ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The Rigel II is a 1981 Visby service ferry of the Greek shipping company Ventouris Ferries. It has been operating on the route from Bari to Durrës since 2015.

History
The Visby was built under building number 278 in the Öresundsvarvet in Landskrona and was docked on 25 January 1980. After the takeover by Rederi AB Gotland on 10 October 1981, several defects were found on the ship, including technical problems too high a tonnage and thus a draught too large for the port of Visby. The ferry therefore returned to the construction shipyard for improvements, at the same time dredging took place in the port of Visby to increase the depth of the harbour basin. It was not until 31 May 1981 that Visby was scheduled to start ferry operations between Visby and Nynäshamn. Their younger sister ship Gotland was delivered in June of the same year.

In January 1990, the Visby was given the new name Felicity to be used from March 1990 under charter by Sealink British Ferries between Fishguard and Rosslare Harbour. Since December 1990 she has been operated on the same route as Stena Felicity by Stena Line. After the end of the service there, the ship went to Bremerhaven in July 1997 for renovation work. This changed, among other things, the dimensions from 142.62 to 146.1 meters total length, also the width and the tonnage of the ferry increased.

In January 1998, the ship resumed service from Visby to Nynäshamn under its old name Visby, operating from Destination Gotland. After five years of use, it was first named Visborg after commissioning a new Visby, before being released in March 2003.

The new operator was the Polish shipping company Polferries. In July 2003, Scandinavia started the ferry service between Gdańsk and Nynäshamn. This route served the ship for almost twelve years before it went as Rigel II to the Greek shipping company Ventouris Ferries in April 2015. On 2 July 2015, Rigel II, flying the flag of Cyprus, set off for its first crossing from Bari to Durrës.

In addition to several dining options, Rigel II has a café bar, a cinema, a duty-free shop, a conference room and a games room. The ship has cabins with a total of 1,200 beds, so for more than half of the total up to 2,300 passengers.

Weblinks

Information about Rigel II on the website of Ventouris Ferries
Entry for the ship on ferry-site.dk

Individual evidence

RoPax vessel
Ferry
Passenger ship (Sweden)
Passenger ship (Poland)
Passenger ship (Cyprus)
Motorised vessel