raymundo:
I can just imagine CF in charge of any thing bigger than a plastic boat in the bath, I reckon after about two or three hours of listening to his ranting on and on when asked a simple question by the crew would see him being strung up from the nearest mast
Blimey that’s a relief.I thought I was going to be keel hauled and cast adrift. 
Winseer:
What was the reason other runs like Dover-Oostende, Ramsgate-Dunquerque, Folkstone-Boulogne, & Sheerness-Vlissengen got knocked on the head btw?
If we could cut Calais out of the entire cross channel trade route - just think how much better off we’d be in the long term?
Solve the illegals problem and the striking dockers problem at the same time eh?
The issue of lightning striking French can apply anywhere and usually with some good reason for it.In this case it seems to be about the employment situation.
As for the loss of the North Sea crossings that is the point and seems in large part to be the result of the modern emissions regime and resulting effects on fuel costs.
Carryfast:
The first paragraph is the point.IE any ‘issues’ with Calais and they can’t be re routed.Unlike the days when the same ships were used on numerous interchangeable routes
You might want to tell P&O that, who sent all their ships, including the two Spirts to Boulgne this week to get around Calais problems. Or Transeuropa who chartered the Oostend Spirt from P&O… Or Stena Line, who bought the Dieppe Seaways from DFDS and is now sailing from Holyhead instead of Dover. The Dieppe Seaways started out with Superfast doing Ancoa Patras before Dover Dunkirk and Dover Calais. Now renamed Stena Superfast like its two sisters doing Belfast Cairnryan who also started out with Superfast in Greece. As usual saying these ferries aren’t interchangeable is complete rubbish necked up by nothing except your own fantasies. There’s a long long history of former Dover Calais ferries sailing all over the world
Winseer:
What was the reason other runs like Dover-Oostende, Ramsgate-Dunquerque, Folkstone-Boulogne, & Sheerness-Vlissengen got knocked on the head btw?If we could cut Calais out of the entire cross channel trade route - just think how much better off we’d be in the long term?
Solve the illegals problem and the striking dockers problem at the same time eh?
Yeah, because close down Calais and all the illegal immigrants would give up and head back home. Is anyone living in the real world here?
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
The first paragraph is the point.IE any ‘issues’ with Calais and they can’t be re routed.Unlike the days when the same ships were used on numerous interchangeable routesYou might want to tell P&O that, who sent all their ships, including the two Spirts to Boulgne this week to get around Calais problems. Or Transeuropa who chartered the Oostend Spirt from P&O… Or Stena Line, who bought the Dieppe Seaways from DFDS and is now sailing from Holyhead instead of Dover. The Dieppe Seaways started out with Superfast doing Ancoa Patras before Dover Dunkirk and Dover Calais. Now renamed Stena Superfast like its two sisters doing Belfast Cairnryan who also started out with Superfast in Greece. As usual saying these ferries aren’t interchangeable is complete rubbish necked up by nothing except your own fantasies. There’s a long long history of former Dover Calais ferries sailing all over the world
No that just confirms the fact that,unlike now,older designs were never ordered/built/used as Calais route specific.
While yes agreed they do seem to have re routed Calais specific ships to Boulogne.‘But’ for ‘some’ reason the news was/is that they couldn’t offer a full service.IE outgoing only no return.Which I’d guess did nothing to help the balance sheet. 
switchlogic:
Winseer:
What was the reason other runs like Dover-Oostende, Ramsgate-Dunquerque, Folkstone-Boulogne, & Sheerness-Vlissengen got knocked on the head btw?If we could cut Calais out of the entire cross channel trade route - just think how much better off we’d be in the long term?
Solve the illegals problem and the striking dockers problem at the same time eh?Yeah, because close down Calais and all the illegal immigrants would give up and head back home. Is anyone living in the real world here?
Hearing drivers talk of them moving to other ports as they aren’t having any luck at Calais.
