John Wright

The UK didn’t have to do anything. What it did was entirely out of self interest due to close interconnectedness of the two economies. £3.5bn out of €120bn+ and all repaid.

The steam packet have acknowledged the judder, and had engineers on board. They’ve also acknowledged that the batteries need replacing. They’ve not acknowledged the fuel consumption. As for the IMO certification, what I posted was correct at the time. She’s had 4 temporary certificates so far, each with different, and increasing limitations. The latest two, one from IoM and the other from England have different limitations. At the time I raised it SPCo hadn’t acknowledged publicly. Eventually they did, and it was raised in Tynwald. They then fudged acknowledging. By then it was on its most recent certificates, and things weren’t as bad, speed wise. I suspect the questions in Tynwald were prompted by someone reading here.

MX is currently burning about 40% more than Ben. See my post above. That’s as limited at 17knts, due to the resonance. Im reliably advised that the excess fuel consumption wasn’t anticipated and is, as yet, unexplained. You’ll notice that SPCo are remarkably silent and don’t issue mythbusters when they’re trying to be opaque. If fuel is £800/tonne that’s 3.4 million extra litres ( 3,400 extra tonnes ) and £2.4 million extra cost.

We had huge over capacity, all year round, before. As I pointed out, the side loaders carried about 1400 passengers each. The sisters were certificated with capacity of 2200. And the three 1930’s super ferries/mini liners, Ben, Lady and Queen were 2500-2700. And don’t think that mothballing is without expense. Each laid up boat was crewed and a boiler fired for heat and light. 8 boats for 6 months a year. Of course there’s another difference. MX carries our freight 24/7/365. Those old boats, pre 1978 didn’t. We had two freight carriers. The size difference over Ben shouldn’t make much difference in fuel consumption. And it’s covered by freight. Quite what the reason for the excess fuel consumption is hasn’t been resolved. It’s way above forecast/target. Whilst MX is mainly self limiting to 17knts, because of the resonance, I’m told that each day sees about 30 tonnes of fuel used. Ben is about 21.5 tonnes. They should have been broadly the same. If resonance is cured and higher speed allowed the 30 tonne figure will increase.

It’s not a history lesson. It’s totally on point. We’ve always had excess capacity. Just that we now deal with it differently

And by using her power reserves she did the crossing in 3hours 3 minutes. Berthed in Heysham at 12.33

But that’s the problem with somewhere with wildly varying seasonal passenger capacity demands. You know, in the good old days, we had a SPCo with 10 passenger boats. 2 of them were used all year round. For 5 months they each did one single ( not return ) crossing 6 days a week. MX does 4 singles a day. Another couple were brought out at Easter and mothballed, with crew, from end September. The rest came out mid May. And whilst they covered Fleetwood, Llandudno, Ardrossan, Belfast, Dublin, sometimes Barrow and Whitehaven, they only really got used fully for TT and GP and Scottish, Lancashire and Yorkshire wakes week change over weekends, in June, July, August. That wasn’t economic. 80% of your fleet mothballed for 6 months a year, all with onboard crew. As half the income is freight, and that’s spread evenly over the year, it makes sense to have passenger over capacity most of the year. I went on many winter sailings on the Ben, Queen, Lady and Maid in the 70’s, to and from uni, where there’d be 20 or 30 passengers max and a dozen cars and 20 white vans and drivers. And their passenger capacity was 1400 passengers, that’s 500 more than Manxman. Was just checking. Manx Maid and the other 3 side loaders drew 5.5metres. And Manxman? 5.2metres.

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/new-bishop-of-sodor-and-man-announced/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2enmuaWrJ6KCZQggCCj67ANCTHWZWj38nqkOqti2uNmAk5d955f4eNLv4_aem_AXpM6VVK-luoM7staapQJ9uCUMCmOYvf-XrD_vWiatSehS_dO7JwnG3JllNABHq2PHIsjcYwe95ewrFrkHyo0N6O

That was the Ben. You’re very confused. There’s no suggestion Manxman will need extra ballast. It’s not oversized, ffs. Likewise, no suggestion SPCo wanted two smaller boats. The User Agreement specifies a RoPax conventional ferry and a fast craft, and Ben as reserve. I suspect they may want two conventional ferries and a freighter as reserve. There’s been extensive dredging at Heysham in the last couple of weeks. She just left port.

