the Flensburger Yard general-thread

[FNS]

The LOCH SEAFORTH is at the northern parts of Denmark at Skagen (the name is covered over by all those vessels in port) and is about to enter the North Sea.


It's interesting to note that she is being led out to the sea by a tanker named BRITISH ESTEEM.

My guess is that she'll round the northern parts of Scotland before arriving at Greenock.

[FNS]

I am right.


The LOCH SEAFORTH has made it to Scotland.  Northern Scotland to be precise.


Her routing across the North Sea.

Welcome to Scotland, MV LOCH SEAFORTH!

[Kahloke]

Thanks for posting updates on the new ferry's delivery voyage.  I noticed on the map that the new ferry crossed the Kristiansand to Hirshal's ferry route.  Depending on when Loch Seaforth passed through that area, it's entirely conceivable passengers on Color Line's Superspeed ferries got a glimpse of the new Scottish vessel.

[FNS]

Nov 5, 2014 20:05:40 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

Thanks for posting updates on the new ferry's delivery voyage.  I noticed on the map that the new ferry crossed the Kristiansand to Hirshal's ferry route.  Depending on when Loch Seaforth passed through that area, it's entirely conceivable passengers on Color Line's Superspeed ferries got a glimpse of the new Scottish vessel.

My pleasure.

Meanwhile, I've learned that this new ship may be having a stormy approach to her Scottish berth of choice today.  CalMac has issued some service bulletins advising of disruptions due to high winds and swells.  Her intended route might be affected as well.  Here's a sample message:

<img style="max-width: 100%;" src="http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q309/ferrynutseattle/ferrynutseattle3/ls18_zps660e9c95.jpg" alt=""><br><br>http://status.calmac.info/service-status.aspx<br><br>Mallaig is at the west end of the West Highland Extension Railway Line that runs from Fort William and over the viaduct made famous during the filming of the "boy wizard" movies.

A few more postings will be added here until her arrival at Greenoch.  Then, on to another thread for this ship.

[FNS]

The LOCH SEAFORTH continues south.


As you can  see, she has deviated from her intended routing, most likely due to the weather.  There must be some calmer waters on the deviation she's taking.  She did pass through her intended route which has been cancelled today as we see below:



I just wonder how many FSG deliveries have encountered rough seas?

I think I heard someone said that waves were nearing the forward dining room side windows aboard the NORTHERN EXPEDITION on her delivery voyage across the Atlantic.  Forum mates who have better knowledge about this can elaborate if they wish.

Meanwhile, there's a Facebook page for this ship:

www.facebook.com/pages/MV-Loch-Seaforth-II/1450589258528946

[FNS]

After passing the outside of the Isle of Skye, the FSG delivery voyage of the LOCH SEAFORTH has entered some narrow passages and has just passed Loch Linnhe. 

Loch Linnhe is where you would transit up to Fort William, pass through several locks, and enter the Caledonian Canal which passes through the famous Loch Ness before exiting the other side of Scotland at Inverness. 

Fort William lies under the highest mountain of the UK.  Ben Nevis.  This is also a transfer point between the DMU rail lines to Glasgow and Mallaig.

It would be interesting to see if Nessie jumped over Neptune's Staircase to see the new ship!

[FNS]

The LOCH SEAFORTH has arrived at Greenock, Scotland.  Her arrival time was 0115PST (0915UTC).


Her routing on her approach.  It looks like she did a "sea trial session" prior to her arrival.


On her arrival, she presented herself in front of CalMac's head office.


A closer look at her presentation.


And, at last, at her dock.

Another FSG delivery has been successfully completed.

This is my final posting of the MV LOCH SEAFORTH on this thread.  It was fun to follow this ship's passage from FSG Germany to her initial home in Scotland.  A good geography lesson was taught to me as well as you.  Her inaugural sailings can be looked up on the Scottish press as well as this vessel's Facebook page mentioned previously on this thread.