The Moby Prince just happened to have taken a dislike to a tanker in PORT and rammed it releasing a load of volatile light fuel oil which caught fire and spread to the ferry so hardly ‘at sea’. The Ryde was old, uneconomical and way past her sell by date (all info freely available to anyone on the internet with nothing better to do than sit on the PC and then pretend they know it all) and yes I researched it on the web but had a rough background of the Ryde but not all of it like someone I could mention so I didn’t profess to know it all.
Carryfast:
raymundo:
I can just imagine CF in charge of any thing bigger than a plastic boat in the bath, I reckon after about two or three hours of listening to his ranting on and on when asked a simple question by the crew would see him being strung up from the nearest mastBlimey that’s a relief.I thought I was going to be keel hauled and cast adrift.
After being keel hauled they wouldn’t cast you adrift as you would be dead so just stitch you up in canvas with a couple of canon balls and drop you over the side
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
The first paragraph is the point.IE any ‘issues’ with Calais and they can’t be re routed.Unlike the days when the same ships were used on numerous interchangeable routesYou might want to tell P&O that, who sent all their ships, including the two Spirts to Boulgne this week to get around Calais problems. Or Transeuropa who chartered the Oostend Spirt from P&O… Or Stena Line, who bought the Dieppe Seaways from DFDS and is now sailing from Holyhead instead of Dover. The Dieppe Seaways started out with Superfast doing Ancoa Patras before Dover Dunkirk and Dover Calais. Now renamed Stena Superfast like its two sisters doing Belfast Cairnryan who also started out with Superfast in Greece. As usual saying these ferries aren’t interchangeable is complete rubbish necked up by nothing except your own fantasies. There’s a long long history of former Dover Calais ferries sailing all over the world
No that just confirms the fact that,unlike now,older designs were never ordered/built/used as Calais route specific.
While yes agreed they do seem to have re routed Calais specific ships to Boulogne.‘But’ for ‘some’ reason the news was/is that they couldn’t offer a full service.IE outgoing only no return.Which I’d guess did nothing to help the balance sheet.
They couldn’t offer a return service as they had no way of issuing tickets and UKBA had no way of checking passports and/or trucks. That’s all. As for not being Calais specific, rubbish, for at least 30 years ferries have been built for Dover Calais. Doesn’t mean they can’t be used elsewhere, just means they are optimised for Dover Calais. Like boats on the Irish Sea or the Adriatic or anywhere in the world they are optimised for the route they are ordered for. The fact that the Spirits could sail to Boulgne at the drop of a hat does sort of ■■■■ all over your theory that they can’t be rerouted or used elsewhere.
P.s Dieppe Seaways isn’t an ‘older design’, it’s 10 years old
raymundo:
Carryfast:
raymundo:
I can just imagine CF in charge of any thing bigger than a plastic boat in the bath, I reckon after about two or three hours of listening to his ranting on and on when asked a simple question by the crew would see him being strung up from the nearest mastBlimey that’s a relief.I thought I was going to be keel hauled and cast adrift.
After being keel hauled they wouldn’t cast you adrift as you would be dead so just stitch you up in canvas with a couple of canon balls and drop you over the side
And don’t forget the final stitch through the nose - just to make sure that he isn’t faking 
Did you have to say that Santa I was thinkin maybe CF would pick up on that first 
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
The first paragraph is the point.IE any ‘issues’ with Calais and they can’t be re routed.Unlike the days when the same ships were used on numerous interchangeable routesYou might want to tell P&O that, who sent all their ships, including the two Spirts to Boulgne this week to get around Calais problems. Or Transeuropa who chartered the Oostend Spirt from P&O… Or Stena Line, who bought the Dieppe Seaways from DFDS and is now sailing from Holyhead instead of Dover. The Dieppe Seaways started out with Superfast doing Ancoa Patras before Dover Dunkirk and Dover Calais. Now renamed Stena Superfast like its two sisters doing Belfast Cairnryan who also started out with Superfast in Greece. As usual saying these ferries aren’t interchangeable is complete rubbish necked up by nothing except your own fantasies. There’s a long long history of former Dover Calais ferries sailing all over the world
While you’re partly right, it’s not quite that simple. Calais used to be unique in that the ramps are shore side and lower onto the boat for loading / discharhing, most other ports utilised ships internal ramps that lowered onto the shoreside linkspan. This is why many boats on charter to Docal services had a ‘cowcatcher’ welded to the front (they needed a lip for the linkspan to drop onto) an example of this would be the Barfleur when she was chartered to DFDS. Also the 3 merchants for Norfolkline - one wasn’t modified for Dover Calais spec which is why it could only use one berth in Dover. Ostende and Dunkirk now have similar linkspans to Calais, but it’s doubtful if the older more redundant french ports were modified.