You haven’t voted!

I’ve been travelling 60+ years. I’ve experienced delays, cancellations, 12 hour journeys from Peel, 6 hour journeys to nowhere when the Lady has had to turn back, groundings. Sure this boat had a poor start with extreme weather/tide combinations, in November/December. She’s been sailing well since then. I’m due my 12th single crossing in one weeks time. Ive had one cancellation and one retiming. Using a wheelchair it’s now easy to get from car deck to passenger accommodation and I can now move between decks at sea. I’m prepared to give it time. It’s all well and good suggesting Liverpool. Rather defeats the concept and advantages of a freight/passenger vessel to go to somewhere that can’t handle freight. Pretty sure both Heysham and Douglas can be dredged deeper. The work in Douglas is nearing completion.

She was useable, but very bouncy. Also added extra passenger capacity from 450 to 600.

Would help if you got your facts correct. The coach broke down on the linkspan blocking all other vehicle loading. They tried to move the coach using the tugmasters. No luck. So they moved Manxman to the other linkspan berth, loaded, set off late, without the coach. Now using spare speed capacity to catch up schedule. Again, I repeat, this isn’t chaos because of Manxman. These things happen. No MHK’s ( idiot, alpha or male ) were involved in speccing Manxman. It was the board and their naval architects. There was, however, a public consultation. The public wanted lifts ( that worked at sea ), more cabins, more pet friendly accommodation. The steam packet needed more capacity to deal with the seasonal peaks.

What is chaotic at the moment? Who do you say has perpetrated what? As headline fares are strictly regulated and SPCo has to offer a substantial number of steeply discounted fares how do you come to this conclusion? What has any of this to do with MHK’s, even if your wrong assumptions/wild unsubstantiated allegations are true?

Except they still have to deal with the battery issue, and no mention of the excessive fuel consumption, and the judder still requires resolving. Im sure the first and third can be resolved by taking out of service. For several weeks, even if they can get it done in Europe. The second has long term fare cost implications.

He was managed out. This is the hangover result.

1. He was self representing throughout. 2. An inordinate amount of management and HR time was spent over a decade dealing with complaints, under performance, disputes with fellow workers. Source is the original decision in 2022 and the current May 2024 decision.

Think someone posted, months ago, that one of the two banks of batteries, for use for low emissions, whilst manoeuvring in port, had failed, that the manufacturer had stopped producing maritime batteries, and this was a problem. The batteries were supposed to give 3 hours but only give one. Was mid December it was posted.

You’re making an assumption that it’s a government vehicle. I’m pretty sure the governor owns his own car and has an allowance out of which to fund its purchase, maintenance, tax, insurance.

So there are 400 on payment plans? Out of how many thousands of customer accounts? It will hardly dent their income or their profitability. The CURA pricing formula is based on a fixed return on capital employed. To arrive at the unit price and the fixed charge CURA looks at demand, price changes, market conditions, projected wholesale gas pricing, how much MG exceeded or undershot their allowable profit in the last period. There are two types of payment plan by the look of it. Type one is a monthly sum that covers current consumption and arrears. Type two is arrears only as they’re cut off. The split isn’t given. At least being on a payment plan ex customers are paying off their unpaid bills, so they shouldn’t be accounted for as bad debts.

It’s pretty clear. SPCo had anticipated being off the landing stage in April. For whatever reason they aren’t. New operators, in anticipation of the SPCo not using it agreed someone else could use it. SPCo will be on a day by day or week by week extension.

Includes offal, brain, all sorts FOOD AND DRUGS COMPOSITION AND LABELLING The Sausage and Other Meat Product Regulations 1967

No it happened between 2019 and 2023, not in 2019.

The definition of meat in a sausage includes the fat and gristle. It’s the rusk or crumbs that have been increased.

‘Twas ever thus. Reduce size or content/quality of ingredients. Keep price same. This can happen several times. Then relaunch, new bigger size, with a price hike. My great grandparents had a bakery. My grandmother had multiple sets of cake and bread tins in graduated sizes. She told me that’s what they did. Its why meaningful price comparison per standard unit is essential.