THE combination of poor weather and a broken bow thrust unit played havoc with sailings to and from the Isle of Man in December.
The Steam Packet Company was forced to cancel numerous sailings in the first half of the month - due in part to adverse weather conditions and in part to the Ben-my-Chree's broken bow thrust unit.
A number of local businesses were affected by the cancellations including Domino's Pizza, which had to shut up shop due to a lack of ingredients, Tesco, which cancelled home deliveries, and Ramsey Bakery which ran low on yeast.
The bow thrust unit broke in May of this year however plans to take the ship out of service to conduct the necessary repair work in June and September were cancelled when the manufacturer, Wartsilla, failed to deliver the new unit.
The Steam Packet Company said it had been "badly let down" by Wartsilla. Wartsilla apologised and said the delay had been caused by "lead time issues" and parts that needed recasting.
At the start of December the Steam Packet Company pleaded for patience and said the repair work would be carried out in April next year.
However around a week later the company announced that this had been brought forward as a result of "increased pressure" it had put on Wartsilla.
Mark Woodward, the chief executive of the Steam Packet Company, said: "We are suffering an unusually prolonged period of consistent gale and severe gale force winds at present. To make matters worse these winds have been from an unusual direction which makes berthing in Heysham more difficult.
"The lack of a second bow thrust, in conjunction with these other factors, has contributed to the higher than usual level of cancellations we have been suffering.
"However given the severity of the weather it is clear that we would have lost some, but not all, of the sailings even if both bow thrust units had been functioning.
"We have been working as hard as we can to put pressure on the bow thrust manufacturer, Wartsila, since the early summer. We have made clear to them by every means possible the need to urgently repair, rebuild and re-deliver the replacement bow thrust."
The Ben-my-Chree went into dry dock at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead on December 17.
The Steam Packet Company was due to bring in a freight ship to cover the Ben-my-Chree while it was out of service but this plan fell through meaning the fast craft Manannan was brought into service to carry passengers and some freight.
Following repair work the Ben-my-Chree returned to normal service on December 20.
Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK met with the Steam Packet Company in December to discuss what he called the "exceptional situation" and said lessons had to be learnt going forward. For more on this click here.
This story is part of isleofman.com's Review of the Year 2011.
