F/B AF Claudia

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F/B AF Claudia

Photo © Dragan, Rijeka, 08/11/19 #22624

Ship	AF Claudia (2019)	Building Spec.	Cantiere Navale Visentini, Porto Viro, Italy, 2001 – N° 195
Call Sign	IBAC	IMO Number	9243435
GRT	24.418	DWT	7.384
Dimensions	186,49 x 25,6 x 6,5	Engines	2 MAN B&W 9L48/60 18.900 kW
Speed	23 knots	Passengers	950
Beds	306 in 76 cabins	Cars
Lane Metres	2.044	Sister Ships	Kerry Liverpool Seaways Napoles Optima Seaways Sicilia Strait Feronia
Registry Port	Naples	Flag	Italy
Former Names/Own.	Stena Forwarder – Levantina Trasporti 04/2001-04/2003 Chartered to Stena Line* 04/2001-04/2003* California Star – Levantina Trasporti 04/2003-04/2007 Chartered to Baja Ferries* 04/2003-04/2007* California Star – Baja Ferries 04/2007-06/2019 Chartered to Grimaldi Lines* 07/2019-09/2019*
New Names/Own.
Line	Ancona - Durres

At the half of 1990s, the Cantiere Navale Visentini, a well-established Italian shipyard, even if less known than the Italian top players of that business as Fincantieri or Apuania, decided to collaborate again with NAOS Ship Design, to develop a brand-new ro/pax design after the successful ro/ro series designed by the same company. During that years, the “ro/pax” concept started to strongly develop, with many shipowners that ordered to yards a lot of brand new ships with own design and features, but Visentini and NAOS chose another way of business: instead of waiting orders for a purpose-built ferry by a shipowner, they made their own standard project, launching the vessels for Levantina Trasporti, the shipowning branch of Visentini group, and making them available on charter market. That intuition proved to be very successful, and from 1997 onwards Visentini quitted almost building all other kind of ships, concentrating their efforts to build their ro/pax series, which were continuously developed and modernized throughout the years. The first pair of vessels were delivered in 1997 to Norse Irish Ferries, named “Mersey Viking” and “Lagan Viking” and routed between Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Liverpool, England, and were followed in 1999 by the “Alyssa”, chartered to Tunisian State-owned company COTUNAV. This ferry, launched as the “Stena Forwarder”, was the fourth of the series, and while still very similar to the original design, had powerful engines and a slightly-increased passenger accommodation. As the name suggests, the first operator of this vessel was Stena Line, which signed a two-year agreement with Levantina Trasporti for operating the “Stena Forwarder” between Dublin, Ireland, and Holyhead, England, sailing in the same waters of the first two Visentini ro/paxes. Even if the Swedish company proved to appreciate very much Visentini vessels, having managed, owned and even ordered to the Italian yard a great number of these vessels during the years, the “Stena Forwarder” was returned to Levantina Trasporti at the end of the two-year agreement; anyway, a new charterer emerged immediately as the Mexican Baja Ferries, which signed a four-year contract to operate the vessel in the Pacific Ocean waters, linking La Paz, in Baja California peninsula, with Topolobombo, Sinaloa, Mexico. The ferry was repainted in Baja Ferries’s colours and renamed “California Star”, and after four years of successful service, was bought by Baja Ferries. After sixteen years, Baja Ferries sold the vessel to Italian Adria Ferries, which was searching a replacement for their time-chartered “AF Michela”, a sister ship of this one; renamed “AF Claudia” after one of shipowner’s daughters, Claudia Rossi, which was also J70 class European Champion for 2016 and 2017 years, the ferry crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at Genoa at the beginning of July 2019. Anyway, instead of being prepared to enter Adria Ferries’s services, the “AF Claudia” was chartered to Grimaldi Lines for two months, doubling the Civitavecchia – Olbia link sailing opposite to the “Cruise Ausonia”. At the end of that charter, the “AF Claudia” was sent to Viktor Lenac shipyards of Rijeka, Croatia, to be repainted in Adria Ferries colours and to be fitted with scrubbers; on November 18^th, 2019, she finally started sailing for Adria Ferries leaving Ancona for Durres, beginning her career on the first Adria Ferries service. The company also planned to increase the passenger capacity of the vessel to 1.800 passengers before 2020 Summer season, by increasing the cabin number to 200, for a total berth capacity of 796, and to increase the airplane type seats to 304; let’s see if these plans would be realized or if the company would wait better times than those of Covid-19 emergency.

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