Arrival of the Julia

parsi

The Julia (Cork - Swansea) arrived into Ringaskiddy this morning.

There are some photos on my blog

bladebrew

why the hell is the flag upside down??

google tells me that flying a flag upside down indicates a ship in distress:eek:

although it dosent appear to be in use anymore nowadays,bit strange though

dewdrop

I see on return trip at mouth of harbour one of the engines had to be closed down. I hope our west cork friends have not been sold a pup!

rotinaj

tut tut

http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/rugby-fans-stranded-by-further-ferry-glitches-114424.html

colblimp

Reading that article highlights just how amateurish and shoddy the new ferry company is. Those problems just aren't acceptable, and when you consider how long the ship was moored in the City Centre, it becomes laughable. What were the workers doing for the months she was moored there, having a holiday?!

I was going to make a crossing to Swansea and return in the next couple of months, but after these problems, I won't be going near the damn ferry!

Nukem

I know of a person who went for an interview for the position of chief engineer and didn't get it. Guy has 20 years experience in ferrys, and high seas transport. Turns out the position went to someone who was known to be related (or something) to a member of the management, and was not nearly as qualified. Heard similar rumors also from other people - unsure what to make of this though?

colblimp

Nukem wrote: »

I know of a person who went for an interview for the position of chief engineer and didn't get it. Guy has 20 years experience in ferrys, and high seas transport. Turns out the position went to someone who was known to be related (or something) to a member of the management, and was not nearly as qualified. Heard similar rumors also from other people - unsure what to make of this though?

To me, what you've just posted sums up the company and the company's un-professionalism. In fact, I'm gobsmacked the company would turn down your highly experienced friend for a relative/friend - unbelievable!

54kroc

It's a bit of a joke alright,I've heard a few stories but just thought they were bull,I guess not.

bladebrew

its a pity it is happening though, from these incidents you couldnt really trust it,id say it will make a dent in sales,
although in fairness to them the bow doors not closing is a fairly serious problem,it caused the sinking of the estonia and the herald of free enterprise,

Innisfallen

Here's what I know. I was onboard while she was in Cork, here engines were overhauled (and the car deck was being used as a work shop). When a ships engines have work done on them they have to be "broken in" so, she is going to have to run at reduced speed.
Also, Swansea is tidal (the berth, and access to it is on bed rock, so can not be dredged), only way around it is move to Port Talbolt (as was proposed in the early 1990s) or blow a deeper channel with TNT (as was done in St. Malo). I have been stuck in Roscoff many a night due to missing the tide.

All operators experience difficulties, a few years back the Stena Europe lost power and drifted close to Tuscar Rock, Stena Explorer colliding with the pier in Dun Laoghaire and the recent fire on the Oscar Wilde...and how many people have been struck with "technical difficulties" with flights, it happens!

The licencing issue has struck more than the Julia, Oscar Wilde narrowly avoided her maiden voyage being cancelled also, it comes down to the size of text on signage, it is specific and head wrecking...

The critics said the route was dead when the B&I closed it, Swansea Cork reopened it, didnt said one year, but kept going (and ended up being offered more money than their ship was worth). Fastnet are back now, the ship is owned by the local community, and people are still moaning...

colblimp

Innisfallen wrote: »

Fastnet are back now, the ship is owned by the local community, and people are still moaning...

Of course people are moaning, the service is crap! An engine failed to work on the way over to Swansea and the ferry left late on the way back due to a door problem, which caused a load of rugby fans to miss the big game. I don't call that a good service, do you?! :rolleyes:

Innisfallen

colblimp wrote: »

Of course people are moaning, the service is crap! An engine failed to work on the way over to Swansea and the ferry left late on the way back due to a door problem, which caused a load of rugby fans to miss the big game. I don't call that a good service, do you?! :rolleyes:

No, but back to my point about the Explorer, Europe, Oscar Wilde and countless flights. It happens when you travel...

These are teething problems, and it makes far more sense to deal with them now rather than in the summer when the ship (and the competitors in Rossare) are fully booked.

54kroc

Your spot on Innisfallen, Were all naysayers. We should be thankful it didn't sink on it's maiden voyage as well I suppose.

Innisfallen

cork45 wrote: »

Your spot on Innisfallen, Were all naysayers. We should be thankful it didn't sink on it's maiden voyage as well I suppose.

That is not what I am saying, what I am saying is the ship is owned by the people of Cork, Kerry....the local community. Not a bunch of Sweedish business men, or Irish sell outs... What happened to supporting your own when there down?

