Steam Packet Warns Of Disruption To Sailings

[Banker]

1 hour ago, Frances said:

the train is also timetabled to serve Morecambe + Bare Lane - certainly on Friday the 12:42 departed on time and was announced as serving Heysham (3 of us in the Lounge shared a prebooked taxi )- on the Ben I would always prebook a taxi and sometimes if the Ben was fast and looked in to get in early I'd would phone in a change - the taxi allowed me to guarantee getting on the 13:39 to London whereas the Heysham train would normally wait for this train to depart) - don't forget that people will have booked on trains to Lancaster to connect with this train - the short nature of these changes is the Killer - I was informed at 5.30pm on Weds that the 8.45 on Thursday was cancelled on a false claim it was the weather whereas it was the desire to clear freight including an unusual large lorry with  very large attached trailer carefully backed up the ramp.

Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to get plane to Liverpool or Manchester & train down as well as massive savings in time?

[Frances]

I've been doing a regular commute since 2009 using the boat and sail-rail - in summer I can use the fast craft + Liverpool in the winter the Ben - apart from very few days in these 14 years the boat has been great reliable and considerably cheaper than air as initially I needed flexibilty to get back for a close friend if his condition needed it - it's just that the new boat is for several reasons unsuited to the winter crossing - I hear from the usual grapevine that many of the problems now being experienced were foreseen by experienced staff but the decision on a boat twice the weight etc went ahead - Liverpool may also turn out to be a mess esp for foot passengers if the bridge to the riverside road is not built as then becomes a considerable slog to get to Lime st

[monasqueen]

14 hours ago, Frances said:

 the short nature of these changes is the Killer 

The lack of any information is not at all helpful.

Today, for example, the overnight sailing from Heysham to Douglas left at 02.00, and arrived at 06.36. No apparent excuse for it to take over 4 1/2 hours.

The 08.00 departure from Douglas was still loading at 08.50, and her ramp was just starting to go up at 08.56. She does not seem likely to get to Heysham in time for the train. Will they tell anyone?

[2112]

17 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

The lack of any information is not at all helpful.

Today, for example, the overnight sailing from Heysham to Douglas left at 02.00, and arrived at 06.36. No apparent excuse for it to take over 4 1/2 hours.

The 08.00 departure from Douglas was still loading at 08.50, and her ramp was just starting to go up at 08.56. She does not seem likely to get to Heysham in time for the train. Will they tell anyone?

The sailing time on the Ben to Heysham was usually in the region of 3 and a half hours, whilst the Manxman sailing time is longer at a minimum of 3 hours and 45 minutes. 
 

Im sure the Mythbusters will burst into action before Christmas. 

[monasqueen]

1 hour ago, 2112 said:

The sailing time on the Ben to Heysham was usually in the region of 3 and a half hours, whilst the Manxman sailing time is longer at a minimum of 3 hours and 45 minutes. 

I'm pretty sure that one of the "selling points" of Manxman was that she is faster than Ben

From The Steam Packet website, Ben "Service speed: 19 knots", Manxman "Service speed: 19.25 knots". Not a lot in it, but....

Manxman vibrates furiously at anything over 17 knots. Hence she cannot complete a crossing in much less that 4 hours.

Will/can anything be done???

[WTF]

11 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

I'm pretty sure that one of the "selling points" of Manxman was that she is faster than Ben

From The Steam Packet website, Ben "Service speed: 19 knots", Manxman "Service speed: 19.25 knots". Not a lot in it, but....

Manxman vibrates furiously at anything over 17 knots. Hence she cannot complete a crossing in much less that 4 hours.

Will/can anything be done???

its just teething problems

[GD4ELI]

7 minutes ago, WTF said:

its just teething problems

I'm 66, still having 'teething problems'.

[Mercenary]

29 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

I'm pretty sure that one of the "selling points" of Manxman was that she is faster than Ben

From The Steam Packet website, Ben "Service speed: 19 knots", Manxman "Service speed: 19.25 knots". Not a lot in it, but....

Manxman vibrates furiously at anything over 17 knots. Hence she cannot complete a crossing in much less that 4 hours.

Will/can anything be done???

Was it not picked up on sea trials or does it behave differently loaded up?

[monasqueen]

37 minutes ago, WTF said:

its just teething problems

Anyone know a good dentist?

 

[WTF]

25 minutes ago, monasqueen said:

Anyone know a good dentist?

 

not that fella on the front of the examiner this week that's for sure.

[WTF]

57 minutes ago, GD4ELI said:

I'm 66, still having 'teething problems'.

finding them ??

[Happier diner]

3 hours ago, 2112 said:

The sailing time on the Ben to Heysham was usually in the region of 3 and a half hours, whilst the Manxman sailing time is longer at a minimum of 3 hours and 45 minutes. 
 

Im sure the Mythbusters will burst into action before Christmas. 

The normal Ben crossing time was 3.45 not 3.30. However your point still stands. The Ben could sometimes do it as quickly as 3.30 if the skipper had his foot down and the wind and tides were favourable. The Manxman seems to struggle to do 4 hours which is a bit disappointing.

[Capt_Mainwaring]

9 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

The normal Ben crossing time was 3.45 not 3.30. However your point still stands. The Ben could sometimes do it as quickly as 3.30 if the skipper had his foot down and the wind and tides were favourable. The Manxman seems to struggle to do 4 hours which is a bit disappointing.

3:45 this morning

3:35 yesterday afternoon 

The twice I've been on it, both around 3:40

I think generally it's pretty much the same as previous.

[Happier diner]

2 minutes ago, Capt_Mainwaring said:

3:45 this morning

3:35 yesterday afternoon 

The twice I've been on it, both around 3:40

I think generally it's pretty much the same as previous.

Interesting. Be interesting to see the real statistics rather than us all giving our perceptions. My perception is that the Manxman is a bit slower. 

I wonder if @Roger Mexico knows where the data is held. 

[Frances]

you have to be careful in quoting times as different entities measure it between different events - for example on the Friday morning boat the Bridge officer stated that expected to enter Heysham at 11:05 - he actually did enter the marked channel into the harbour at abt this time but passengers could not get off the boat until 11:35

Does the sailing time include the harbour turnaround and then getting onto the ramp - this can be a very laboured job for Manxman whereas for the Ben it was a smooth well practiced operation probably done in less than half the time.

I'm not sure quite what the recorded time on the web page refers to - again one personal account from abt 2 months ago when there was a major problem with loading a wheelchair passenger that the Office staff was called out to help and I found on reaching the end of the ramp at Heysham that they had started to disconnect it from the boat - it took another 10-15mins to load the passengers but the web recorded the departure time at the order to close the ramp doors.