Tallink Grupp has today announced that the name of the new Tallinn-Helsinki route shuttle vessel, which will be built at Rauma shipyard in Finland and is due to be completed by the end of 2021, will be MySTAR. The name for the vessel was proposed as an entry in the vessel naming competition by a Finnish national.
The shipping company ran a naming competition for the new vessel this summer and the final decision regarding the name was made by the company’s Management Board in September.
More than 2,800 entries were received for the naming competition from 30 countries from across the world. The biggest number of entries was received from Tallink Grupp’s home markets of Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden with Finnish shipping enthusiasts submitting the most entries.
Although the proposed names varied greatly, a large number of the entries contained the words „star“ and „Baltic“ in them and, compared to the naming competition held a few years ago for naming the Megastar, this time there was a significant increase in the number of names containing some reference to eco-friendliness, i.e. variations of „eco“ and „green“.
Tallink Grupp’s CEO Paavo Nõgene was delighted with the level of interest in the naming of the company’s new vessel. „We never doubted the interest people in this region have in shipping and knew that many people around the Baltic sea would take up the opportunity to write their name in the region’s shipping history by proposing the winning name to our vessel. But we never knew there were so many shipping fans also wider afield, who all submitted some great names as well,“ he commented.
„Choosing the winning name was not easy for us as there were many great proposals, but ultimately we wanted to carry on with the tradition that our shuttle vessels are „stars“ of the Baltic Sea, so that narrowed the selection somewhat. And why we opted for MySTAR – well, because the new vessel is shaped by everyone who travels with it, so everyone can feel that this vessel is part of them,“ Nõgene added.
The name MySTAR was submitted to the naming competition by Marietta Kähärä from Finland, who will now receive a gift box of Tallink 30 goods and will be invited to join the ship on its maiden voyage as a prize.
In addition to the more common names for a vessel, the competition also received more unconventional entries for the new vessel’s name, such as M/S Ott Tänak, M/S Marie Under, Speedy Gonzales, Great Finland, Queen Suomi, Suomenlinna, Mega Tallsinki Express, Kalevipoeg, King Kong, Eri Klas, Tunnel, Vana Toomas, Sibelius, Megafast and many others.
And no vessel naming competition would be complete without the proposal Boaty McBoatface, which was also submitted for this competition together with Shuttle McShuttleface.
AS Tallink Grupp is one of the leading providers of passenger transport and cargo transport services in the northern part of the Baltic Sea region. The company owns 14 vessels and operates seven ferry routes under the brand names of Tallink and Silja Line. AS Tallink Grupp employs over 7,400 people in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Russia and Germany. In 2018, Tallink Grupp provided services to 9.8 million travellers and transported approximately 385,000 freight units of goods. The shares of Tallink Grupp are listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange.