'm not sure the Nord Pas region would do a Transmanche and take MFL over but I'd be surprised if some mechanism wasn't constructed to keep the SCOP going. If not, the concept of the SCOP takes a beating and that'll not go down well. Of course, it is a regional matter so it may not manage to be escalated to crisis proportions but never say never. It would be ironic if the action by the ferry companies closed Calais and handed Eurotunnel a nice little windfall. Even more ironic if MFL wasn't blockaded and the others were........