Irish Ferries Introduces a Newer and Faster Ship onto the Rosslare – Pembroke Route

Irish Ferries is pleased to announce the addition of the RoRo passenger ferry Blue Star 1 to its Rosslare to Pembroke Dock route. The ship is being chartered from the Attica Group and delivery is expected in early April 2021.

Blue Star 1 was built in 2000 by the Van der Giessen de Noord shipyard in the Netherlands, the same shipyard that in 1997 built Irish Ferries Isle of Inishmore, currently servicing the Rosslare to Pembroke Dock route. The Blue Star 1 has the capacity to carry up to 1,500 passengers, 100 freight vehicles and up to 700 cars depending on freight volume. The ship offers a host of quality facilities including 192 cabins for freight drivers/passengers, self-service restaurant, café/bar, Club Class lounge, onboard duty-free shop, children’s play area and spacious outdoor decks. The tripling of cabin numbers will facilitate more single occupancy cabins for freight drivers, a welcome development for our freight customers.

Andrew Sheen, Irish Ferries Managing Director, said: “We are very pleased to add a quality ship of the calibre of the versatile Blue Star 1 to the Irish Ferries fleet. This ship will be the fastest RoRo Passenger ship operating between Britain and Ireland and this will help ensure schedule integrity. The introduction of this ship underlines our commitment to the Rosslare to Pembroke route, the primary shipping corridor between Ireland and South Wales. It also underlines our commitment to the significant contribution that this route makes in facilitating trade for both exporters and importers as well as facilitating essential passenger movements and future tourists as the country re-opens post COVID-19”.

Builder	Van der Giessen de Noord
Construction	2000 (keel laid June 1999)
Type	Ro-Pax ship
Ferry route	Rosslare — Pembroke Dock (Milford Haven)
Operator	Irish Ferries
Speed	27 kn / 50 kph / 31 mph
Length (LOA)	176.1m / 578 ft
Beam (width)	25.7m / 84 ft
Decks	10
Gross Tonnage	29,858 gt
Deadweight Tonnage	4,500 gt
Lane Meters	1,718
Passengers	1,500
Cars	Up to 700 (depending on freight volumes)
Freight vehicles	100
Cabins	192

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For further press information, please contact:
Natalie Garland | James Brooke
Rooster PR
T: +44 (0)7702 551 367 | +44 (0)203 440 8930
E: IrishFerries@Rooster.co.uk

About Irish Ferries
Irish Ferries is the market leading ferry operator in Ireland, serving routes between Britain (Holyhead to Dublin, and Pembroke to Rosslare) and Ireland.

Offering a choice of up to 16 sailings a day, Irish Ferries operates a fleet of modern cruise and fast ferries, including the famous Ulysses, the Dublin Swift, the only fast ferry on the Irish Sea, and the newly built, award-winning W.B. Yeats.

Irish Ferries is a division of leading Irish maritime transport group Irish Continental Group plc and carried over 1.54m passengers and 401,000 cars on up to 16 daily sailings between Ireland, Britain and France in 2019.

See more at www.irishferries.com.