Manannan’s final sailing of the 2014 summer season will be her Liverpool service on Sunday, November 2nd, marking the start of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company’s winter schedule.

The winter schedule will see Ben-my-Chree operate two Heysham services per day from Monday to Friday, with Saturdays and Sundays seeing her carry out one Heysham and one Liverpool (Birkenhead) sailing on each day, as she has done in recent years.

Ben-my-Chree will operate throughout the winter on this schedule, and she also has two return services to Dublin planned for Christmas, sailing to the Irish capital on the evenings of December 20th and December 27th, returning to Douglas overnight in both instances.

Manannan will return to service on Thursday, March 26th for the 2015 summer season.

Steam Packet Company Chief Executive Mark Woodward said: ‘Following the technical difficulties suffered by Manannan this summer, the repairs were completed in late September and she has been performing well since then.

‘Despite having to reschedule sailings, 2014 has been a successful year in terms of passenger numbers and having opened our 2015 bookings on October 1st, early figures are very encouraging, suggesting we are on course for another successful year for passenger numbers.’

While she is in dry dock during the winter, Manannan will undergo her regular annual maintenance and overhaul.

The Ben’s next statutory dry docking for her biennial overhaul is not until April 2016.

For full details of the Steam Packet Company’s winter schedule, visit www.steam-packet.com.