Barfleur ferry set to begin berthing trials early April

The vessel, which is 28m longer than the Clipper and 55m longer than the Liberation fast ferry, is owned by Condor’s minority shareholder, Brittany Ferries, which has pledged to take a much more active role in Condor’s day-to-day operations.

‘We are going to see the Barfleur in Guernsey very soon,’ said Condor’s new interim chief executive Christophe Mathieu, who is also Brittany Ferries’ chief executive.

‘For sure we must do the trials in Guernsey next week or the week after. We need to test it for ourselves and the captain needs to see how it operates in Guernsey.’

The Barfleur, which can carry 900 passengers and 600 cars, undertook berthing trials at Elizabeth Harbour in Jersey earlier this week, as part of plans to improve back-up for Condor’s fleet. Officials said the trials were successful.

Condor was unable to trial the vessel in Guernsey on the same day for operational reasons at St Peter Port Harbour which it said were outside its control.

The company does not anticipate Barfleur becoming a regular part of its scheduled services, but wants to know it can be used on local routes if any of its normal fleet is unavailable.

‘In terms of covering vessels in dry dock, or if one day there is a problem with one of Condor’s ships, then for our resilience it is very important that we are ready and know that we can divert the Barfleur,’ said Mr Mathieu.

He described making the Barfleur available as ‘just one step’ in Brittany Ferries’ intention to improve the resilience of Condor’s fleet and integrate it more into Brittany’s established network of services.

Mr Mathieu said yesterday that Condor was entering ‘a new era’ and told passengers that they could soon expect more frequent and regular sailings, at more convenient times, and discounts on European routes operated by Brittany Ferries, which include Ireland and Spain as well as France.

‘That’s another sign of integration. It’s win-win and makes sense,’ he said.

‘It’s also important for us to show that we understand that you guys live on an island and we want you to have the option of connecting with the Brittany Ferries network.’

The Barfleur entered service in 1992.

Although larger than any of the conventional and high-speed craft in Condor’s fleet, it is a few metres shorter than the DFDS Finlandia Seaways ro-ro cargo vessel which has carried out berthing trials locally on behalf of the States.