AEOLOS KENTERIS I (ΑΙΟΛΟΣ ΚΕΝΤΕΡΗΣ Ι)

-NEL Lines

Built in 2000 (age 24). Registered in Mytilene. Current line: None (laid-up in Salamina)

The high speed ferry AEOLOS KENTERIS I was ordered in 1998 by the Greek company NEL Lines, as their first-ever high speed craft and their first-ever newbuilding. She was built in 2000 in France as the AEOLOS EXPRESS, becoming the first of the three high speed craft ordered by the company to enter service. While she was initially supposed to operate on the Sporades, she was deployed on the Cyclades and on the Northeast Aegean Sea, serving the Piraeus-Rafina-Andros-Syros-Tinos-Mykonos-Chios-Mytilene line. Her service was met with mixed reviews, as she encountered various technical problems and her company struggled to maintain her properly, while competitors fared much better. She was deployed on the Piraeus-Paros-Naxos-Ikaria-Samos line in 2001, where she did not perform any better. As a result of her unprofitability and her engine issues, she was laid-up in Lavrion in 2005, along with her fleetmate, the AEOLOS EXPRESS II. After two years, the two ships were reactivated in 2007 and were equipped with new engines which were installed in Perama, and they were renamed AEOLOS KENTERIS I and AEOLOS KENTERIS II, respectively. The former was deployed on the Piraeus-Rethymnon line during the 2007 season, following the withdrawal of ANEK Lines from that service. In 2008 she was deployed on the Piraeus-Paros-Naxos line on the Cyclades, while later that year she was deployed on the inter-Cyclades lifeline that was being served by the PANAGIA HOZOVIOTISSA, thus serving the Lavrion-Kea-Kythnos-Andros-Syros-Tinos-Paros-Naxos-Ios-Sikinos-Folegandros-Kimolos-Milos-Sifnos-Serifos lifeline. Being once again deemed to surplus requirements by her company, in 2010 she was chartered to the French company SNCM (Société Nationale Maritime Corse-Méditerranée) and she was renamed NGV LIAMONE II. She was deployed on the Nice-Bastia-L'Île-Rousse-Ajaccio line, thus linking the French mainland with the island of Corsica. After one season, she returned to NEL Lines and was once again renamed AEOLOS KENTERIS I. She spent the summer of 2011 on the Zakynthos-Kefalonia-Igoumenitsa-Corfu-Brindisi line on the Ionian Sea and on the Adriatic Sea. She was subsequently laid-up in Salamina due to her continuous technical issues, her unprofitable services combined with the financial difficulties of NEL Lines. Despite some comeback attempts in 2013, the ship remained laid-up together with the AEOLOS KENTERIS II and the AEOLOS KENTERIS. NEL Lines eventually ceased operations in 2015, and the ship has been placed at auction several times without success. Her future remains uncertain.

​

PHOTOS (2022):