MV Wight Light

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. She has a double end design so she doesn’t have to turn around considering she docks in narrow busy areas along with her sister ships Wight Sun and Wight Sky.

History
United Kingdom
Name	MV Wight Light
Owner	Wightlink 2009 present
Operator	Wightlink
Port of registry	London
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.
Builder	Kraljevica, Croatia
Yard number	550
Launched	26 January 2008
In service	25 February 2009
Homeport	London
Identification	MMSI number: 235064784 IMO number: 9446972 Callsign: 2BBX5
Status	In Service
General characteristics
Class & type	W-Wight Class RO-RO (Roll On Roll Off) Vessel.
Tonnage	2,546 GT; 360 DWT
Displacement	1,495 tonnes
Length	62.4 m (204.7 ft)
Beam	16.1 m (52.8 ft)
Draught	2.30 m (7.5 ft)
Depth	4.50 m (14.8 ft)
Decks	Two Passenger and two car decks (One for cars & freight & one port side mezzanine for cars/vans only)
Installed power	4x 740 bhp (550 kW) Volvo D16MH 16 litre 6cyl diesels
Propulsion	2 x Voith Schneider 21 R5/135 propeller units
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Capacity	360 passengers, 65 cars, 110m of Freight Traffic
Crew	10

History

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,^[1] the first of three vessels commissioned by Wightlink to replace their ageing ferries Caedmon, Cenred and Cenwulf on the Yarmouth to Lymington route. Her sister ships are Wight Sky and Wight Sun, both of which are now in service.

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

Wight Light is in service between Yarmouth and Lymington. On 12 March 2009 Wight Light was taken out of service for repairs to her hydraulic ramp. 35-year-old Cenred was brought back from retirement.^[2]

On 24 November 2014, Wightlink announced 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, MV St Helen.^[3] It was decided to transfer the Wight Light to the Portsmouth-Fishbourne route to replace the St Helen. Both sea and berthing trials were carried out in January–February and March 2015, allowing for the first commercial sailing of Wight Light on the Portsmouth-Fishbourne service on Friday 27 March 2015. Wight Light has since returned to operating the Yarmouth-Lymington route.