F/B IONIAN HARMONY
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Ship
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Ionian Harmony
(1989)
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Building Spec.
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1967 at Fincantieri yards, Italy N° C645
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GRT
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5.477*
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DWT
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1.965*
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Dimensions
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126,35 x 19,21 x
5,47
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Engines
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2 Fiat – Wartsila 7 cyl, 8.752 kW
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Speed
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18 knots
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Passengers
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1.200*
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Beds
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362*
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Cars
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300*
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Lane Metres
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Sister Ships
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Leros
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Registry Port
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Piraeus
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Flag
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Greek
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Former Owners
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Traghetti Sardi
1967-81
Fagez 1981-89
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Former names
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Canguro Verde 1967-81
Durr 1981-89
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New Owners
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Ferry Charter
1990-93
Regency Cruises
1993-94
Transocean
1994-00
Louis Cruises
2000à
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New names
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Sun Fiesta
1990-93
Regent Jewel
1993-94
Calypso 1994à
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Line
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*
Figures related to the ferry before the conversion
Member of “Canguro” family,
she started sailing in 1967 serving on a cruise-ferry service between Genoa, Barcelona, Caralis and Porto Torres in Sardinia; from 1974 she sailed
only from Genoa
to Porto Torres and v.v., a line which is nowadays known because of the
competition between the better ferries of Tirrenia and
Grandi Navi Veloci. From 1981 to 1990 has a parallel history with her
sister “Canguro Bruno”: was bought by Fagez and renamed “Durr”
for a service between Suez and Jeddah, having
two minor damages on her Red Sea service. Strintzis Lines bought her in 1989 and the ferry was used
for two seasons on Ancona
– Dubrovnik – Corfu – Patras
and Ancona – Split services. At the end
of 1990 season the war in Yugoslavia
forced Strintzis to close the links to Split and Dubrovnik; as long as the company didn’t need anymore four
ferries on Ancona, it
stated to sell the “Ionian Harmony” to a Tobago
based ferry company which planned to start a Caraibic ferry service and renamed the ship “Sun Fiesta”. However
the service didn’t started ever, and in 1992 the “Sun
Fiesta” was purchased by the owner of Regency Cruises, Mr Lelakis,
which converted the ferry as a cruise-ship. The conversion was finished in 1994
and the new name was “Regent Jewel”. Her first year of service as cruise ship was
on cruises from New York; as the opposite of
almost all European cruise ships, who spend the summer in Europe
coming to America on winter,
the “Regent Jewel” in December 1994 crossed the Atlantic heading to Greece,
where she was chartered to Transocean Tours as “Calypso”. She
sailed wit the German operator until 1998, when the charter ended and the ship
was arrested; on 2000 was subsequently sold to Louis Cruise Line which bought
her at auction. In my opinion the conversion to cruise-ship was not a success:
now she is too high and has lost her graceful appearance typical of the
original Fincantieri design; moreover the stern
design is not so beautiful.
LOUIS CRUISE LINE
M/V Calypso, photo from Louis Cruise website
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