MV Cap Finistère


MV Cap Finistère is a cruiseferry owned by Bretagne Angleterre Irlande SA and operated by Brittany Ferries between Portsmouth - Santander & Bilbao, she was acquired in 2010 by Brittany Ferries from Superfast Ferries where before she used to serve Greece.

SECA 2015 refit

On 1 January 2015, the EU had a sulphur in marine fuel cut from the allowance in 2014 of 1% to 0.1% of sulphur allowed, Brittany Ferries then abundantly announced in January 2014 that they were going to fit scrubbers to a number of elder vessels, convert newer vessels to LNG and construct a new LNG powered ferry but Brittany Ferries later withdrew and cancelled the order and the LNG conversions, instead they announced that all vessels were to have scrubbers systems fitted.
Normandie was the first vessel in the fleet to have these installed at the Astillero shipyard in Santander in late 2014 re-entering service in January 2015. Cap Finistère sailed from Portsmouth to Santander on 11 January 2015 with a commercial sailing, before proceeding to the shipyard for refit and installation of scrubber technology which will also necessitate a new funnel arrangement. After the re-entry into service of Cap Finistère on 24 March 2015 with the 10:30 sailing from Bilbao to Portsmouth, she will be followed into the shipyard by Barfleur in March returning to service in May 2015.

Brief history

Superfast V was built at HDW in Kiel for Superfast Ferries' Adriatic Sea services, Patras—Igoumenitsa-Ancona along with her sister ship Superfast VI. She was the first ship in the third pair of ropax ferries built for Superfast Ferries from various ship yards in Northern Europe. She was ordered in July 1998, alongside sister ship and another pair for Baltic sea services, Superfast VII and VIII In March 2010 Brittany Ferries purchased the ship from Attica Group for €81.5 million to expand Spanish services.
MV Cap Finistère was delivered to Brittany Ferries under her new name in February 2010. During October 2010 she conducted berthing trials in Cherbourg and Portsmouth before heading for work to be completed in Dunkerque prior to entering service.

Current Routes

Shortly after MV Cap Finistère started operating commercially for Brittany Ferries, it operated the Portsmouth to Cherbourg-Octeville route alongside HSC Normandie Express. The route is still operated by Brittany Ferries' cruise ferries, but they do not operate a regular timetable, like the MV Cap Finistère did.

Portsmouth to Bilbao Route

announced on 24 September 2010 their intention to begin operating to Bilbao in Northern Spain, just hours before P&O were due to withdraw from the route. This route was originally opened by P&O Ferries in 1993 with Pride of Bilbao.
The MV Cap Finistere commenced service on the route in April 2011 with two sailings per week in both direction. Some departures from Portsmouth stop at Roscoff en route to Bilbao in order to allow a crew change to take place. The route via Roscoff takes 33 hours; the direct Portsmouth to Bilbao route 23 hours.