For Brittany Ferries' 36,000gt newbuilding Mont St Michel, MacGREGOR supplied extensive galley, cafeteria, bar and pantry equipment including cold stores as well as a RoRo access/transfer system

An unrivalled reputation in the design and supply of cargo access/transfer systems for RoRo Ferries, earned by MacGREGOR over many years, has been strengthened by Brittany Ferries' 36,300gt Mont St Michel. Built for the French owner by the Dutch yard, van der Giessen-de Noord, the vessel is reportedly the largest cruiseferry commissioned for English Channel deployment.

Primarily assigned to the Portsmouth (England)-Caen (France) route, Mont St Michel is expected to increase freight capacity by 70 per cent and car capacity by 20 per cent on the service. Some 2,250 lane-metres of vehicle capacity are provided on three decks, offering stowage space for 880 cars or 132 trucks.

Contributing to vehicle handling efficiency, the MacGREGOR RoRo cargo access/transfer system is based at bow and stern to facilitate drive-through operations on two deck levels and also to link the main vehicle deck with the upper and lower cargo decks. The outfit comprises:

• a bow door in two sections offering a clear opening width of 6.9m
• a three-section bow door/ramp with a length of 15m (plus 1.5m end-flaps) and a 6.1m driveway via a 6.5m-wide x 5.1m-high clear opening
• a single-section stern door/ramp with a length of 5.6m (plus 1.5m end-flaps) and a 16m driveway into a 16.1m-wide x 5.1m-high clear opening
• a hoistable car deck formed by six panels to port and six panels to starboard with total overall lengths of 138m and respective widths of 12.9m and 9.4m; the forward and aft panels in each level also double as 26m-long access ramps
• two side-hinged ramp covers, each with a length of 40.3m and an overall width of 4.2m, arranged over fixed ramps forward/aft serving the lower deck; the twin-section covers yield a clear opening width of 3.8m and are designed to be watertight when closed
• a hoistable tilting ramp, with a length of 48m (plus 3m end-flaps) and a 3.1m driveway; this single-section structure is located amidships and provides access to the upper vehicle deck, from either the forward end or aft end of the vessel
• a sliding weathertight door is arranged in the forward superstructure bulkhead, offering a clear opening 6.5m-wide x 5m-high for direct access from the shoreside linkspan to the upper vehicle deck.

MacGREGOR also supplied two pilot/bunker station doors, each providing a clear opening 1.5m-wide x 2.2m-high, and four hydraulically-operated watertight covers for two engine room hatches, a generator room hatch and a workshop hatch.

To provide access for provisions a folding hatch cover is arranged on deck 10 as well as five sets of retractable supports (three on deck 9 and two on deck 10) for 10ft containers.

Catering outfit

MacGREGOR was also commissioned to supply extensive galley, cafeteria, bar and pantry equipment and cold stores to Mont St Michel. This followed intensive collaboration with the shipowner at an early stage and with the shipyard to define an efficient flow from the cold stores and galley to serve the la carte restaurant (370 seats), the free-flow buffet line (375 seats), as well as the drivers' restaurant and the crew and officers mess.

The design, equipment and installation standards comply with the demanding French DSV authorities [ Direction des Services V©t©rinaires: French authority for food safety and hygiene].

Mont St Michel's catering equipment supply from MacGREGOR's Passenger Ship division includes outfits (totalling around 2,250 items of equipment) for the:

• 300m² galley
• 55m of buffet lines for the 375-seat cafeteria
• 20m of counters for the 370-seat restaurant & buffet
• 25m bar for the 350-seat discoth¨que
• 20m of buffet counters for the 160-seat salon de th©
• crew pantries totalling 100m²
• 10 cold stores with a total floor area of 140m².

These areas are located on decks 8 and 9 of the ship and cater for a population of 2,100 passengers as well as 130 crew members. Crossings from Caen to Portsmouth last six or seven hours so the ferry has overnight accommodation in 220 four-berth cabins. "This also means that many passengers will have two meals during their time on board, and highlights the throughput required of the catering system," said Christian Mellet, MacGREGOR's area sales manager. "It also means that the efficiency of the system is critical to enable so many meals to be served in such a short time."