MV Saint-Malo in Saint-Malo

My wife took this picture of the MV Saint-Malo berthed in Saint-Malo. The ship was formally named here today though it will be a little longer before it starts to work on the Saint-Malo - Portsmouth run. The ship that used to do this run was take out of service last year and the Saint-Malo is the brand new replacement.

The old MV Bretagne was the first of a new generation of cruise-ferries and set the standard for cross channel run when it came into service in 1989, and was the Brittany Ferries flag ship until 1993. The new ship wasn't made in France, but rather in China and has spent the last year fitting out and being accepted into the Brittany Ferries fleet.

The new Saint-Malo is an E-Flexer (short) class ferry and has gas and electric drive. Burning LNG is cleaner than heavy marine diesel, but it's more expensive and if it leaks it's a potent greenhouse gas. For close manoeuvring the ship can also use batteries and all electric propulsion. At 38 000 GT the new ferry is quite a bit heavier than the Bretagne at 24 500 GT, both a bit more than the MV Penn-Ar-Bed which was their first passenger ferry at 6 400 GT from 1974.

I've a bit of a soft spot for the Bretagne and I was sad to see it go, I just hope this new ferry is as good - not that I go to Portsmouth all that often but it's nice to be on a ship you are familiar with.