First of all let me say thank you for visiting my website and taking the time to look around.
History
I have been interested in ferries since 1990 when I was 12 and have spent many many an hour onboard ferries operating out of the United Kingdom ever since. Because of the internet many ferry enthusiast sites appeared, some sadly now are no longer with us whilst some have gone from strength to strength. From 2002 I was a member of two of the largest UK based sites, then in late 2005 I was presented with the opportunity to manage one of these, the site in question being the P&O Ferries Enthusiasts site. The site was run from Portsmouth on the south coast of the United Kingdom and mainly concentrated on the routes operated out of Portsmouth. Sadly all except one of these routes was closed during 2005. During a conversation with the Webmaster at the time, I was presented with an opportunity to manage the site going forward.
Since then I have developed more and more areas of the website and have made many freinds aboard the P&O fleet during my travels to update and maintain the website. At the time of being presented with this fantastic opportunity I was thinking of creating my own site featuring some of the companies not already covered. Namely Seafrance, DFDS, Fjord Line, Stena Line etc, only leaving out P&O because of the previously mentioned website and Brittany Ferries. The reason for not including Brittany Ferries was because there was already a great site on the internet created and run by some freinds. To take a look at their website click here. The site I was working on found itself put to oneside whilst I concentrated with the P&O site and introduced some new content. I am very happy to say that within a few months of the new content being online the site was awarded with a Silver Award by the Maritime Web Awards Body.
So what happened to this larger Ferry Enthusiasts site?
Well starting in June 2006 with a minicruise to Norway with Fjord Line the site came into existance. Four months later in October was to see me aboard the Seafrance fleet at Dover to incorporate their fleet into the site during what was to become the standard New Year update. If the year could not become any busier with the take over of Fjord Line's route between Newcastle & Bergen by DFDS and with permission from LD Lines to incorporate their fleet into the site the rest of 2006 was set to become a very busy time.
The Ferry Enthusiasts Network
That is a good question, I think 2007 is pretty much taken care of now in terms of what needs to happen so the next possible expansion will be in 2008 unless something unexpected happens. During 2007 the site was awarded with the Gold Award by the Maritime Web Awards Body. The Gold Award being the highest award possible.
As you can imagine the site really does take up alot of time for only one person and is slowly expanding with new content as the months go by. 2008 promises to be a good year for the site and although no new companies are planned who knows what may happen. March 2008 saw the site moulded into a style that I hope will last for years to come. The main detailed companies will no longer feature Seafrance but photographs etc will always be available via the new "Phototravels" section. This leaves "P&O Ferries, DFDS Seaways and LD Lines as the top three sites. Each will be breaking away from under the 127.0.0.1 address and starting out (with the exception of the P&O Site with their own web address. The P&O Ferries site already had its own webaddress from 2005.
Following a large number of requests from the travelling public throughout 2008 asking me to include Norfolkline into the site I had to seriously think if I could accomodate another company on the site in terms of my own time. Following contact with them it was agreed that they would like to come onboard and October 2008 saw me aboard each of their vessels operating out of Dover. This along with my regular visits to P&O Ferries in Dover saw me spending a week and undertaking nine crossings in a five day period. However the reality is that with the introduction of Norfolkline I really am going to have to say no to any further companies coming onboard for the foreseable future.
Facts & Figures
As of January 2009:
- Four large companies involved: P&O Ferries, LD Lines, DFDS Seaways & Norfolkline
- 242 Megabytes of space is needed
- 461 Publically Accessible Pages
- 5102 High Resolution Images
- 193 hours are spent at sea each year just onboard the four companies involved (66% of that is with P&O Ferries alone)
- 30 hours are spent travelling to the ports each year
- In excess of 1000 hours are spent each year on actual coding of the site and testing
All change
January 2010 saw major changes again to the Ferry Enthusiasts Network and sadly some of the sites needed to close for various reasons outside of my control. The 'original' and by far the largest of the sites the P&O Ferries Enthusiasts website remains open and still growing.
