Seatruck Ferries

Formation (1996–2002)

Seatruck was established in 1996, operating one ship, Riverdance, between Heysham and Warrenpoint. She was joined in April 1997 by sister ship Moondance, which was also operated on the Heysham to Warrenpoint service, a service which continues today as a two-ship service.

Clipper Group (2002–present)

In 2002, the company was acquired by Danish shipping company Clipper Group. Also in 2002, European Mariner was chartered for two months, before moving on to Color Line.

In 2005, Seatruck Ferries ordered their first new ships, five "P Series" ro-ro freight ferries, however only four were built. These vessels were named Clipper Point, Clipper Panorama, Clipper Pace and Clipper Pennant. All four vessels were built by Spanish shipyard Astilleros de Huelva.

Between late 2005 and late 2009, Seatruck acquired four sister ships, Challenge (Clipper Ranger), Triumph (Helliar), Shield (Hildasay) and Arrow. These are now deployed on charters to Caledonian MacBrayne, NorthLink Ferries and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company respectively.

In 2007, Seatruck chartered the Celtic Star, which was deployed on the Liverpool to Dublin route.

In January 2008, the company's pioneering ship, Riverdance, ran aground in Blackpool. Seatruck chartered Phocine to cover Riverdance's services until Clipper Point entered service. Attempts to refloat the vessel failed and she was broken up in situ in the summer of 2008. In March 2008, Clipper Point became the company's first new ferry, entering service on the Heysham to Warrenpoint route. "Panorama" followed in January 2009, "Pace" in March 2009 and "Pennant" in October 2009.

In March 2008, the same month that Clipper Point entered service, Seatruck Ferries placed an order for four RoRo 2200 ferries to be built by Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Germany.

The first two of these vessels launched in late 2011, named Seatruck Progress and Seatruck Power, whilst the third, Seatruck Performance, launched in January 2012. The final ship of the class, Seatruck Precision, launched in March 2012. "Progress" entered service in December 2011, "Power" joined the fleet in February 2012, "Performance" joined the fleet in April 2012 and lastly "Precision" will join the fleet before mid-2012.

In late 2011, one of earlier "P Series" vessels - Clipper Panorama - was renamed Seatruck Panorama whilst Clipper Pace was renamed Seatruck Pace in February 2012.

In 2015, Ole Frie stepped down as Chairman of the board. Kristian Morch was appointed as Frie's replacement. Alistair Eagles was also appointed CEO of Seatruck.

In May 2015, the Clipper Ranger finished her long-term charter with Caledonian MacBrayne. The Clipper Point also finished her charter with DFDS. She was then chartered to Inter Shipping (Spain) to operate on the company's Algeciras - Tanger Med II route.

In January 2016 Seatruck upgraded its website. The web domain traditionally offered information on ferry bookings and was principally following a lead generator based model for car and motorhome web bookings which only offered phone and email booking. This type of booking model is endemic in the ferry booking industry online. However, this new change illustrates Seatruck's shift towards online modernism. The web technology was developed by Freightlink Solutions Ltd, an online freight ferry booking aggregation service.

Routes

Seatruck currently operate three routes on the Irish Sea, serving four ports.

Current fleet

Seatruck currently have twelve vessels - six of which are in service for Seatruck. The other six are out on charter to various companies.

The newest vessel in the Seatruck fleet is Seatruck Precision, which entered service in June 2012.

Former fleet

These are vessels that have previously been operated or chartered by Seatruck.