F/B IONIAN HARMONY
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Ship
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Ionian Harmony
(1989)
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Building Spec.
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1967 at
Fincantieri yards, C.di Stabia, Italy N° C645
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Call Sign
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IMO Number
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6715372
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GRT
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5.477*
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DWT
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1.965*
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Dimensions
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126,35 x 19,21 x
5,47
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Engines
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2 Wartsila,
7.720 kW
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Speed
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18 knots
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Passengers
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1.200*
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Beds
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362*
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Cars
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300*
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Lane Metres
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420
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Sister Ships
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Al Salam Taba I (scrapped in
2004)
Leros (Scrapped in 2001)
Saudi Moon
II (sank in 1982)
Sindibad I
(sank in 1992)
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Registry Port
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Piraeus
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Flag
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Greek
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Former
Names/Own.
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Canguro Verde – Traghetti
Sardi 1967-74
Canguro Verde – Linee
Canguro 1974-81
Durr – Fagez 1981-89
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New Names/Owners
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Sun Fiesta – Ferry Charter 1990-93
Regent Jewel – Regency Cruises 1993-94
Calypso – Transocean 1994-00
Calypso – Louis Cruises 2000à
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Line
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*
Figures related to the ferry before the conversion
Member of “Canguro” family, she started sailing in
1967 serving on a cruise-ferry service between Genoa,
Barcelona, Caralis and Porto Torres in Sardinia;
from 1974 she sailed only from Genoa
to Porto Torres and v.v., a line which is nowadays known because of the
competition between the better ferries of Tirrenia and Grandi Navi Veloci. From
1981 to 1990 has a parallel history with her sister “Canguro Bruno”: was bought
by Fagez and renamed “Durr” for a
service between Suez and Jeddah, having two
minor damages on her Red Sea service.
Strintzis Lines bought her in 1989 and the ferry was used for two seasons on Ancona – Dubrovnik – Corfu
– Patras and Ancona – Split services. At the end of 1990
season the war in Yugoslavia
forced Strintzis to close the links to Split and Dubrovnik;
as long as the company didn’t need anymore four ferries on Ancona,
it stated to sell the “Ionian Harmony” to a Tobago
based ferry company which planned to start a Caraibic ferry service and renamed
the ship “Sun Fiesta”. However the service didn’t started ever, and in 1992 the
“Sun Fiesta” was purchased by the owner of Regency Cruises, Mr Lelakis, which
converted the ferry as a cruise-ship. The conversion was finished in 1994 and
the new name was “Regent Jewel”. Her first year of service as cruise ship was
on cruises from New York; as the opposite of
almost all European cruise ships, who spend the summer in Europe
coming to America on winter,
the “Regent Jewel” in December 1994 crossed the Atlantic heading to Greece,
where she was chartered to Transocean Tours as “Calypso”. She
sailed with the German operator until 1998, when the charter ended and the ship
was arrested; on 2000 was subsequently sold to Louis Cruise Line which bought
her at auction. In my opinion the conversion to cruise-ship was not a success:
now she is too high and has lost her graceful appearance typical of the
original Fincantieri design; moreover the stern design is not so beautiful.
TRAGHETTI
SARDI F/B Canguro Verde – Photo © Gianpaolo Pesarini
LOUIS CRUISE
LINE M/V Calypso – Photo © Gianpaolo Pesarini, Piraeus
LOUIS CRUISE LINE
M/V Calypso, photo from Louis Cruise website
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