Point-class sealift ship

The Point class is a group of six roll-on/roll-off sealift ships ordered for the British Ministry of Defence under a Private Finance Initiative, a 25-year contract signed in October 2000 with AWSR Shipping, later Foreland Shipping, which owns and crews them and runs them as merchant vessels when the armed forces do not need them. Houlder designed the ships after the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, on the Flensburger Ro-Ro 2700 pattern. Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft built four, while Harland and Wolff at Belfast built Hartland Point, delivered in December 2002, and Anvil Point, delivered in March 2003, the last complete ship the Belfast yard has built. Each is 193 metres long, carries about 13,000 tonnes of cargo over three vehicle decks and is driven by two MaK diesel engines. Beachy Head and Longstone were released from the contract after 2010, leaving four in military charter.