Guillaume de Normandie makes first appearance in Portsmouth. Fifth new ship in five years

31st March 2025

Guillaume de Normandie in Ouistreham - photo Jess Breheret
Guillaume de Normandie in Ouistreham2 - photo Jess Breheret
First arrival in Pompey - image Patrick Hughes
First arrival in Portsmouth - image Patrick Hughes

Bienvenue Guillaume de Normandie, the newest member of the Brittany Ferries family. She’s a hybrid ship that will proudly fly the French flag and be crewed by French seafarers.

Her first commercial sailing takes place on Friday 18 April 2025. Passengers on the company’s busiest Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham) route are promised a voyage of comfort and style in the years ahead.

Her arrival will mark the end of the largest investment in fleet renewal in Brittany Ferries’ history: five new ships will have joined the fleet between 2020 and 2025.

Of these, Guillaume de Normandie will be the second new LNG-electric hybrid. Like her sister Saint-Malo (first sailing 12 February 2025), this cleaner, greener vessel will serve as a love letter to the region that bears her name. That means accents of Normandy everywhere on board, a floating homage to a region steeped in history, rich in arts and culture, and renowned for its fantastic cuisine.

In terms of power, her hybrid drivetrain promises lower emissions at sea, thanks to cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG). She will switch to electric power when entering Portsmouth Harbour and while manoeuvring at quay, promising zero emissions (and peace) for those living and working around the great waterfront city.

The final piece of the sustainable jigsaw will follow – with shore power connections.

Guillaume de Normandie’s arrival precedes the completion of electrical installation work in Portsmouth International Port by a couple of months (and in Ouistreham by a couple of years). The project called Sea Change involves a host of Portsmouth partners and is supported by government ZEVI funding.

When complete, there will be no need for ships to run engines while alongside. That’s because onboard systems will be powered by direct connection to shore. Furthermore, ships’ batteries can be re-charged ahead of departure from Pompey.

Beyond the innovative hybrid drivetrain and plug-in capability, Guillaume de Normandie will launch a number of new concepts and services for passengers, including Couchette Plus lounges. These present a new way of travelling, particularly for schools groups, at a more accessible price.

There will also be a new dining concept, called the Café du Port, serving freshly baked French pastries each morning, a delicious, olfactory complement to the visual treat present by Normandie-based art.

Of course, Guillaume de Normandie will benefit from the same spacious cabins (with super comfortable mattresses) as other new ships, with and an exclusive C Club lounge. Throughout the ship, passengers will feel that they have arrived on the shores of Normandy the moment they step on board.

What other improvements can passengers expect, compared with the ship she replaces (Brittany Ferries Normandie launched in 1992)? Just like Saint-Malo, comfort and accessibility come as standard.

Her spacious garage makes entry and exit from cars and lorries easier even for those with mobility problems. Guillaume hosts 10 decks with wide-open spaces and 220 cabins (including luxurious commodores and allergy-friendly cabins) to carry a maximum capacity of 1,300 passengers. Twenty-one of her cabins will be pet-friendly.

Technical Specifications

Length	194.7 metres
Breadth	27. 8 metres
Draught	6.6 metres
Gross tonnage	36,668 UMS
Decks	10
Passenger decks	5
Speed	23 knots
Passenger capacity	1,300
Crew	100
Passenger cabins	220 + 2 couchette plus lounges
Pet friendlies	21
Vehicle capacity	2.219 km truck lanes : 176 m of car lanes
Engines	2

Ends

About Brittany Ferries

Brittany Ferries was conceived in 1972, starting life as a freight-only ferry-service on 2^nd January the following year. The first vessel (Kerisnel) linked Roscoff in Brittany with Plymouth on the south west of England and carried a cargo of cauliflowers and cognac. Since then the company has progressively launched, then strengthened its shipping routes. In more than 52 years of service, millions of passengers and businesses have travelled by sea across the so-called Atlantic Arc (France, UK, Spain and Ireland). They rely on the links forged by more than five decades of experience. In addition to cutting congestion and emissions on busy roads, Brittany Ferries’ motorways-of the sea have helped enrich local communities, creating jobs, nurturing international tourism and boosting cross-border trade. Five new vessels will have joined the fleet between 2019 and 2025. Two LNG-hybrids (Saint-Malo Feb 25 and Guillaume de Normandie Apr 25) complete the largest fleet renewal programme in the company’s history.

Company figures:

Turnover: €516million in 2024 compared with €484.7 million 2023 and 7 million in 2022. l
Employment: Around 2,707 employees, including 1,818 seafarers (full-time equivalent)
Passengers: 1,99 m compared with 1.84 million in 2022
Freight: 162,000 compared with 155,592 in 2023
13 ships connecting France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, via 13 maritime routes
To come in spring 2025: completion of rail-freight “ferroutage” service connecting Cherbourg with Bayonne
12 ports: Roscoff, Saint-Malo, Cherbourg, Caen, Le Havre, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Poole, Cork, Rosslare, Santander, Bilbao