Is the Liberation a ship out of water?

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Claims are spreading on social media that Condor’s new £50 million pound investment isn't suited for our waters.

A rumour being shared thousands of times on Facebook suggests the Condor Liberation was never designed for the English Channel.

The posting by Shev Fogarty has been shared over 2,350 times and says: "The Condor Liberation was built in Australia and was never designed for the English Channel. It was sitting in dock in Aus for FOUR YEARS because they couldn't sell it, and was in their balance sheet as a big fat negative all this time.

"It sits a whole metre lower in the water (4.5 metres instead of 3.5 metres), which is why they keep missing routes because 'the tide's wrong' (the tide is not wrong, the tide is just the tide.”

The company has so far declined to comment on these claims but has responded to another complaint about its new state-of-the-art ferry.

It hit the headlines again last week when Jean Dean, a passenger on the ferry, took to Facebook to warn others about the saltwater battering her car was subjected to on the top deck of the Liberation, after being told by staff that the boat needed to use passenger vehicles in the open bow for ballast.

She said: “After the crossing when I asked why my car had been subjected to 3 hours of salt water pouring over it when the upper car deck was nearly empty she replied 'we needed extra ballast in the bow' My car was plastered in saltwater as were all the cars in the open area. It was impossible (literally) to even see out of the windows. After disembarking I had to find a garage to wash my car so I could safely drive.”

Condor’s Executive Director of Operations Captain Fran Collins responded by saying: "When loading car ferries, it is important for both safety and passenger comfort that vehicles are placed in such a way as to create even weight distribution across the deck. We use information about the vehicles sailing on every journey to create a deck plan before sailing. This is why it is so important for us to receive the correct vehicle information when a booking is made.

"A small part of the forward area of Condor Liberation's vehicle deck is open, something which is a common feature of modern high-speed ferries. Similar open decks are in use every day around the UK and have previously been used in the Channel Islands. Commodore Clipper also has open deck space which is used to carry vehicles on a daily basis.

"Whilst Condor Liberation's bow is designed to push water away and minimise sea spray into the deck, in certain conditions some spray may enter the deck area. I have reminded my team of the importance of communicating this accurately to customers and would like to apologise to Mrs Dean if she was misinformed."

Mrs Dean has since said she isn't happy with Condor's response and has suggested the company uses, "...the super low tech solution and buy some sandbags equal to the weight of eight cars and use these," instead.

It’s been a very rough start for the ferry that has only been in service for a month but has been damaged by hitting the harbour wall in Guernsey, suffered engine trouble, had issues with a car hoist and been beset by delays because of the weather – causing disruption to thousands of passengers.