MV Connemara is a RORO passenger and freight ferry registered under the Greek flag of registry, currently on charter to Brittany Ferries from Stena RoRo. Connemara currently sails from Ringaskiddy, to Santander and Roscoff. From 2007 to 2010, she was operated by Balearia as Borja, then between 2010 and 2011 as Baltic Amber for AVE Lines and then DFDS Seaways, before subsequently spending 4 years on charter to LD Lines. She spent the majority of fall 2014 and 2015 on charter to Inter Shipping sailing from Algeciras, Spain, when she was then chartered by ANEK Lines, being replaced by Nova Star Cruisess Nova Star. The ship was renamed MS Asterion which comes from Greek Mythology of Asterion, the King of Crete. Connemara is named after a region in the province of Connacht in western Ireland, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
History
Connemara was launched on 18 December 2006 as Borja and was completed on 11 May 2007. She was chartered to Stena Line during construction and was thought to be called the Stena Ausonia however this did not happen and instead Stena chartered her to Balearia for services in Spain, she started operating between Barcelona and Palma on 20 May 2007. In June that same year she was sold to Stena RORO, London. In 2010 she ended her charter to Balearia and was sent to Rotterdam where that same year she was chartered to AVE Lines and renamed the Baltic Amber, she started operating between Travemunde and Ventspils and later that month Travemunde and Riga. In October 2010 she was chartered to DFDS Seaways for service between Klaipeda and Kiel. In 2011 she was chartered to LD Lines for service between Marseille and Tunis, later that month she was placed on the new Saint Nazaire - Gijon route replacing the Norman Trader. She was renamed the Norman Asturias in June 2011 and she remained on the St Nazaire - Gijon route for LD Lines until November 2013 when she was transferred to LD Lines new route between Poole and Santander. From 3 February 2014 the ferry also commenced a weekly service on the Poole to Gijon route although the first scheduled sailing from Gijon was cancelled because of severe weather. She has a capacity for 518 passengers, 120 freight vehicles and 195 cars. On 16 January 2018, Brittany Ferries announced it would charter the MS Norman Asturias for a new twice weekly route starting on 6 May 2018 between Cork, Ireland and Santander, Spain along with an additional route between Cork, Ireland and Roscoff, France. The ship will be renamed MV Connemara.
LD Lines business review and Inter Shipping career
When LD Lines carried out a business review in late August 2014 which included the closure of their two Spanish routes from Poole, the Norman Asturias finished her final sailing between in early September and was then laid up outside of Saint Nazaire when Stena RoRo then chartered her to Inter Shipping who run services between Tangier Med, Morocco and Algeciras, Spain where she then replace the which was on charter to Inter at the same time, Stena Feronia then later left for anchoring off Gibraltar and she was then place on the Birkenhead-Belfast route to cover the Stena Lagan refit. She left France at the same time as the which was then chartered to Caronte and Tourist, later Anek-Superfast. Norman Asturias started service between Spain and Morocco for Inter in October 2014 after her LD Lines livery was removed and she was then later transferred from the Italian flag to the Danish Flag in December 2014.
