Maritime News Thread

Tim the Enchanter wrote: »

Just spotted this over on the Military forum. The only floating dry dock capable of use for repairs on the Russian fleets large ships and submarines sinks.



https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...pyard-accident

UK holidaymakers are delaying booking Channel crossings for next summer amid concerns about the consequences of Brexit, Brittany Ferries has said.

Forward bookings were down between 4% and 5% from some of its regular customers, the company said.

Nigel Wonnacott from Brittany Ferries said people were worried about the impact on areas such as pet travel, health insurance and driving licences.

The decline was "raising the red flag", he told BBC 5 live's Wake Up to Money.

Falls in forward bookings was affecting Brittany Ferries' cashflow, Mr Wonnacott said, and raised concerns about whether it would be able to fill its 10 ferries.

It will take delivery next year of a new vessel for the Portsmouth to Caen route, which accounts for about 30% of its traffic, that has capacity for up to 1,700 passengers.

Christophe Mathieu, the company's chief executive, said: "Two more ships will follow as part of our €450m investment in the future. But we need to make sure we have passengers and freight to fill these new ships."

"We know that uncertainty and instability in the UK will have consequences on both sides of the channel," he said. "A poor [Brexit] deal, or perhaps no deal at all, could impact Brittany, Normandy and the Loire."

Brittany Ferries was founded by Breton farmers in 1972. It operates services between the UK and Ireland to France and Spain, with Britons visiting France and northern Spain accounting for 85% of passengers.

The company reported a 2% rise in passengers to almost 1.1 million for the three months to September compared with the same period last summer.

Some holidaymakers have told the BBC that concerns over Brexit are affecting their plans.

Graeme Murphy said: "We normally have the following year's travel and accommodation booked by now as we are independent travellers, but are waiting to see what visas, travel permits etc we will need as we are afraid that we may not have the necessary documentation in time to travel. Seems that our annual holiday to Lindos, Rhodes is not going to happen in 2019."

Mervyn Hill said: "We're not booking a holiday until the situation becomes absolutely clear... we need specific insurance cover for existing health issues, but we suspect the risk of a no-deal Brexit will have a significant detrimental effect on insurance premiums."

Other transport operators have not reported a similar decline in forward bookings, however.

A spokesperson for Eurotunnel, which operates Le Shuttle services between Folkestone and Calais, said "bookings are strong going forward".

On November 14, a crewmember from the container ship Francop was struck and killed at Southbank Quay, Dublin while container lifting operations were underway.

The crewmember, identified as Philippine national Dennis Gomez Regana, was working on lashing and securing cargo Wednesday morning when a container fell on top of him. Emergency services arrived at the scene at about 0845 hours, but were unable to revive him.

Ireland's Health and Safety Authority and the Gardai have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.

After the casualty, dockers' unions renewed calls for lashing work to be reserved for longshoremen. "Working in the docklands is a dangerous work environment. The activity that the poor man was involved in was unregulated," said SIPTU union organizer Jerry Brennan in a statement. “The seafarers have already put in their day's work so whenever they come into port they should be resting and not dealing with containers. Lashing and securing should be done by dock workers who are familiar with the crane driver."

In a statement, the International Transport Workers Federation expressed its condolences for Regana's family, and it concurred with SIPTU. "Lashing is dockers' work, full stop," said ITF maritime coordinator Jacqueline Smith. "We have to put an end to unscrupulous shipowners and port operators putting pressure on seafarers to do lashing and securing. I hope they take notice of this tragedy today and change their ways."