Further to Condor Ferries' plan to operate HSC Condor Liberation from Saint-Malo for a few days in January, HSC Condor Liberation came today in order to perform berthing trials whilst no commercial sailing was scheduled that day.
Indeed, from the purchase of HSC Condor Liberation, Condor Ferries has always been wanting to try her on the route linking Saint-Malo and the Channel Islands, for the purpose of making sure she would be adequate for this route. If these trials corroborate the suitability of the ship for this route, Condor Ferries has already announced that a sister-ship of HSC Condor Liberation would be ordered as a successor of HSC Condor Rapide.
Therefore, at 12:00am this 20th October, the HSC Condor Liberation arrived at the entrance of Saint-Malo's channel, her captain helped by Saint-Malo's pilots for this first visit. Once arrived close to the harbour, she performed a U-Turn before berthing at the newest link span. Later in the afternoon, whilst HSC Condor Rapide has been moved a bit further to free the older link span, she performed trials at this link span. However, if the trials at the newest link span were successful, they failed for the older linkspan, which is not wide enough for HSC Condor Liberation wide stern door. Moreover, as HSC Condor Liberation is two meters wider than HSC Condor Rapide, she would encroach upon the lock's access whilst berthed, preventing other ships from using this facility.