Name MV Wight Light Operator Wightlink Yard number 550 Weight 1,495 tons Draft 2.3 m | Owner Wightlink 2009 present Port of registry London Length 62 m Displacement 1.495 million kg Builder Kraljevica | |
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Route Yarmouth to Lymington 25 February 2009 – 24 March 2015. 27 March 2015 – 1 April 15 (Portsmouth-Fishbourne) Replacement for retired MV St Helen 1 April 2015- present Yarmouth-Lymington. | ||
MV Wight Light is a car and passenger ferry built for the British ferry operator Wightlink. She is in service between mainland England and the Isle of Wight.
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History
MV Wight Light was designed by naval architects Hart Fenton & Company and constructed at the Kraljevica shipyard in Croatia. She was launched on 26 January 2008, the first of three vessels commissioned by Wightlink to replace their ageing ferries MV Caedmon, MV Cenred and MV Cenwulf on the Yarmouth to Lymington route. Her sister ships are MV Wight Sky and MV Wight Sun, both of which are now in service.
MV Wight Light was due to be delivered in late August 2008 arriving in Lymington late on 1 September 2008. She entered service on 25 February 2009.
Service
MV Wight Light is in service between Yarmouth and Lymington. On 12 March 2009 MV Wight Light was taken out of service for repairs to her hydraulic ramp. 35-year-old MV Cenred was brought back from retirement.
On 24 November 2014 Wightlink announced via a press release on their website that they were going to change the way they configure their fleet in response to both falling demand on their Western Solent Lymington-Yarmouth ferry service and the need to find a replacement for their oldest vessel in their fleet the MV St Helen As a result of falling passenger numbers with a reduction of 15% using the service within the past four years, it was decided by Wightlink to transfer the MV Wight Light as a replacement for the MV St Helen to the Portsmouth-Fishbourne route. With this transfer in motion both sea and berthing trials were carried out in January–February and March 2015. These trials made way for the Wight Lights first commercial sailing on the Portsmouth-Fishbourne Car Ferry Service on Friday 27 March 2015 at 06:30 am from Portsmouth en route to Fishbourne. Wight Light's now back on the Yarmouth-Lymington route .