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Ferry broken down and no fix until after holidays!


Dunroamin

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You couldn't make it up! The biggest problem is going to be getting the Arrow back. I thought the Arrow has been sub chartered. Is going to be a fun time, can't see any deliveries either food or anything else for a while. The Ben will be lucky if it's fixed by second week of January.

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You couldn't make it up! The biggest problem is going to be getting the Arrow back. I thought the Arrow has been sub chartered. Is going to be a fun time, can't see any deliveries either food or anything else for a while. The Ben will be lucky if it's fixed by second week of January.

Arrow is not on charter anywhere, it's in dock in Liverpool near to Manannan, the earliest they could move if they were ready is the afternoon tide after about 2pm, but I guess they have to get crew in the right place and other checks apart from any work which was going on for its winter overhaul. Maybe Arrow will the ready first ?

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In my shipping days you could roughly say that at fifteen years a ship was on its way out...Then you had extra insurance premiums commencing at fifteen years...The Ben is said by some to be good up until twenty five years....I have my doubts....

 

I was surprised to see two cross channel ferries re-metalled and re-engined at 25 years but they may well have been built to higher class and replacement costs are a factor as is time....

 

I still reckon that if you work on fifteen years and no more than twenty before replacing or disposing of a ship then you can't go far wrong but at fifteen years plus the Ben is starting to get equivalent health problems that we all get...aches, pains, joints, knees, back, creaks, groans, moans...

 

Many ships for decades now have to be built with a production line in mind. ie a simplistic standard utilitarian design that can be tailored to some extent and parts and work sub-contracted and assembled on site.. They are thus a bit limited. You get what you pay for..

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I see on line that MV Arrow apparently takes 88 trailers and just twelve passengers?

 

Hey! Even more fun if the Ben cannot be fixed in Douglas and has to be towed away!

 

Even more fun if the weather confines the fast craft and no RoPax can be chartered because its hard to find them small enough to get into Douglas harbour and the Ben is out of commission for two weeks or more!

 

Maybe another Irish Sea line has a small enough ferry and can call in for a temporary service...Or one that does the Highlands and Islands in Scotland....sort of evacuation....?

 

Is there any moral or other obligation I wonder to charter aircraft and get at least some people off the rock?

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Your modern ship can be a bit like car...All sealed...automatic...run from the bridge like an aircraft flight deck...Needs a computer to operate it at all and to diagnose the fault a man with a computer...But considering its age and use the Ben has held up very well for a single ship mickey mouse coasting outfit with no real spare capacity and a market not big enough to support very much investment in the first place.

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With all the advancements in technology, you'd think things would have improved yet we now have less ships, less reliability, less routes, and higher prices. Bring back the wooden ships with sails and the steam engine ships wihch would sail in any weather and could be repaired by people here on the Isle of Man.

 

 

 

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