The recent announcement that Corsica Linea’s A NEPITA will be heading to Canada prompts recollection of a September 2025 voyage from Marseille to Propriano, Corsica, where we caught up with this much travelled and much rebuilt ferry for the first time in five years.Indeed, there can be few ferries that have had their internal configuration rejigged so many many times in their career.
Built as one of the stylish Superfast series, she inaugurated the Rosyth to Zeebrugge service on the North Sea in 2002, offering compact passenger accommodation including a bar lounge, card room, cocktail bar, à la carte restaurant and spa. In 2007 she spent a brief, rather futile period as the JEAN NICOLI in the Mediterranean, before being sold to SeaFrance to become their SEAFRANCE MOLIÈRE. Operating between Calais and Dover, in this role, her facilities were reorganised to better suit the 90-minute crossing time. Work included expanding the self-service cafeteria on Deck 7 and stripping out much of the overnight cabin accommodation on Deck 8 to create an additional level of public rooms including a large on-board shop. After SeaFrance’s slow demise, she then spent time on charter to DFDS as the DIEPPE SEAWAYS on the same route, before Stena acquired her, and comprehensively refurbished her, before introducing her between Holyhead and Dublin as the STENA SUPERFAST X.
When displaced by the new STENA ESTRID, Stena RoRo quickly chartered her to Corsica Linea. With Stena never afraid to rebuild vessels to ensure their commercial viability and/or to tailor them to their clients’ needs, she was once again rebuilt with cabin accommodation reinstalled throughout Deck 8 and even in place of the former spa on Deck 10. In her current configuration, she appears well suited to her new role with Marine Atlantic, replacing the LEIF ERICSON (ex-STENA CHALLENGER) in their fleet.
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