New Thames patrol launch
The new launch Lambeth is one of a fleet of five specially-designed catamarans being introduced in a £2 million investment by the Port of London Authority (PLA) to replace seven heavier, older vessels. The new vessel has already proved the expected benefits of substantially reduced exhaust emissions, lower fuel consumption and smaller wash waves. The PLA also expects to benefit from easier maintenance and operation, as a single design replaces seven different vessels.

Windfarm work
The OSV/buoy tender Relume, belonging to the Middle East Navigation Service (MENAS), has been chartered by Red7 Marine for use as a mother ship for diving operations at the Gabbard windfarm project off the Suffolk coast. This will be the world's largest offshore windfarm with 140 turbines, and the first to be built in international waters. Red7 is working on several high-profile marine construction projects.

Jersey welcomes home new Tamar lifeboat
The new £2.7 million Tamar class lifeboat George Sullivan arrived at her St Helier home on 4 June to be greeted by a small flotilla of craft off Noirmont Point. The vessels escorted the new boat into harbour, where hundreds more people were lining the piers to see the new lifeboat arrive.

Discovery sold and now Explorer?
Stena Line confirmed the sale of the HSS 1500 catamaran Stena Discovery (1997/19,638gt) to Venezuela and there are reports from South America that sister craft Stena Explorer (1996), now providing just one crossing a day between Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire, is to follow.

New plan for SeaFrance
While talks over Brittany Ferries' bid to take a major stake in SeaFrance continue, the troubled Calais-Dover operator is cutting 550 positions at sea and on shore by the end of 2010, 100 fewer than in a first survival plan. Said to be losing €100,000 a day, and with losses in the first quarter of 2009 of €14 million, SeaFrance hope to achieve a third of the reduced total of redundancies by natural wastage or early retirement.

Channel start for Norman Arrow
LD Lines' catamaran Norman Arrow made a 6 June debut on the Dover-Boulogne service after ten days of berthing trials and crew training following an 11,726 nautical mile delivery voyage from Tasmania. But as the 112m Incat first appeared at Dover in the evening of 26 May, work was in progress to demolish a major feature of Dover's fast ferry past, the Western Docks Hoverport Terminal building.

Wightlink face EC challenge
All three Croatia-built Wight class ferries are in service between Lymington and Yarmouth, yet Wightlink still faces opposition in Lymington and has had to make a full planning application for work on the link span and a passenger walkway. The area's MEP Caroline Lucas also made a formal complaint to the European Commission that Wightlink has failed to protect environmentally sensitive areas of Lymington River.

Pullmantur's Mexican retreat
For the third time, following aborted plans to deploy Ocean Dream (1982/36,674gt) and then Sky Wonder (1984/46,087gt), Spanish operator Pullmantur has again failed to start a new ex-Acapulco itinerary to the Mexican Riviera.

Cunarder Gets new career
Israeli operator Mano Maritime introduced its new vessel, Golden Iris (1977/17,095gt), at the end of May following a refit in Genoa after the vessel had been acquired from MSC Cruises, for whom she had sailed as Rhapsody.

MSC gets bigger
MSC Cruises has renegotiated with STX Europe its order for two new ships, which will now be built as modified versions of the line's 3,200-passenger Fantasia class, instead of being the last two of its smaller 2,550-passenger Musica-class series. MSC Meraviglia and MSC Favolosa were originally scheduled to be delivered in 2011 and 2012 and this may now change, but details have yet to be published.

Double naming
The double christening of Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica took place in Genoa on 5 June. The 13th and 14th members of the Costa fleet were inaugurated in style with an aerobatic display from the Tricolori National Aerobatic Team and music of 'An Italian Portrait in Music and Light'.

Joint Warrior 091
The latest biannual 'Joint Warrior' exercises took place around the north and west coasts of Scotland from 11 to 21 May. The spring event was held a few weeks later than normal to minimise the disruption caused to local seabirds and farmers by live firings during the breeding and lambing seasons.

Ten out of ten for carriers
After a number of setbacks, the US Navy has finally accepted delivery of USS George H. W. Bush. The US$6.26 billion aircraft carrier was handed over on 11 May following the rectification of minor defects and a potentially more serious problem with the ship's back-up generators, which was discovered after final sea trials.

Hapag-Lloyd suffer loss
Hapag-Lloyd, the leading container operator in Germany, suffered losses in the first quarter of 2009 that were expected to be in the region of €200 million ($268.2 million). The reason for the loss was attributed to weaker freight rates, together with lower volumes being carried on their vessels. As the sale of Hapag-Lloyd was not finalised until the end of March, TUI will absorb all of this loss.

Hoo vessels resume trading
It was announced in May that Riverline Trading Ltd had purchased the remaining six Coastal Bulk Shipping/River Bulk Shipping vessels that had been laid up; the company took delivery of them on 21 May. The vessels, all renamed, will keep the British flag.

Huelin cancel ship
In early June Channel Islands-based shipping company Huelin-Renouf announced that it had terminated its contract with German shipbuilder NesseWerft Leer GmbH in Leer, Germany, to supply a new vessel for its Southampton-Jersey/Guernsey freight route. The decision was made after the shipyard failed to complete an order on time for a bespoke 85m 3,600dwt replacement cargo vessel for December 2008.

Jumbo Shipping expands fleet
Holland's heavylift specialist Jumbo Shipping is continuing to build up its fleet of crane-equipped heavylift vessels, with the last of its J-1800-class vessels, Jumbo Jubilee, recently delivered by the Damen shipyard in Galatz, Romania. The ship's name is in honour of the 40th anniversary of Jumbo Shipping and the 60th of its general agent, Kahn Shipping.