The ship naming ceremony of the new ferry of the Stena Line operator will take place on Friday, 1st of July at noon at the ferry terminal at ul. Kwiatkowskiego 60 in Gdynia. The new ferry named Stena Spirit will replace the vessel Stena Baltica that was operating the line Gdynia - Kalskrona up to now. Stena Spirit is the second of the sister vessels that were newly introduced to operate on this line. The first one – Stena Vision – replaced ms Finnarrow at the beginning of November 2010. Stena Vision and Stena Spirit are comprehensively modernized units providing high quality trips, significantly increased carrying capacity and much better comfort of travel than before.

 

For the first time, Stena Spirit called at the Port of Gdynia on 28th June, at 7:30 am, while Stena Baltica set sail from Gdynia for the last time on 26thJune.

 

The new names for the vessels were chosen from among 14.000 proposals that were submitted during the all Poland competition organized by Stena Line. The ferry will be officially named by a well known actress - Anna Przybylska, who is involved with Gdynia. Stena Line established 1stJuly as the first Open Day and Stena Spirit ferry will open its decks to everyone for free. Between 10 am and 6 pm, everyone will have the opportunity to visit the vessel, learn more about Sweden, the cruises and travelling on a ferry and enjoy numerous attractions prepared for children and adults. All the places, including those not regularly accessible to passengers - the bridge, for example, will be available for visitors. The visitors of the ferry on this day will have the opportunity to enjoy special offers and lower prices of Holiday Cruises. It will be possible to get to the ferry terminal by 570 bus for free or a special double-decker bus, which will take visitors directly to the Open Day of Stena Line. The cost of rebuilding of both ferries amounts to one quarter billion Swedish crowns (about PLN 120 million). As a result of the implemented changes the carrying capacity of passengers was doubled and the loading capacity on the line increased by 35%. Consequently, one can expect further development of tourism between Poland and Sweden and an increase in freight turnover on the Gdynia - Karlskrona Motorway of the Sea.

Stena Line is one of the largest ferry operators in the world and may be proud of over 45 successful years in the industry. Fifteen years had passed in May 2010 since Stena Line set sail of the M/S Lion Queen ferry on its first cruise from Karlskrona to the Port of Gdynia.

Data on the Stena Spirit ferry:

Length: 175 m

Width: 30 m

Number of passengers: 1 200

Number of cabins: 493

Speed: 22 knots

Loading capacity: 2 200 m

Year of construction: 1987, rebuilt in 1999, 2007 and 2010.