Fastnet are offering alternative sailings, and a complementary crossing (when Brittany Ferries cancelled the Pont Aven a few years back it was "land bridge" or refund), there doing their best with very little, cut them some slack...

colblimp

Innisfallen wrote: »

That is not what I am saying, what I am saying is the ship is owned by the people of Cork, Kerry....the local community. Not a bunch of Sweedish business men, or Irish sell outs... What happened to supporting your own when there down?

Fastnet are offering alternative sailings, and a complementary crossing (when Brittany Ferries cancelled the Pont Aven a few years back it was "land bridge" or refund), there doing their best with very little, cut them some slack...

Why should we 'cut them some slack'? They're supposedly providing a professional service, whereby people pay money to use that service. If the company cannot cope with criticism, then it should just pack up and go home. To say we should cut the company some slack is just not good enough, I'm afraid!

54kroc

Innisfallen wrote: »

That is not what I am saying,

Yes you are.

cut them some slack...

Why should we?

parsi

Nukem wrote: »

I know of a person who went for an interview for the position of chief engineer and didn't get it. Guy has 20 years experience in ferrys, and high seas transport. Turns out the position went to someone who was known to be related (or something) to a member of the management, and was not nearly as qualified. Heard similar rumors also from other people - unsure what to make of this though?

Rumours are always true..

I think they should have painted their name on the ship for advertising puposes.

Guess what though - **** happens. It's a new company not an established one with a new route. It's a company that scrabbled long and hard to get the funds to launch the service - they didn't get the handouts that the current Golden Circle are getting and if they go bust then that will everyone's money down the drain.

Brittany ferries started off as a farmers co-op and went very large but yet the Pont-Aven flooded shortly after going into service with major disruption. Only for the State (and Aer Rianta) Ryanair would have gone bust.

Now if we're having the same conversation on 6 months time then it will be an exceedingly serious issue.

mik_da_man

not good news.
i've a trip booked for april. they better get these issues sorted soon.

nomoss

Nukem wrote: »

I know of a person who went for an interview for the position of chief engineer and didn't get it. Guy has 20 years experience in ferrys, and high seas transport. Turns out the position went to someone who was known to be related (or something) to a member of the management, and was not nearly as qualified. Heard similar rumors also from other people - unsure what to make of this though?

Don't believe this for one second. You're either qualified to serve as Chief Engineer on a ropax vessel or you're not. If you don't understand a subject, don't comment.

bikebits

"cutting slack", come on, full fare charged , advertised full service, first sailing cancelled, gave them benefit, re booked for thursday night out of cork, arrived in swansea 6 hours late, back on friday night ferry arrived in cork 6 hours late, would i have been on the ferry if i knew there was issues? absolutly not, a lot of the facilities on board were not runnng as advertised, Shop was limited, no onboard entertainment, cimema, casino etc, Beamish 4.55 a pint. Sorry can't find the charity in me after paying full fare and lost 12 hours out of 48 and spent them bobin around the Irish sea. WTF did they not turn back Thursday night when they knew the ship was f**cked?

murphym7

nomoss wrote: »

Don't believe this for one second. You're either qualified to serve as Chief Engineer on a ropax vessel or you're not. If you don't understand a subject, don't comment.

Totally agree - I spent the first years of my working life on Merchant ships. If you don't have the ticket (qualifications)you can not legally work on a ship. Maybe Nukem meant that they did not have the same experience.

Either way its only a 3rd hand story and would not believe a lot of jipped job seekers anyway.

Back on topic though - I am not impressed with the state of the ship. It seems there was plenty of time to sort out any glitches before the first sailing. I do hope this is the last of the glitches - if they continue the ferry is finished before it begins. I would imagine that the budget for this venture included very little fat and they would depend on good sales for this season.

I do wish Fasnet the very best of luck though.

Nukem

murphym7 wrote: »

Totally agree - I spent the first years of my working life on Merchant ships. If you don't have the ticket (qualifications)you can not legally work on a ship. Maybe Nukem meant that they did not have the same experience.

Perhaps - but I think the guy would have known if he needed a ropax ticket for the job or not before applying.Would have made applying kinda redundant if he knew he was missing a vital piece of training? Unsure though, so not going to comment further.

I was not throwing stones, I am delighted that some people in Ireland took some initiative and took it upon themselves to fund it and manage the service. I hope to use this in the future by the way, but these are some incredible rumors and may be true or they may not be, but it is evident that there is some serious teething problems.

nomoss wrote: »

Don't believe this for one second. You're either qualified to serve as Chief Engineer on a ropax vessel or you're not. If you don't understand a subject, don't comment.

Cracking first post..................welcome to boards by the way! Also please note my last line " unsure what to make of this though?"

