An £80 million delivery from Finland sailed up the Liffey mouth yesterday , as Irish Ferries marked the latest addition to its fleet. Ulysses claims to be the world's largest car ferry, and will sail on the Dublin-Holyhead route.
Built 12 decks high, its keel-to-mast height of 167.5 feet is just 30 foot short of Dublin's Liberty Hall. The vessel's four engines deliver 41,808 horsepower and its electrical generators would light a town the size of Athlone.
The ship is the fourth new vessel introduced by the company on its Irish Sea routes, bringing investment in new ships and services to over £360 million since the mid-1990s. Work on the 209metre craft began in Aker Finnyards, Rauma, Finland, in 1999, and it will be introduced on the Irish Sea route later this month.
The ship will carry 2,000 passengers and crew, and can accommodate 1,342 cars or 240 articulated trucks per sailing. This is the equivalent of almost three miles of vehicle lane parking space on board.
The vessel will run on two return sailings between Dublin Port and Holyhead daily, with a sailing time of just over three hours each way.
On a normal day, this means it could transport up to 5,368 cars or 960 articulated trucks between the two islands - equivalent to a convoy of vehicles over 10 miles long.
The ship will be formally named by Ireland's Paralympic Games gold medallist, Ms Mairead Berry, three weeks from now in the presence of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