Next up are the building and delivery voyages of the three "Polish Sausages" to BC as well as our home-built 144s here on the Salish Sea.  Those will be on other threads of their own.

Hope you enjoyed this.

END

[Low Light Mike]

Here's a story involving Irish Ferries, FSG shipyard, and many disappointed summer-travel customers:

‘Irish Ferries understands it has been frustrating’
– the understatement of the week
The ‘WB Yeats’ debacle has cost Irish Ferries €6.5m, but the loss of trust could cost it a lot more

Conor Pope

-------

Last September Irish Ferries announced that work had started in a German shipyard on a €144 million ship that would be the pride of its fleet. It said that, in accordance with tradition, a specially commissioned ceremonial coin would be placed in the keel during construction to “bring good luck and calm seas for the vessel”.

The coin has not done its job.

The “WB Yeats”– as the new boat was named following a public competition that attracted tens of thousands of submissions – has been dogged by bad luck, and its failure to arrive in Ireland on schedule ahead of a busy season of summer crossings has done untold damage to the reputation of Irish Ferries and left the holiday plans of tens of thousands of Irish passengers all at sea.

News that things were going awry with the luxury ferry – which has space for 1,885 passengers and crew, 440 cabins including suites with private balconies, and 3km of car deck space – first reached The Irish Times on April 20th. “There are rumours that Irish Ferries new €144m ship, which is scheduled to take passengers from Dublin to Cherbourg from July, is delayed by a few weeks,” a mail from a reader and would-be passenger started.

“The rumour is they are going to take the existing bookings and tell everyone they are going to be accommodated on the boat from Rosslare instead,” it continued.


All hell broke loose:

It was more than a rumour. After The Irish Times broke the story online a day later, all hell broke loose. Irish Ferries confirmed it was cancelling more than 2,000 bookings for two July weeks, which would affect the holiday plans of about 10,000 people.

In emails sent to affected passengers, the company’s managing director, Andrew Sheen, said it had “just been informed by the German shipyard building the ‘WB Yeats’ ... that her delivery to Irish Ferries is likely to be delayed”.

Passengers due to travel on the “WB Yeats” through August and September were assured it would be plain sailing for them. Weeks passed and all was calm until, suddenly, the story took a turn for the worse.


Electrical work:

Last Monday, by its own account, Irish Ferries received word from the FSG, the German shipyard where the boat was being made, that although the vessel was largely completed, a significant amount of electrical work had still to be done by a subcontractor. As a result, the “WB Yeats”would not arise and go to the Isle of Ireland until September.

The ferry company tried to rent another vessel of comparable size through international brokers. When that proved impossible, it released a short statement that, once again, blamed “extraordinary circumstances beyond its control” for the cancellations.

“Because of the uncertainty caused by this additional delay, Irish Ferries has no option but to cancel all the planned sailings to France for ‘WB Yeats’ this summer,” it said.

Customers were offered a number of alternative travel options including alternative sailings to France on the “Oscar Wilde”, or a “land bridge” that would see them sailing to the UK (from either Dublin or Rosslare) and then on to France.

Customers choosing the land bridge option would be reimbursed the cost of their fuel requirements from the port of arrival in the UK to the port of arrival in France and all customers would be given a €150 voucher to be used on any of its Ireland-France routes next year.

Sheen told The Irish Times that the company felt “very disappointed and very let down” by the shipyard. “All we can do is apologise at this stage,” he said. “We are accountable but we are not the shipbuilder – we do not build ships.”

The statement from the shipbuilders barely referenced the delays and offered no apology and did not acknowledge the disappointment of its customer. “Due to delays in the delivery of interior components for public areas and on the electrical system installation in the hull and deckhouse, work on the new build will continue for a few weeks,” it said.

“All the key functions of our shipyard and our key suppliers are on the ship, and meet daily to ensure direct and efficient communication,” FSG chief executive Rüdiger Fuchs added. “Our team is fully focused on completing [the ‘WB Yeats’]. To overcome delays in the delivery of interior components intended for the public areas of the ferry, FSG has made additional funds available to pay second level suppliers directly.”


