F/B Arkadi - Rethimnon

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F/B ARKADI

Descrizione: CRETAN FERRIES FB Arkadi 05_Emilio Barenghi

Photo © Emilio Barenghi, Piraeus

Ship	Arkadi (1988) AΡΚΑΔΙ	Building Spec.	Kochi Heavy Industries, Kochi, Japan, 1983 – N° 2312
Call Sign	SVSG	IMO Number	8319081
GRT	10.859	DWT	3.859
Dimensions	128,21 x 21 x 5,35	Engines	2 Niigata-Pielstick 6PC2 – 6/6L 5.589 kW
Speed	16 knots	Passengers	1.275
Beds	527 in 153 cabins	Cars	400
Lane Metres	605	Sister Ships
Registry Port	Rethimnon	Flag	Greek
Former Names/Own.	Bizan Maru – Kyodo Kisen 1983-88
New Names/Own.	Arkadi – Anek Lines 2000-02 Pella – Arab Bridge Maritime 2002à
Line

The “Arkadi” gets the bronze-medal among the younger second-hand vessels arrived in Greece: after the “Candia” and the “Rethimnon”, which arrived in Greece after only a year of life in 1973, the ferry arrived in Greece when she was five years old, spent as “Bizan Maru” linking Osaka and Komatsushima. When in Japan, she had an upper garage with drive-through facility, with access from bow and stern, as long as it is on Channel ferries or Superfast Ferries’s ships. When she was rebuilt in Greece, she lost her upper garage, but the corridor between the bow mooring equipment was retained. Also the bow, originally equipped with a visor and ramp to the main garage, was modified, leaving only the stern ramp in use. The interior was modified in a very interesting way, offering to the passengers an a-la-carte restaurant and a self service restaurant, a first-class and a tourist-class bar, an outside bar, which was used during Summer time also as disco, 280 airplane type seats (which is a more acceptable figure, rather than the amount of seats installed nowadays) and 153 cabins, of which two suites, named “Eleferna” and “Spili”, and six lux cabins, named “Armeni”, “Amari”, “Agia Galini”, “Axos”, “Adele” and “Merona”. Not a particularly speedy vessel (only 16 knots), she opened the Piraeus – Rethimnon line in 1989 for Rethimniaki N.E., with a travelling time of about 11 hours leaving from Piraeus on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 19.30 and Sunday at 07.30, and from Rethymnon Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 19.30. The service became successful and was doubled with daily departures in 1995 after the deployment of a second vessel; at that time the “Arkadi” was repainted with the new “Cretan Ferries” marks and livery, but maintained the name written in Greek chartacters at bow, a very unusual feature as long as Greek ferries have the Greek-written name only at stern; the funny thing is that when the ferry came to Greece in 1989, the crew which collected the ship in Japan painted the bow name in Latin characters! Anyway the life of the ship under the new livery lasts only few time: in 1999 the company was bought by ANEK and was repainted with Anek Lines livery in 2000. The “Arkadi” remained in Greece until 2002, when she was sold to Arab Bridge Maritime Company, sailing in Middle East seas under the name “Pella”. There were strong rumours about a comeback to Greece, again serving Rethymnon for a locally-based company, but after the fire which broke out on her on November 3, 2011, which caused her sinking four days later, these rumours sadly stopped.