Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has officially named Red Funnel’s brand new high-speed passenger vessel, Red Jet 6, at a ceremony in Cowes today (Monday).
After being introduced to local dignitaries upon arrival in Cowes, Princess Anne christened the Island-built vessel as Red Jet 6, pressing a button to release a bottle of Isle of Wight sparkling wine from Rosemary Vineyard that smashed against the side of the hull. CEO of Red Funnel, Kevin George then led a tour of the vessel with Her Royal Highness exploring the cabin and upper deck.
A plaque was also unveiled by the Queen’s daughter and Red Jet 6 was blessed by the Right Reverend Chrstopher Foster, Lord Bishop of Portsmouth.
Conrad Gauntlett, owner of Rosemary Vineyard commented:
“Well we’re bubbling with pride at the prospect of our award winning sparkling wine being used to launch Red Jet 6. We might not be able to call it champagne, but we know it will do justice and we’re very honoured to have been asked”.
Red Jet 6 is Red Funnel’s largest and most innovative high-speed vessel to date. Built by Shemara Refit LLP in East Cowes, the £6million state of the art ship is the first of her kind to be built in Great Britain for over 15 years. She is due to enter service later this month.
Today’s ceremony, which was held at Trinity Landing on The Parade, was not all about the water.The British Army’s Parachute Regiment display team, The Red Devils, wowed the crowds with their challenging display. The team took off from Sandown Airport before parachuting down to the ground, as captured by Island Echo reader Antonia Tomlinson.
Local school pupils waved their flags and said hello to the Royal before invited guests and dignitaries sat down for lunch at the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Kevin George, Red Funnel’s CEO has said:
“We would very much like to thank HRH The Princess Royal for naming Red Jet 6. The shop is the first of her kind to be built in Great Britain for 16 years and it is only fitting that he naming ceremony took place where she was built.
“Red Jet 6 represents a £6m investment by Red Funnel in marine manufacturing on the Island and the team at Shemara Refit can be extremly proud of not only building a ship of such high quality, but also for delivering it on time and on budget. Red Jet 6 adds a significant increase in capacity to our Southampton-West Cowes oute and we are confident she will help grow the market by offering ground breaking levels of passenger comfort , reliability and safety”.
Red Jet 6 replaces the US-built Red Jet 5, which was sold to an Italian operator last month.
