M/V Cap Finistère

In order to launch its business, Superfast Ferries ordered between 1995 and 2002 12 ships that shares the same hull, funnel and wheelhouse from Superfast 3. Only superstructure were different between those ships. Among those ships, we find Superfast 5 that was ordered in July 1998 for the route linking Igoumenitsa (GR) ad Ancone (IT). She shares most of her design with Superfast 3 and Superfast 4, the only notable difference is the large window available on her stern. Moreover, she is 10m longer.

She was delivered alongside her sistership, Superfast 6 in 2001.

On 17th September 2009, Brittany Ferries announced that the company had purchased to the Attica Group Superfast 5 at a cost of €81.5 millions. She was renamed Cap Finstère in January 2010.

She went to dry dock in January 2010, where the name Superfast was erased whilst she was renamed Cap Finistère. She then set sail to the Channel in February. Once arrived, she went in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and Portsmouth to perform berthing trials, before heading to Dunkirk where she was repainted from red to Brittany Ferries’ livery.

On 22nd March 2010, Cap Finistère performed her maiden voyage with Brittany Ferries, when she set sail from Cherbourg-en-Cotentin to Portsmouth. She then began operating the Portsmouth – Santander route. On 24th September 2010, Brittany Ferries announced that Cap Finistère will be introduced from March 2011 on a new route linking Portsmouth to Bilbao, a route that was previously operated by P&O Ferries. She went for the first time in Bilbao in October of the same year to perform berthing trials.

During Winter 2010-2011, Cap Finistère was sent in Gdansk to be fully refurbished – Brittany Ferries had not been able the previous year of refurbishing her to the company’s standards. She also lost the portholes she had on her side. In March 2011, she began operating the Bilbao service twice a week, operating the Santander service once whilst the Cherbourg-en-Cotentin – Portsmouth service was scrapped.

In order to enable Cap Finistère complying with the latest European regulations regarding ship’s exhausts, Brittany Ferries decided to equip her with scrubbers. Therefore, she completed her last commercial sailing on 11th January 2015, and set sail to Astillero shipyard in Santander to be equipped with those scrubbers. Works lasted three months, and implied her funnel to be slightly widen and her funnel's wings to be removed. Her accommodation decks were also sightly refurbished and her hull was overhauled. She resumed service on March 2015.

She was dry docked again in April 2016, two months before Brittany Ferries’ chairman, Jean-Marc Roué announced that it is likely that Cap Finistère would be replaced along with two others ships by a new one by 2021.