On Tuesday morning a diminutive former Japanese freight ferry was spotted by TradeWinds taking on bunkers in Singapore’s eastern anchorage ahead of what can only be described as a voyage of a lifetime.
After spending the past 24 years shuttling across the Tsugaru Strait, between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, the 4,700-gt Yabusa (built 2000) is heading for a new life in Greece.
Due to Houthi rebel attacks on Red Sea shipping, the small vessel will take a longer route from Singapore to Piraeus via the Cape of Good Hope, a voyage lasting nearly two months instead of the usual four hours across the Tsugaru Strait.
The Yabusa operated as the Habayusa No.3 for Japanese company Seikan Ferry until it was sold to Greek interests in mid-2024. Its primary role was to carry freight and could transport 26 trailers and 47 passengers, mostly truck drivers.
On paper, the Yabusa is owned by Sunquest Oceanic, a Marshall Islands-registered entity, and is registered under the Panamanian flag for its delivery voyage.
Well-placed ferry sources within the Greek ferry industry have identified the ship’s buyers as Saronic Ferries, a consortium that operates a fleet of five ropaxes on routes from Piraeus to the nearby islands of the Saronic Gulf, arguably the busiest ferry routes in Greece.
It will be a very different vessel when it enters service in Greek waters. The focus of the ferries operating in the Saronic Gulf is very much on passengers.
The Yabusa spent the last three months of 2024 at a shipyard near Shanghai being rebuilt for its new role.
Clearly displayed in Singapore was an entirely new superstructure, giving the ship a passenger-carrying capacity of several hundred passengers on the 70-minute voyage from Piraeus to Aegina.
While the physical changes to the vessel were made in China, Greek shipyards will finish the job by fitting out the passenger accommodation.
If the latest Greek ferry conversion projects that TradeWinds has witnessed are anything to go by, passengers on the ship will enjoy far greater comfort than the Japanese passengers did previously.
Saronic Ferries announced in 2022 that it planned to commission Greece’s first fully electric ropax ferry as part of an emissions-free fleet by 2040.
The stated aim then was to have the first vessel up and running within four years. C-Job Naval Architects, a ship design company based in the Netherlands, had already delivered an initial design following an extensive sustainable fuel feasibility study.
The targets set by the company were considered ambitious by many observers who noted the many bureaucratic and financial hurdles facing such a project in Greece.
While Saronic Ferries has said little more about its electric ferry project since 2022, the company still has a need to renew its ageing fleet, which includes vessels built in the 1980s and 1990s.
If the electric ferry project moves ahead at a slower pace than expected, efficient Japanese ships such as the Yabusa that can be purchased and converted at a moderate price will provide a cost-effective interim solution.