Deluged with calls:

While Irish Ferries may not be able to build ships, it should have been able to answer telephones. But even that proved difficult in the aftermath of the second wave of mass cancellations.

Frantic passengers, desperate to make contact to see what they could salvage of their holiday, could not get through to Irish Ferries.

As its helplines were deluged with calls, the company – and its reputation – started to sink further. Frantic passengers, desperate to make contact to see what they could salvage of their holiday, could not get through to Irish Ferries. Emails were ignored. Messages on social media went unanswered. And then the phone lines crashed, with Irish Ferries again blaming outside forces – this time it was their telecoms provider.

At 8pm on Tuesday, the staff manning what phones were still functioning knocked off for the day with thousands of calls unanswered. Would-be passengers fumed.

“I booked and paid in full for a ferry crossing from Dublin port to Cherbourg on August 1st,” said John Murray who had planned to bring a classic car to Spain for his daughter’s wedding. “I have several hotels booked along the trip which now have to be cancelled. I have a return flight back to Dublin which I will now have to cancel. Irish Ferries have not contacted me. I have logged 17 calls to Irish Ferries all of which are disconnected after seven minutes.”


After Joe Gogan received the bad news he tried and failed to contact the company more than 60 times, and each time he was told by an automated answering service that he should try again. This is far more frustrating than reading the original email message.”

Louise Maguire had a possibly even more frustrating experience. “We were originally booked to sail on Friday, 20th July, to Cherbourg, returning on Thursday, August 2nd. When the first cancellation was announced [in April] we were able to get an alternative outbound sailing on Friday, 21st July – losing a day of our holidays,” she said, adding that they did not think that was too bad . . . until the August sailing was cancelled too.


Further cancellations:

“My husband was lucky enough to get through to Irish Ferries yesterday afternoon when the news broke of the further cancellations. Even at that early stage there was no availability for the Wednesday or Friday sailing. We now have to sail home on Sunday, August 5th. We are trying to secure three extra nights accommodation on various campsites – prices vary from €375 to €500. Amazing to think really that Irish Ferries had no contingency plan in place should the ‘WB Yeats’ not be ready on time.”

Again, the company was on the back foot and 24 hours into the crisis it had dealt with only a quarter of those affected. “Irish Ferries understands that it has been frustrating for some customers trying to get through to us,” a spokeswoman said with considerable understatement.


Cost of the crisis:

The cost of the crisis to the company is uncertain. Industry analysts at stockbrokers Goodbody and Investec have calculated that the cancellations, along with the resulting compensation and rebooking of passengers on alternative services, could set Irish Ferries back €4.5 million, on top of the cost of more than €2 million it had to pay for for the first round of cancellations.

What happens next very much depends on the regulator.

But the reputational damage will be much harder to quantify. “Our customers and their goodwill is of utmost importance to us, which is why we making every effort to minimise the impact of this event – which was unfortunately entirely outside of our control – on our customers by advising them as soon as possible and assisting them with alternative arrangements to enable them to continue their holiday plans,” the Irish Ferries spokeswoman said.

What happens next very much depends on the regulator. The National Transport Authority has said it is “extremely disappointed” by the cancellations, and is examining whether the thousands of affected passengers will be entitled to compensation above and beyond the €150 voucher the company has offered to anyone who chooses to sail with the company next year.

Many of those who have been offered the voucher have labelled it derisory.

It remains to be seen just how many of them will be willing to put their trust in Irish Ferries again.

from HERE

Never trust in a new ship delivery scheduled for "just in time for the start of the summer holiday season."

[EGfleet]

This is the google translation from the article in German:

High loss: FSG in trouble

The situation of the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) is still tense. After the launch of a cargo ferry on 8 April 2019, no new building was laid on keel. The delivery of the ferry "Honfleur" had to be postponed. For 2018, a loss of 111 million euros was recorded.

