M/V Quiberon

In 1982, Brittany Ferries decided to charter in Nils Dacke, renaming her Quiberon. She was sent to Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg in order to be refurbished. During this refurbishment, her top car deck (on deck 5) was turned into a cabin deck on the purpose of accommodating more passengers, making Quiberon a cruise ferry rather than a day ferry as she used to.

Once overhauled and refurbished, Quiberon was allocated to the Spanish and Irish services where she replaced smaller Armorique, that had less berths and less comfortable accommodations. Actually, she had become too small to cope with the growing trafic. Therefore, Quiberon became Brittany Ferries’ flagship. However, as Quiberon had small capacity for lorries, she has been operated alongside Breizh Izel in 1983 on the Spanish service.

Having satisfied Brittany Ferries, Quiberon was purchased by the company in 1984, which re-registered her in Morlaix instead of Stockholm. Meanwhile, Quiberon was repainted, enabling her to wear the company’s new corporate image. However, the big Quiberon soon appeared to be too small to cope with the growing traffic, and Brittany Ferries thought of lengthening her in 1986-1987 in order to provide additional capacity. Yet, the company eventually chose to built a new superferry, which was launched in 1989 and christened as Bretagne. This choice was explained by the fact Quiberon was not a very popular ship, with poor accommodations and the lack of some equipments such as air conditioning in cabins.

Being replaced by Bretagne on the Irish and Spannish services, Quiberon was transferred on the Roscoff – Plymouth service in 1989, replacing Tregastel. Quiberon was refurbished in 1990, in order to renew her accommodations which were in poor condition. Her bar was then turned into a Tea Room, called Le Moulin à Mer.

On 17th July 1992, on a Plymouth to Roscoff service, Quiberon send a May Day signal whilst she had 1,034 passengers on board. Actually, one of her engines had took fire. Passengers were given Life Jackets and crew fought against the fire, waiting for the arrival of coastguards and additional help. However, Quiberon's crew achieved extinguishing the fire before the arrival of the coastguards, and captain did not have to decide abandoning ship. Nonetheless, one crew was killed during the fire, and several others were injured. Quiberon was then towed to Roscoff and had to be dry docked until late-August to be repaired.

Quiberon was sold in 1996 to the Société Anonyme Bretonne d’Armement Naval (SABEMEN) for FF100 millions. That enabled Brittany Ferries be recapitalized, enabling it to keep growing whereas it was going through financial troubles.

On 17th May 1999, Quiberon grounded off the coast of Plymouth. She suffered little damages and has been able to go back to her berth without being towed. The enquiry that followed the incident showed that captain was responsible of the landing, and that a review of the casting off procedure should be undertaken.

In mid-2002, with the introduction of Mont Saint Michel, Quiberon was to be replaced after 20 years spent in the company. Actually, Duc de Normandie was to replace her on the Roscoff service. However, due to Mont Saint Michel being delivered much behind schedule, it has been decided to transfer from mid-June Quiberon on the Ouistreham service until Mont Saint Michel’s delivery. Quiberon's passenger capacity was however shortened to 500 passengers, due to vehicles being heavier than those loaded of the Roscoff service. Purbeck had also to be chartered to carry as many booked passengers and lorries as possible.