Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Newbuild Cruiseferry W.B. Yeats Wins At International Shipping Awards

14th March 2019

#ferries - At a major international shipping awards ceremony, Irish Ferries has triumphed by taking home both the Ferry Concept Award and the Interior Architecture Award for their recently launched cruise-ferry, the W.B. Yeats.

The annual Shippax Industry Awards ceremony, which was last night held aboard the MS Silja Serenade in Stockholm, recognises newly-delivered ferries and cruise vessels that demonstrate creativity and design innovation.

Ahead of its 'maiden' voyage from Cherbourg to Dublin tomorrow, the W.B. Yeats (first actual sailing Afloat adds takes place today and from Dublin) received the Shippax Interior Architecture Award for a contemporary design that employs understated elegance and natural tones throughout. Relaxing cabins and luxury suites, as well as attractive public areas such as the ‘Innisfree’ Club Class Lounge and the ‘Maud Gonne’ lounge and bar, were acclaimed. Unique style elements, including the use of energy efficient LED lighting systems, also received high praise.

With the flexibility to cover both short sea (Irish Sea) and long sea (Dublin-France) routes, the ship’s state-of-the-art design and configuration was also recognised by the jury who awarded the W.B. Yeats with the Shippax Ferry Concept Award.

Measuring 195m in length and capable of transporting 300 cars, 165 trucks and 1,800 passengers, the W.B. Yeats is dynamic in design and modern in technology, meeting both tourism and freight customer needs. Its separate 295-car deck is located directly beneath the accommodation decks, guaranteeing easy access for passengers. While the separation of commercial vehicles improves safety and allows for an optimised 2,800-lanemetre cargo intake.

Andrew Sheen, Managing Director of Irish Ferries said, “The Shippax Awards are among the most prestigious accolades within the cruise-ferry industry, so we are incredibly proud that the W.B. Yeats has been recognised both for its stunning interior and innovative design. The ship is a game changer not just in terms of cruise-ferry travel between France and Ireland, but also in the context of setting a new benchmark for cruise-ferry travel world-wide.”

The sailing is the first of up to four departures per week from France to Dublin and is expected provide a major boost to trade and tourism between France and Ireland.

Published in Ferry
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

Ferry & Car Ferry News The ferry industry on the Irish Sea, is just like any other sector of the shipping industry, in that it is made up of a myriad of ship operators, owners, managers, charterers all contributing to providing a network of routes carried out by a variety of ships designed for different albeit similar purposes.

All this ferry activity involves conventional ferry tonnage, 'ro-pax', where the vessel's primary design is to carry more freight capacity rather than passengers. This is in some cases though, is in complete variance to the fast ferry craft where they carry many more passengers and charging a premium.

In reporting the ferry scene, we examine the constantly changing trends of this sector, as rival ferry operators are competing in an intensive environment, battling out for market share following the fallout of the economic crisis. All this has consequences some immediately felt, while at times, the effects can be drawn out over time, leading to the expense of others, through reduced competition or takeover or even face complete removal from the marketplace, as witnessed in recent years.

Arising from these challenging times, there are of course winners and losers, as exemplified in the trend to run high-speed ferry craft only during the peak-season summer months and on shorter distance routes. In addition, where fastcraft had once dominated the ferry scene, during the heady days from the mid-90's onwards, they have been replaced by recent newcomers in the form of the 'fast ferry' and with increased levels of luxury, yet seeming to form as a cost-effective alternative.

Irish Sea Ferry Routes

Irrespective of the type of vessel deployed on Irish Sea routes (between 2-9 hours), it is the ferry companies that keep the wheels of industry moving as freight vehicles literally (roll-on and roll-off) ships coupled with motoring tourists and the humble 'foot' passenger transported 363 days a year.

As such the exclusive freight-only operators provide important trading routes between Ireland and the UK, where the freight haulage customer is 'king' to generating year-round revenue to the ferry operator. However, custom built tonnage entering service in recent years has exceeded the level of capacity of the Irish Sea in certain quarters of the freight market.

A prime example of the necessity for trade in which we consumers often expect daily, though arguably question how it reached our shores, is the delivery of just in time perishable products to fill our supermarket shelves.

A visual manifestation of this is the arrival every morning and evening into our main ports, where a combination of ferries, ro-pax vessels and fast-craft all descend at the same time. In essence this a marine version to our road-based rush hour traffic going in and out along the commuter belts.

Across the Celtic Sea, the ferry scene coverage is also about those overnight direct ferry routes from Ireland connecting the north-western French ports in Brittany and Normandy.

Due to the seasonality of these routes to Europe, the ferry scene may be in the majority running between February to November, however by no means does this lessen operator competition.

Noting there have been plans over the years to run a direct Irish –Iberian ferry service, which would open up existing and develop new freight markets. Should a direct service open, it would bring new opportunities also for holidaymakers, where Spain is the most visited country in the EU visited by Irish holidaymakers ... heading for the sun!