COTENTIN BRITTANY FERRIES’ RO-RO WORKHORSE

For well over a decade the ro-ro ferry Cotentin has been working on a variety of routes, for both Brittany Ferries and on charter with Stena Line. She was originally built for the Poole-Cherbourg route, but has been employed on many other routes. Her construction was announced by Brittany Ferries in 2004 as their ninth newbuild, a much larger freight-only vessel to replace the former Truckline ferry Coutances (1978/6,507gt). As well as serving Cherbourg, a weekend rotation between Poole and Santander would avoid French driving restrictions for heavy goods vehicles and attract European Union Marco Polo funding to reduce road freight.

On 2 August 2005 a £50 million contract was signed with Aker Yards (now STX) in and (2009/29,468gt), shared the same hull design and machinery, with the hull being based on Brittany Ferries’ Dutch-built ferry (2002/25,592gt).