The HSC ''Olympic Champion Jet '', built as ''Highspeed 5'', later ''Highspeed 7'', for

Hellenic Seaways Hellenic Seaways is a Greece-based ferry company founded in 1984. Hellenic Seaways is a subsidiary of Attica Group along with Blue Star Ferries and Superfast Ferries. History ''Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises'' owned by the Livanos fam ...

, is an 85m high speed

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

owned by

Minoan Lines Minoan Lines is one of the largest passenger ferry companies in Europe, and one of the dominant passenger ferry companies in Greece, sailing between Piraeus and Crete and, in the Adriatic Sea, between Patras and various Italian ports. The compan ...

. In January 2024 she was chartered to

Seajets Seajets is a Greek/ Cypriot ferry company founded in 1989 by Marios Iliopoulos and his father Panagiotis. Seajets operates a fleet of passenger, freight ferry and cruiseferry services in the Aegean Sea. Seajets is one of Greece's leading ferry co ...

. It has been renamed Olympic Champion Jet.

History

The vessel was launched on 20 March 2005 as ''Highspeed 5'' by

Austal Austal Limited is an Australian-based global ship building company and defence prime contractor that specialises in the design, construction and support of defence and commercial vessels. Austal's product range includes naval vessels, High-spee ...

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname * Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada *H ...

, Australia and completed later that year for the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

ferry operator

. She entered service with Hellenic Seaways in July, initially sailing between

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

and the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

, and subsequently between

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

and central

Fire incident

On 23 March 2015, while ''Highspeed 5'' was docked at

Drapetsona Drapetsona () is a coastal town, a suburb and a former municipality in the southwestern part of the Piraeus (regional unit), Piraeus regional unit in the Athens Urban Area. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kera ...

for modification works and inspections, a fire broke out on board that resulted in the death of the chief electrician and the destruction of her

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

and upper decks. In September 2015, the vessel was towed to

Fincantieri Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...

shipyards in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

, where she underwent extensive repairs. During them, the upper car deck was substituted with a passenger lounge, increasing her capacity to 1160 passengers. After being repaired, she was renamed ''Highspeed 7'' and resumed her

service in mid June 2016.

Continued service

In early summer 2018, ''Highspeed 7'' was transferred to

as part of the arrangements in the sale of Minoan's stake in

Attica Group Attica Holdings S.A. is an operator of international ferry services in Europe. Attica Group's operations include its subsidiaries Superfast Ferries, which began in 1995 with the launch of its first ships, Superfast I & Superfast II, and Blu ...

. She was renamed ''Santorini Palace'' and painted in Minoan's colors on June 13. It was reported in January 2024 that the ferry has been taken on charter by

on their Heraklion – Santorini – Naxos – Mykonos – Syros – Piraeus route.

References

External links

Austal Ships - Auto Express 85 - ''Highspeed 5'' specifications''Santorini Palace'' at Minoan Lines Website

Gallery

File:Paros Hellenic Seaways Highspeed 5 07.jpg, ''Highspeed 5'' during a docking maneuver at

Paros Paros (; ; ) is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (island), Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Co ...

. File:Paros Hellenic Seaways Highspeed 5 09.jpg, ''Highspeed 5'' at

in 2009. File:HSWHighSpeed5.jpg, ''Highspeed 5'' in older colors at

Ios Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. File:Highspeed5 Piraeus 20110706.jpg, ''Highspeed 5'' at

. File:Highspeed 7 - HSW - Heraklion - Portside.jpg, ''Highspeed 7'' at

. File:Highspeed 7 - HSW - Santorini - Portside.jpg, ''Highspeed 7'' at

Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...

. File:SP EX HS7.jpg, ''Highspeed 7'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Santorini Palace Ships built by Austal Ships of Minoan Lines Individual catamarans 2005 ships