Feature, Freight News, Sea

Red Kestrel ready to fly

[ September 7, 2018   //   Chris ]

Who says Britain doesn’t build ships any more? Fabrication of Red Funnel’s new £10m state-of-the-art freight ferry for the Isle of Wight is on schedule at Cammell Laird’s on Merseyside.

Work on Red Kestrel is well advanced with the superstructure and bridge complete together with 64% of the hull. All the outfitting and painting will be complete by early January 2019 to enable the commissioning of equipment and sea trials to be undertaken prior to her delivery to the Solent next spring.

At 74m long, Red Kestrel will provide 265 lane metres of freight capacity and will carry up to 12 passengers. The crossing time of 55-60 minutes will be identical to Red Funnel’s existing Raptor class ro-pax ships and she will use the same berths in Southampton and East Cowes.

She is due to enter service in spring 2019 and will provide additional year-round freight capacity between Southampton and East Cowes which last year handled 53% of all freight movements across the Solent.

A more frequent vehicle ferry timetable will be introduced from April 2019.

Tags: Red Funnel