Brittany Ferries, the French company that operates large ropax and cruise ferry units in the Western Channel, says it has signed a letter of intent with the Flensburge shipyard in Germany to build a 42,000 gross ton ropax vessels for its service between Caen in France and Portsmouth in the UK.
The LNG powered ship that is planned for delivery in 2019, would be 185 metres in length, have a beam of 31 metres and carry 1,680 passengers, for whom there would be 257 cabins.
The lane metre capacity of the ship would be 2,600, whereby it would be able to carry 130 lorries or 550 cars. The parties plan to sign firm contract to build the ship in the spring of 2017.
Flensburger recently won an order from the Irish Continental group to build a large ropax vessel for its services between Ireland and the Continent and the UK.