When will the new vessels enter service?
The Clipper Point will enter service in quarter 2 2007, The Clipper Pace in quarter 4 2007.

How much bigger are the new vessels?
Seatrucks existing owned vessels the Riverdance and Moondance have a maximum capcity of 52 unaccompnaied trailers, the new vessels will carry 120.

What does the increased vessel size mean for annual capacity?
Currently Seatruck move 90,000 freight units per annum. The new vessels will incease annual capacity to in excess of 130,000 units.

How much faster are the new vessels?
The current Seatruck vessels maintain average speeds of around 15 knots. The new vessels have a maximum service speed of 22 knots. This will reduce crossing times from 9 hrs to 6.5 hours.

What benefit will this extra speed be to the customer?
The extra speed will allow later evening departure times permitting customers more time to get loaded and giving greater flexibility if road traffic delays are experienced. In periods of bad weather the extra speed will permit a much higher level of schedule reliability.

What schedule will be operated on arrival of the Clipper Point?
The Clipper Point will initially operate alongside the mv Moondance and the rr Challenge. This wil immediately increase capacity to 130,000 units per annum on 3 daily departures per day in each direction.

• Warrenpoint Departures @ 09:00 hrs, 14:30 hrs & 20:00 hrs
• Heysham Departues @ 02:30 hrs, 08:00 hrs & 22:00 hrs
• The Clipper Point will operate on the 22:00 hrs ex Heysham arriving Warrenpoint 04:30 hrs.
• The addtional 14:30 hrs departure ex Warrenpoint and 02:30 hrs departure ex Heysham will offer customers an exiting new oppurtunity to maximise unit utilisation.

How will the yard areas cope with the extra traffic?
Large areas of extra land are being made available in Warrenpoint and Heysham to cope with the extra traffic.

Will any changes be made to the computer systems to help customers?
A brand new booking system will be introduced prior to the arrival of the new vessels. This will permit real time track and trace and other on-line functionality that will help to steamline the booking process for customers. But don’t worry the same old Seatruck team will still be available in Warrenpoint and Heysham to discuss your requirements in person if you prefer.

Why is Seatruck building pure freight ro-ro vessels?
Seatruck firmly believe that the best value to customers can be offered on freight only services that do not carry passengers and have limited driver accompanied capacity. In 2005 43% of total Irish Sea Freight moved driver accompanied. Seatruck believe that this percentage is artificially high and that with the new vessels capacity and speed they will be able to encourage a switch away from high cost accompanied movements which will ultimately save customers money. Seatruck remain the only dedicated freight only company on the Irish Sea and feel this also brings the customer many benefits.  

How many drivers accompanied units can the new vessels take?
Although designed primarily for the fast and effcient movement of unaccompanied freight and trade vehicles the new vessels can carry 12 drivers per sailing in en-suite single berth cabins with full facilities including in cabin televsion.

What about harardous cargo and abnormal loads?
Seatruck will continue to specialise in hazardous cargo shipments, in additon the new vessels and new linkspans will remove all previous restrictions on abnormal load movements. 

What next for Seatruck?
In addition to the first two vessels Seatruck with the backing of Clipper has now confirmed an additional three options with the shipyard in Huelva. At this stage a total of 5 vessels have been confirmed. Seatruck is currently examining a number of different deployment opportunities for these vessels.