The Aussie

I will be willing to give them a go, but they should have aimed for St Patricks Day instead of St Davids Day (1st March) and used the 2 weeks for propper sea trials, to iron out the bugs a bit more, the Brand/image has been damaged by this carry on.

nomoss

OK, Nukem. Apologies. Just read what I wrote again. Comes over a bit strong. I live in Cork and want this venture to succeed. For all the trumpeting about "People's Ferry", it is a commercial venture. If they don't choose the best people for key positions, it will fail. I've no doubt that Fastnet is ruled by bean counters (like most companies) who will have a clear understanding of recruitment needs. Julia is an old ship which just spent a few years in the Baltic. I have previous experience of taking over an ex Baltic (Stena) ship. It will take a long time to bring it back to top condition. good luck to them. I hope to use the Julia for my summer holidays.

bikebits

anyone know how the last two sailings went?
back on this ferry again in next few weeks. would hope that there earlier issues are sorted after initial attempts.

rotinaj

bikebits wrote: »

anyone know how the last two sailings went?
back on this ferry again in next few weeks. would hope that there earlier issues are sorted after initial attempts.

Went off without a hitch

bikebits

that's great news, route back in action again

Jesus Christ

Typical Cork begrudgery. It's the ones that booked on the first sailing and bitch about the critical nature of their journey that make me laugh the most; who books onto a maiden sailing for an important trip ffs? On the engineering front, ye do realise it's not a bloody Fiat 127 they're working on, right?

The only valid complaint about the service as it stands is price. I'm looking forward to travelling with them when the price comes down a bit. If it doesn't, I won't, simple as.

bikebits

Jesus Christ wrote: »

Typical Cork begrudgery. It's the ones that booked on the first sailing and bitch about the critical nature of their journey that make me laugh.

To be fair to those that ended up on the first sailing, it was through circumstance rather than planned, as the maiden voyage of the julia ended up two weeks later than planned so you may not have ben able to cancel as under the terms and conditions "sailing on the maiden voyage" was not a condition of cancellation.

One way or the other i'll be supporting this venture as much as possible as long as there's a reasonable level of service. Don't mind an hour or two of a delay, but not a whole day as you loose the purpose of your journey especially in the case of short breaks which the ferry is advertising.

They have a specific market which supports the ferry we can only hope that Fastetline can support that market otherwise we will be back where we were in 2007 - 2009 i.e. without a ferry out of cork.

I do think that fastnet ferries should be publishing that they are now runnning on schedule and that they have resovled much of the problems of last week-end, good news is always good to hear.
Maybe not all the issues are resolved on board but is good news that the ferry is running on schedule, it is after all "the peoples ferry" and i think the "cork begrudgery" really does want the ferry to succeed but people don't like being p*ssed off and furstrated as they were on the first few sailings due to expectations that were set by the ferry company in what they could provide and what was provided.

vector

Fastnet line pulled their Twitter account and Facebook at the very time they were needed, they used to have updates of what was happening.

On a seperate topic, does anyone know whether is is the MV Julia or MS Julia, they just use Julia on their site.

Jesus Christ

I'm pretty sure I've seen references to MV on their site, but don't hold me to it. There's databases of ship registrations on the web, if it's important.

murphym7

Its MS Julia according to Wikipeda. Its all the one though MS is the same as MV. MV is more widely used though.

thierrys other hand

Innisfallen wrote: »

That is not what I am saying, what I am saying is the ship is owned by the people of Cork, Kerry....the local community. Not a bunch of Sweedish business men, or Irish sell outs... What happened to supporting your own when there down?.

Ripping people off with "compulsary accomadation" and having no genuinely useful special offers doesn't seem to be "supporting your own" or the 100's of people who really wanted this ferry to succeed.

I wish them every success but it would be nice not to feel like we are being ripped off. When the prices come down i'll be travelling regularly.

CorkMan

Not again! it was in Cork harbour for almost half a year. Everytime I walked up horgans quay it was like there was an eclipse.

ABajaninCork

Oh dear - I'm sorry to read that all might not be well with the new ferry...

I could've done with a nice little Swansea-Cork crossing when I moved, instead of the horrendous journey I had. But that's another story!

I did subscribe to the website's newsletter and have been keeping an eye on events, but this is the first time I've heard of problems. I just hope they're of the teething kind.

I desparately want this venture to succeed, as it shows just what can be done if the will is there. I feel it's good for both economies. I do agree the crossing prices seem a little steep, and think it might've been an idea to introduce lower fares in the beginning to build the customer base. However, just for the convenience of it, I'd be prepared to pay the extra.

Just my tuppence worth!