Cammell Laird stages keel laying ceremony for new £10million ferry for Red Funnel
Red Funnel , the original Isle of Wight ferry operator announced that its new £10m freight ship will be called Red Kestrel at a keel laying ceremony at Cammell Laird, the company said in its press release.
Red Kestrel is Red Funnel’s first dedicated ro-ro freight ship and will provide additional year-round freight capacity on Red Funnel’s Southampton-East Cowes route which currently handles 53% of all freight movements across the Solent.
At 74m in length, she will provide 265 lane metres of roll-on/roll-off freight capacity and will carry up to 12 passengers. To minimise the environmental footprint, the hull shape has been designed specifically to reduce wash and a propulsion package has been selected to make her highly fuel efficient whilst meeting the latest Tier III emission regulations. The use of proven azimuth thrusters supplied by Rolls Royce, will also make the ship highly manoeuvrable. The crossing time of 55-60 minutes will be identical to Red Funnel’s existing Raptor class ro-pax ships and she will use the same berths in Southampton and East Cowes.
About Red Funnel
Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service. In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and two food & beverage brands, ‘Steam Coffee Company’ and ‘ReFuel’. The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Isle of Arts, The Red Funnel IW Literary Festival, IW Newport Jazz Festival, Isle Walk Festival, Ventnor Fringe Festival and Wolverton Manor Garden Show as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s 2018 Charity of the Year is the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary.
About Cammell Laird
Founded in 1828, Cammell Laird is one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding and is based on the River Mersey at Birkenhead. The site covers 130 acres and includes four dry docks, a large modular construction hall and extensive covered workshops. It is also at the centre of a marine and engineering cluster with easy access to support services classification societies and port state authorities. Today, Cammell Laird is rapidly expanding as a cutting edge engineering services specialist with a highly skilled workforce and extensive world class facilities to support a broad range of sectors and projects. The company has also continued to develop its capability in the marine sector, and is a world leader specialising in military ship refit, commercial ship repair, upgrade and conversion and shipbuilding.