By Frank Behling

The Flensburger shipbuilding company is still in crisis. The delivery of the LNG ferry "Honfleur" was postponed from June 2019 to early 2020.

The Flensburg shipyard has come through the construction of the ferry "WB Yeats" 2018 in financial difficulties. Some of the almost 700 employees have been working short-time since May. Reason was the stop of the production of the new building number 781 for the shipping company Siem.

Further high losses at the FSG


The freight ferry was supposed to be laid in mid-April and close the gap until the scheduled start of construction of the second Jumbo ferry for Irish Ferries at the end of June.

Due to the high losses in the construction of the "WB Yeats" for Ireland , the yard 2018 ran into liquidity difficulties. The parent company Siem Industries has recorded a loss of 111 million euros for FSG for 2018.

Difficulty building the next ferry

Meanwhile, the delivery of the French ferry " Honfleur " had to be postponed to next year. The ship is the first built in Flensburg passenger and car ferry with an LNG drive.

The " Honfleur " should actually be used on July 9, 2019 for the summer season on the route Portsmouth-Caen in the English Channel. The shipping company Brittany Ferries has meanwhile swapped all bookings for the ferry " Normandy ".

Production of further ferries unclear

The 187 meter long ferry was ordered in 2017 at a market price of around 170 million euros in Flensburg . This sum would have paid the shipping company but only on delivery until 9 July.

These days in Flensburg actually the new building 777 should be put on keel. This ferry was ordered by Irish Ferries at FSG in January 2018 . With 226 meters in length and a width of 32.2 meters, it would be the largest ever in Flensburg -built ship .

Whether this ship is built, however, depends on the financing, as it says in the Siem Business Report. That also applies to two ferries for Australia . If the construction time financing for the three ships burst, the shipyard has no more orders.

www.kn-online.de/Nachrichten/Wirtschaft/111-Mio-Euro-Verlust-Flensburger-Schiffbau-Gesellschaft-in-Schwierigkeiten

[Low Light Mike]

Jul 13, 2019 8:09:05 GMT -8 EGfleet said:

The situation of the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) is still tense. After the launch of a cargo ferry on 8 April 2019, no new building was laid on keel. The delivery of the ferry "Honfleur" had to be postponed. For 2018, a loss of 111 million euros was recorded.

Thanks for this. This is sad for us with a connection to FSG ships.

[markkarj]

www.timescolonist.com/news/local/coastal-class-ferry-builder-files-for-insolvency-1.24124042

Victoria Times Colonist, April 25
Coastal-class ferry builder files for insolvency
By Carla Wilson

The German company that built three Coastal-class vessels for B.C. Ferries more than a decade ago is insolvent.



A B.C. Ferries official said Friday that the organization has no relationship with the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard anymore, since the warranty period for the ships was two years. “We don’t have any service or maintenance relationship with them,” B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said Friday.

Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, which had been operating at a loss for some time, filed for self-administered insolvency on Friday, according to the publication NIFerry. The goal of the shipyard’s filing is to permit it to start afresh, it said.



Decked out in colourful designs, B.C. Ferries’ Coastal Renaissance, Inspiration and Celebration were built by the then-thriving German yard in 2007 and 2008 for just over $500 million.



The ferries, which are each 160 metres long and have capacity for 310 vehicles and 1,604 passengers and crew, travel between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.



The decision to build the vessels in Germany ignited a debate, which still continues, about whether B.C. Ferries vessels should be built in this province.



Factors such as B.C. shipyard availability, capacity, workforce experience and whether they needed modernization have all played into the discussions.



Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft was also shortlisted to construct B.C. Ferries’ three Salish-class vessels, but Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. of Gdansk, Poland, was selected for that contract. Seaspan out of North Vancouver, a Norwegian company and a company in Turkey were also shortlisted.



B.C. Ferries currently has four hybrid-electric Island-class ferries under construction with Damen Shipyards Group of the Netherlands.



