BASS STRAIT ro-ro Tasmanian Achiever II has returned to Melbourne from drydock in Singapore, resplendent in its new Strait Link blue livery.
The 2018-built, 28,708 GT vessel, which entered service between Melbourne and Burnie in early 2019, departed Burnie back on 27 August for Sembawang, Singapore to undertake its mandatory 5-year special survey and drydocking, and to be re-branded with the Strait Link identity.
Tasmanian Achiever II now has a dark blue hull and a striking new funnel marking, which the company says represents the coral found in the Bay of Fires on Tasmania’s East Coast.
Strait Link is the former Toll Shipping, which, along with then parent Toll Global Express, was acquired by Sydney-based private equity investors Allegro Funds in 2021 and renamed in September 2022. The now-named Team Global Express and Strait Link are separate entities under the Allegro umbrella, although the TGE relationship is acknowledged on the ship’s hull.
Tasmanian Achiever II is currently “on show” at Melbourne’s Station Pier and is due to re-enter Bass Strait service on Monday [21 October], after which sister Victorian Reliance II will head to Singapore for its turn in drydock.
To ensure uninterrupted service Strait Link chartered the European ro-ro Peregrine, which has been re-flagged in Australia for the duration of its employment, which is expected to last through December.
The current sisters replaced the earlier Tasmanian Achiever and Victorian Reliance, which were built in South Korea in 1999 for Brambles Shipping, sold with the company to Toll in November 2002, lengthened by 32 metres in Singapore in 2004 and now trade for MSC affiliate Ignazio Messina as Jolly Express and Jolly Blue in the Mediterranean between Tunisia and Italy.
