Professor John Robertson OBA

From CBC Canada today:

The Wolfe Islander IV (WI4) was off its regular course when it’s believed to have struck bottom, tearing a roughly 30-centimetre gash in its hull and causing the ferry to take on water, according to documents obtained by CBC. The collision happened just before noon on Dec. 4, when the long-awaited boat had only been carrying passengers for about three months.

Now, after limping to dry dock in Hamilton with the help of tugboats, the ferry been out of commission for the same length of time. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has yet to provide any information about what caused the vessel to leave its standard route, or what’s being done to prevent a repeat.

While she waits and wonders when the WI4 will return to service, one Wolfe Islander who was aboard the ferry the day of the incident said the experience has left her with safety concerns, and she doesn’t want to use it again — especially in bad weather. “The new boat, it just doesn’t seem to me that it was built for Lake Ontario,” said Jean Cruickshank, who’s lived on the island for nearly 25 years. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/wolfe-islander-iv-ferry-damage-tear-in-hull-safety-concerns-mto-shares-no-information-1.7488901

In November 2023, I was able to write this about the Wolf Island IV:

Government has ‘no plans’ to deal with unreliable new Romanian ferries two years after delivery…in Canada

Amherst and Wolfe Islands (population 2 000) are dependent on two ferries to the nearby city of Kingston, Ontario in Canada. Two replacement ferries (above), built quickly in Romania, are still not operational, two years after delivery.

It’s a service a bit like the Largs-Millport one operated by CalMac.

Locals have contacted the provincial government about this ferry crisis, but were shocked to hear: “the ministry does not have any documents that outline an implementation plan or implementation date.”

Locals are now saying the old ferries are a better option than the new ones and have called for the Auditor General to carry out an investigation.

The newer of the two Largs-Millport ferries, the MV Loch Shirra was built by Ferguson Marine in 2006.

CalMac was running at 97.2% reliability yesterday, 95.4% for the season and making 52 crossings a day at 100% reliability for Millport.

Maybe the local politicians from Amherst and Wolfe Islands should make a fact-finding trip to Millport?

Footnote: How did two wee Romanian ferries get all the way to Lake Ontario? There is a river from the lake to the sea at Quebec. See this:

The vessels recently sailed from the shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Galati to Constanta, for onwards transportation to Canada [4 838 miles away!] onboard a heavy-lift semi-submersible transport vessel.https://www.shippax.com/en/press-releases/zero-emission-amherst-islander-ii-and-wolfe-islander-iv-successfully-completed.aspx

How much did that cost?

There are three shipyards in Hamilton on Lake Ontario, 200 miles from Kingston as opposed to the nearly 5 000 from Romania.

It’s 18 miles from Port Glasgow’s Ferguson Engineering to Largs.

Then in March 2024:

Two new Romania-built ferries still not in service more than two years after delivery

Two new Romania-built ferries still not in service more than two years after delivery

In yet another example of the false economy of having ferries built in countries with lower labour costs and more relaxed regulations, Ontario’s transport minister has further delayed the use of two ferries built in Romania’s Damen shipyards which arrived in late 2021.

The reasons are not being revealed but are to do with safety after the Wolfe Islander IV ran aground. Readers remember one of the Vietnam-built Orkney catamaran, the only 15 year-old MV Pentalina, running aground last April, only weeks after some time in dry-dock.