Vessels built specifically for Dover Calais can’t use many ports without modification as they have no internal ramps. Oleander, Gardenia (and other TEF ships in the Med) were all modified with internal ramps once they left the Channel.
Very good point, hadn’t thought about the ramps… Very few ships get plonked on new routes with no modifications tho. Also proves my point that ferries have been built as Dover Calais specific for a long time, it’s not a recent phenomenon as Carryfast seems to think. After all all the Transeuropa ships were relics from a past time!
raymundo:
Carryfast:
Blimey that’s a relief.I thought I was going to be keel hauled and cast adrift.After being keel hauled they wouldn’t cast you adrift as you would be dead so just stitch you up in canvas with a couple of canon balls and drop you over the side
To be fair some say in rare cases it was surviveable 
and I was going by the best case scenario.
raymundo:
The Moby Prince just happened to have taken a dislike to a tanker in PORT and rammed it releasing a load of volatile light fuel oil which caught fire and spread to the ferry so hardly ‘at sea’. The Ryde was old, uneconomical and way past her sell by date (all info freely available to anyone on the internet with nothing better to do than sit on the PC and then pretend they know it all) and yes I researched it on the web but had a rough background of the Ryde but not all of it like someone I could mention so I didn’t profess to know it all.
I mean’t ‘at sea’ not in its absolutely literal sense IE like the Boccaccio and Herald it didn’t end its days in the breakers. 
As for the Ryde like all the rest my point was that no one was going to be able to use it for an Isle of Wight crossing in the previous 2 months as opposed to the 1960’s being that switch did say my lifetime.
Carryfast:
raymundo:
that switch did say my lifetime.
You seriously misunderstood the simple point I was making in that post
switchlogic:
Very good point, hadn’t thought about the ramps… Very few ships get plonked on new routes with no modifications tho. Also proves my point that ferries have been built as Dover Calais specific for a long time, it’s not a recent phenomenon as Carryfast seems to think. After all all the Transeuropa ships were relics from a past time!
The point was that ‘past times’ would certainly have mean’t no problems whatsoever in re routing Calais bound ships to Ostende and/or Zeebrugge for example.
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
raymundo:
that switch did say my lifetime.You seriously misunderstood the simple point I was making in that post
As you did mine in that let’s just say that I’ve got a ‘reasonable’ amount of experience of using ferries/sea transport in my time.But just not with a truck. 
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
Very good point, hadn’t thought about the ramps… Very few ships get plonked on new routes with no modifications tho. Also proves my point that ferries have been built as Dover Calais specific for a long time, it’s not a recent phenomenon as Carryfast seems to think. After all all the Transeuropa ships were relics from a past time!The point was that ‘past times’ would certainly have mean’t no problems whatsoever in re routing Calais bound ships to Ostende and/or Zeebrugge for example.
Just like current times when they were all routed to Boulgne. You never listen do you?
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
Carryfast:
raymundo:
that switch did say my lifetime.You seriously misunderstood the simple point I was making in that post
As you did mine in that let’s just say that I’ve got a ‘reasonable’ amount of experience of using ferries/sea transport in my time.But just not with a truck.
Go on then, what constitutes reasonable? How many ferry crossings have you done over the years? A reasonable amount for a tourist doesn’t really compare to people who do it for a living