Irish Ferries Fleet movements

Started by Collision-course, January 05, 2010, 02:52:47 PM

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ferryfan

Ulysses running a few hours behind schedule with further cancellations. All passengers for today's 14.10 ex Holyhead have been transferred onto Stena Adventurer at 14.00. Tomorrow's  (26th June)02.40 from Holyhead also cancelled with passengers transferred to Stena at 02.30 and the 008.05 ex Dublin also cancelled with passengers transferred onto the Swift.
The phrase "almighty cock-up" seems to suit the terrible decisions made by the management of Irish Ferries this year.

Ulysses17

According to Irish ferries freight website all Ulysses sailings are cancelled until further notice, and epsilon will move schedules to cover Ulysses from Saturday until the Ulysses returns from dry dock. Yet passenger website still shows as on Time?

ferryfan

Quote from: Ulysses17 on June 26, 2018, 03:23:40 PM
According to Irish ferries freight website all Ulysses sailings are cancelled until further notice, and epsilon will move schedules to cover Ulysses from Saturday until the Ulysses returns from dry dock. Yet passenger website still shows as on Time?

She is on her way to Belfast for repairs. Epsilon is sticking to her own timetable but no Dublin-Cherbourg this weekend.
How to loose customers by the "boat load".

LongTimeReader

I think the fact it's appearing on RTE demonstrates how badly wrong this has gone for them. It's been a bad season of publicity for IF.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0626/973383-irish-ferries-cancels-ulysses-journeys-due-to-fault/

There's certainly going to be a lack of capacity on the Irish Sea it seems.

giftgrub

Not been a great year publicly for Irish Ferries, with hindsight they should have done this earlier in the year when the Stena Carrier was sitting idle in DL, they could have covered unaccompanied freight and used Epsilon, or brought Inishmore up and used Carrier for excess freight.

Stena RoRo were only a phone call way !

Would not be surprised to see Inishmore and Epsilon swap if this goes on longer than expected, with excess pax transfer to Stena.


Ulysses17

Quote from: giftgrub on June 26, 2018, 08:54:09 PM
Not been a great year publicly for Irish Ferries, with hindsight they should have done this earlier in the year when the Stena Carrier was sitting idle in DL, they could have covered unaccompanied freight and used Epsilon, or brought Inishmore up and used Carrier for excess freight.

Stena RoRo were only a phone call way !

Would not be surprised to see Inishmore and Epsilon swap if this goes on longer than expected, with excess pax transfer to Stena.

As far as I am aware there are issues with the Epsilon being able to berth in Pembrooke so a change over isn't possible.

Steven

ULYSSES is currently at anchor at Belfast Anchorage (off Bangor) and is expected to remain so until at least Thursday Morning.  She is not expected back in service until at least mid-next week.

https://www.niferry.co.uk/irish-ferries-ulysses-belfast-tonight/

To be honest it is not uncommon for ferries to be dry docked bi-annually.  Both Stena and Brittany Ferries have done so in the past without any major issues.  Irish Ferries have been caught out here, but there's no guarantee that this issue wouldn't have happened anyway had she been dry docked earlier in the year!  Still, on top of her well documented rudder issues earlier in the year it doesn't look good.  2018 hasn't been kind to Irish Ferries.
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline


ferryfan

#1193
Extra Swift sailings over the weekend, as expected, departing Dublin at 20:30 arriving back from Holyhead at 01:40 first sailing at this time on Friday. Also noted that no new bookings are being taken for some sailings on Dublin-Holyhead route, this quote from IF.

"Due to a technical issue with our cruise ferry Ulysses, some sailings on the Dublin to Holyhead route are currently not accepting new bookings. If you have an existing booking and wish to amend it, please call us. Passengers on affected Ulysses sailings are currently being contacted and offered an alternative sailing. Please be patient. We apologise for this inconvenience."

ferryfan

Epsilon has now taken over Ulysses roster with passengers affected by her cancellations being transferred onto Stena Superfast X.

Davy Jones

Have we heard what is actually wrong with Ulysses? I'm sure this must be more than rudder problems again - especially given her recent lack of speed.

Steven

#1196
Quote from: Davy Jones on June 29, 2018, 11:26:10 AM
Have we heard what is actually wrong with Ulysses? I'm sure this must be more than rudder problems again - especially given her recent lack of speed.
One of her propeller shafts needs replaced.  Not a quick job I'm afraid, so much so I personally wouldn't be surprised to see her back even later than currently expected.

https://www.niferry.co.uk/ulysses-dry-dock-friday/
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline

IFPete

I would not be surprised if this shaft has been in storage for such a rainy day event, its too critical an item not to have ready to go just like having a spare engine for an aircraft.

I too questioned IOI not coming to the rescue, however at this time of year passenger , coach and car loads are at Premium and the Swift is well suited to this especially with the weather break we are having. If this happened in spring or winter i believe a different decision would have been made.

ferryman972411

Any update on the progress? dry dock been drained or any work started?

Steven

Quote from: ferryman972411 on June 30, 2018, 12:16:52 PM
Any update on the progress? dry dock been drained or any work started?
Dry dock definitely drained.  No point bringing her in unless they are starting work - dry docking costs money.

Quote from: IFPete on June 30, 2018, 11:35:32 AM
I too questioned IOI not coming to the rescue, however at this time of year passenger , coach and car loads are at Premium and the Swift is well suited to this especially with the weather break we are having. If this happened in spring or winter i believe a different decision would have been made.
I wouldn't be surprised if she did should Ulysses be away longer than expected.  What that would mean for Rosslare is anyones guess.  They could certainly do with retaining Epsilons freight capacity at Dublin, but they are down 4000lm - thats two Inishmore's!  Those important (year-round) freight customers will only tolerate so much.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out which is the more important route - Holyhead has 3 vessels (carrying the best part of 7000lm of freight per trip) versus Pembroke's one!  Its a horrible situation for them, but it could be worse - it could have been mid-July or August.  Of course it doesn't help that they are already a ship down from what they envisioned.

Unfortunately its one of those things, and it could have happened regardless if Ulysses had been dry docked earlier in the year or not.
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

Flickr: www.flickr.com/tarbyonline