Ions – Wikipedia

The So It is a passenger ro-dero ship belonging to the Superflex 2000 class.

Like the other units of the class, it So It is a bidirectional ferry, equipped with bow and symmetrical stern. One of the salient characteristics of the project is the lack of a real machine room: in original configuration the So And the twins were in fact equipped with ten cumminins diesel generators positioned in premises soundproofed on the main bridge ^{[2] [3]} , which provided power with four azimutal engines and the electrical power for on -board services. Later eight diesel-generators Cummins were replaced with four Iveco, bringing total power to 2,790 kW and the electric one generated at 2,734 kW ^[4] .

The Superflex class is in turn divided into two subclasses, the “type III” and “type IV”, characterized by a different configuration of the garage spaces. The “type IV”, of which the So It is part, in original configuration they could carry 16 trailer, 90 cars and 293 passengers ^[2] , while the “type III” had more space dedicated to trailers.

In the period owned by Bluvia, the access ramps to the Garage bridge were modified; Later, after the purchase by a Greek owner, the ship was subjected to further work on superstructures.

Eighth of a series of fifteen units, the ship was launched on April 14, 1988 at the Southwick shipyard with the name of Superflex Hotel . It was delivered to the owner company, the Danish Vr Shipping, in the following May, but the actual entry into service took place only in June 1990. In the following years the ship was rented to the Scarlett Lines and put in service between Copenhagen and Landskrona or Helsingborg (Sweden ), taking the name of Freja Scarlett . With the failure of the company in October 1993 the ship was stopped again, remaining disarmed until 1995, when it was sold together with the twin Superflex Golf To a Spanish navigation company, the Isnasa. Renamed Miguel Hernandez , was used for connections from Spain to Morocco and Tunisia. However, in 1998 ISNASA FALLì also and the ferry was disarmed in Algeciras. It remained there until 2003, when it was purchased, always together with the twin, by the Genoese company Enemar.

After being renovated in Genoa, he was put in service between Palau and La Maddalena in August 2004. However, only a year later, in September 2005, the ship was sold to Bluvia, together with the twin Racols , in exchange for the twin units Agata It is Pace ^[5] .

Intended on the route Villa San Giovanni – Messina, her use caused many controversies for the different accidents and failures that the ship made itself the protagonist and ended up navigating very little on the waters of the Strait of Messina. Renamed Mongibello , in memory of a historic unit of the State Railways in service from 1949 to 1993, in November 2008 he was stopped indefinitely by the Port Authority of Messina for serious inefficiencies. Therefore, it remained coactically stopped for years in conditions of abandonment at the quay adjacent to the railway reservations of the port of Messina, the ship is put on sale by Bluvia in September 2011 and purchased by Corfù Superflex II Ltd , companies having registered office in the Marshall Islands. Renamed So , was registered in the Cypriot compartment of Limassol. He left Messina to Greece for the necessary renovation works, as already happened for the twin Reggio , renamed Dull , on July 31, 2012, driven by the Greek tugboat Michal’s .

Once in Greece, the ship was subjected to renovation and entered service, in March 2014, between Corfu and Igounitsa. Already in May the So He changed his course, being rented to a Russian company and serving Crimea. In April 2015 the So He was rented to the Estonian Saaremaa Laevakompanii, entering service in June between Virsu and Kuivatsu. In 2016 the ship was rented to another Estonian company, which continued to use it on the same route. Afterwards, after the rental, the So He returned to connect Corfu and Igoumenitsa.

• Nikolaos (old Superflex alpha )
• Mercandia VIII (old Superflex Bravo )
• Besparmak (old Superflex Charlie )
• Gitte 3 (demolished in 2010, already Superflex Delta )
• Superflex Trader (old Superflex Echo )
• Pantokrator (old Superflex Foxtrot )
• Olympiada (old Reggio old Superflex Hotel )
• Rosmala (old Superflex India )
• Victorious-5 (old Superflex Juliet )
• ERSAI 4 (old Superflex kilos )
• Baia del Spirit Santo (old Superflex Lima )
• Labitra Karina (old Superflex Mike )
• Mercandia IV (old Superflex November )
• The shady sea 2 (demolished in 2012, already Superflex whiskey )