That order follows the recent delivery of two Damen-built Island-class ferries, the Island Discovery and the Island Aurora, set to come into service this year. The two vessels were built in Damen’s Romanian shipyard.



In January, B.C. Ferries announced that Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. had won the contract to build a liquefied-natural-gas-fuelled vessel. That vessel will be identical to the three Salish-class vessels the company earlier built. The new ferry is expected to go into service in the Southern Gulf Islands in 2022.



Marshall said B.C. Ferries has been in contact with representatives of both Damen in Romania and Remontowa in Poland and the ships remain on schedule.



B.C. Ferries is in the midst of renewing its fleet and had been planning for major capital infrastructure investments onshore. But it’s unclear what will happen now that the company is losing millions of dollars every week due to massive service cutbacks, worked out in consultation with the province, stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.



“We are currently reviewing all capital projects due to financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Marshall said.



B.C. Ferries had issued layoff notices to many employees but rescinded them last week in hopes it would qualify for financial help under the new federal wage-subsidy program.



There’s been no word on that yet, Marshall said. “We continue to work with officials in Ottawa.”

[Starsteward]

We should add that 'FSG' also built the 'Northern Expedition'.
Very strange in the big world of financial ups and downs how a once prosperous company fell on such hard times.

[Kahloke]

Bump to signify that I moved the two preceding posts into this thread.  

[hwy19man]

Here is another link to the shipyard insolvency.


www.niferry.co.uk/flensburger-schiffbau-gesellschaft-fsg-shipyard-files-for-insolvency/

[Blue Bus Fan]

Due delays in delivery of the MV Honfleur Brittany Ferries has decided to cancel the contract:

www.ship-technology.com/news/brittany-ferries-somanor-terminate-honfleur-shipbuilding-contract/

[Starsteward]

Jul 8, 2020 20:29:50 GMT -8 Blue Bus Fan said:

Due delays in delivery of the MV Honfleur Brittany Ferries has decided to cancel the contract:

www.ship-technology.com/news/brittany-ferries-somanor-terminate-honfleur-shipbuilding-contract/

    Was construction started to any degree on this vessel and if so what the heck does Flensburger do with it?
    Talk about a 'barebones' construction.
  

[SS San Mateo]

Jul 9, 2020 14:20:59 GMT -8 Starsteward said:

Jul 8, 2020 20:29:50 GMT -8 Blue Bus Fan said:

Due delays in delivery of the MV Honfleur Brittany Ferries has decided to cancel the contract:

www.ship-technology.com/news/brittany-ferries-somanor-terminate-honfleur-shipbuilding-contract/

    Was construction started to any degree on this vessel and if so what the heck does Flensburger do with it?
    Talk about a 'barebones' construction.
  

She was launched on 12/14/2018:




From October 2019:

[Starsteward]

Jul 9, 2020 18:25:32 GMT -8 SS San Mateo said:

Jul 9, 2020 14:20:59 GMT -8 Starsteward said:

    Was construction started to any degree on this vessel and if so what the heck does Flensburger do with it?
    Talk about a 'barebones' construction.
  

She was launched on 12/14/2018:




From October 2019:

    This vessel could maybe be a bargain for an operator that requires a rather large LNG ship to its fleet.
    Probably too big for BCFS to consider, and they don't need such a vessel right away, but they do have a history with Flensburger.
    Think a European operator may be in for a big boat at a reasonable price?
   

[pacificcat99]

Maybe "Marine Atlantic" or other ferry operator in the Maritimes could buy it to service from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland and/or Labrador.

They seem to be looking to replenish their aging fleets

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/marine-atlantic-shipyards-new-ferry-1.5607421

Seems like it would have enough cabin space for overnight cruises and likely enough cargo/car deck space as well.

Maybe the Canadian Gov/Marine Atlantic could get a good deal and help to replenish the ferry fleet.


Any thoughts?