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Troubled Fast Craft - Company Issues Statement

Sun, 05 Apr 2015

The MD of the Steam Packet has described the problems with their fastcraft Manannan as 'substantial'.

The Company issued the follwoing statement a short time ago. (Sun 19:50)

 

STEAM PACKET COMPANY SAILINGS CANCELLED DUE TO MANANNAN DAMAGE AND THICK FOG
 
Due to ongoing issues with the Manannan’s water jet system following the incident reported on Wednesday 1st April, and the thick fog throughout the Irish Sea, both today’s 15.00 sailing to Liverpool and the return 19.15 sailing from Liverpool have been cancelled.
 
Passengers from the 15.00 sailing have been transferred to tonight's 19.45 sailing to Heysham. Those booked on the 19.15 sailing from Liverpool have been transferred to the 02.15 departure from Heysham on Monday 6th April.
 
Steam Packet Company Chief Executive, Mark Woodward, said: ‘We are disappointed to have had to cancel these sailings, but the safety of our passengers is always our priority. The manoeuvrability of the vessel has been affected by the damaged trim tab and, combined with current visibility issues, the Master does not consider it safe to proceed with these sailings.
 
‘Our engineers will be working through the night once again so that Manannan should be able to operate her normal schedule on Monday 6th April. The damage to Manannan is substantial and this is why it is taking longer than first estimated to fix. Diving teams are having to carry out heavy engineering repairs in an underwater environment and progress has been difficult.
 
‘We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and we will release further updates as information becomes available.’
 
ENDS

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