Blu Marine are proud to have carried out the refurbishment and rebranding of LD Line’s Norman Spirit to come under the DFDS Short sea brand being newly renamed Calais Seaways. Blu Marine undertook this mammoth task in two stages – during refit in Gdansk Poland and then 3 weeks work whilst the vessel was in service on the Dover to Calais route.
After our final design was approved by the client we put together an in depth project plan to enable us to meet the objectives set. We had a very short timescale of 3 weeks to procure, fabricate and mobilise for this project so planning in house and with suppliers was key. We offloaded two 20ft container workshops, emptied two 40ft trailers of materials and 65 men all in a 40 minute turnaround in Dover, before sailing to Poland onboard for 2 days stripping out most of the deck 7 passenger accommodation. We had ten days in drydock and in that time we had to have the following areas completed; All deck 7 walkways and stairwells, new flooring, bulkhead coverings and LED lighting. We built a new truck drivers restaurant with servery, new truck drivers lounge and refurbished the shop. Self service restaurant was upgraded including wallcoverings, flooring, server modifications, upholstery and new table tops. New gaming area added to the restaurant as well as installing new fire protection to the new MES stations on deck 8. Aft Ladies and Gents toilets completely refurbished. Installed new wheelchair holding points and various items to bring ship in line with French Flag disabled regulations. We installed shower pods in the new drivers shower area and put in place the new bulkheads to close the area off before the ship went back into service.
During the in service period we carried out a complete refurbishment to the forward ladies and gents toilets. We also carried out the biggest change to the ship which was to create the new “Cafe Bar” area in the forward lounge. This lounge was completely ripped out back to steel to start fresh. We installed a new bar with storage area, fabricated and installed new banquette seating with integral half height partitions to segregate the seating areas, new lighting throughout, new childrens play area, Corian Poseur tables and stools, manufactured and installed all new table tops and installed new sofas and tub chairs, fabricated new SS window box surrounds, installed new flooring and wallcoverings throughout.
We are very proud to have worked closely with DFDS on this project and pleased with the transformation onboard from design through to handover of project with zero defects.