Wightlink will bid farewell to its oldest ferry St Cecilia on Friday 25th January 2019.
She will be retiring to the Mediterranean, joining her sisters St Helen and St Catherine at the Italian ferry company Delcomar, which operates services between Sardinia and its offshore islands.
St Cecilia was launched at Cochrane Shipbuilders in Selby, East Yorkshire in 1987. It’s estimated she has crossed the Solent 200,000 times since then – that’s around a million miles.
St Cecilia’s final departure this spring follows Wightlink’s £45million investment in a new hybrid energy flagship – Victoria of Wight – and port improvements at both Portsmouth and Fishbourne.
Keith Greenfield, Chief Executive of Wightlink, has said:
“Millions of Islanders and visitors have travelled to and from the Isle of Wight over the years on St Cecilia and she has been a reliable and efficient part of our fleet.
“We are delighted she will now be sailing in Mediterranean waters.”
During her time in the Solent, St Cecilia was used as a filming location for the BBC TV children’s programme Grange Hill and the French movie A Loving Father starring Gérard Depardieu.
8 fascinating facts about Wightlink’s retiring car ferry St Cecilia
• St Cecilia was one of Wightlink’s 4 Saint-class ferries, sailing between Portsmouth and Fishbourne. St Helen and St Catherine have already retired to Sardinia to join Delcomar and St Faith remains in Wightlink’s fleet
• Her keel was laid on 23rd January 1986 and she was launched sideways into a river on 4th November 1986. She arrived in Portsmouth on 18th March 1987.
• The shipyard was 35 miles inland and the ferry had to make her way along the River Ouse and Humber estuary to reach the sea
• A special inaugural cruise took place on 23rd March 1987 with 300 invited guests, then she entered service at 06:00 4 days later in atrocious weather conditions
• St Cecilia was built to carry 142 cars on every sailing. However, as cars have got longer and wider over the years, the current maximum capacity is 95
• She can carry more than 700 customers on every sailing, compared to over 1,000 on Wightlink’s current flagship Victoria of Wight
• St Cecilia weighs in at 953.2 tonnes compared with her sister Victoria of Wight who tips the scales at 2,564.8 tonnes
• St Cecilia featured in the 2002 French movie A Loving Father starring Gérard Depardieu. As part of her role, she was painted in the livery of the fictitious Swedish ferry company Norselink.
Although space is limited, some non-landing foot passenger tickets are available for St Cecilia’s final crossings. They will be the 10:30 sailing from Portsmouth and 11:30 from Fishbourne. Contact Karen Woods at [email protected] for further details.
