Northumberland Ferries Limited updates MV Saaremaa I’s out-of-service extension.
CHARLOTTETOWN – Jeff Joyce, Vice President of Marine Operations and General Manager of Northumberland Ferries Limited (NFL), is issuing the following statement concerning the status of MV Saaremaa I and MV Confederation and the Prince Edward Island-Nova Scotia ferry service:
"MV Saaremaa I continues to undergo repairs to the main engines. The vessel has four main engines: two six-cylinder variants, and two eight-cylinder variants. Problems and service interruptions occurred over the 2024 season at NFL due to ongoing challenges with the six-cylinder main engines. Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ), along with their external supporting contractors are investigating all four main engines, and additional issues have been discovered on the two eight-cylinder variants. These issues would impact the ongoing reliability and performance of the vessel and must be rectified prior to the vessel being deemed fit for operations by the regulatory authorities. The timeline for these necessary repairs has MV Saaremaa I available for service by October 19, 2024, provided further inspections and certifications are in order.
With respect to MV Confederation, additional certainty has become available on the ongoing bow visor repair after the bow visor was removed from the ship and prepared for repair at the CME shipyard in Pictou over the weekend. The timeline for that direct repair work and the related requirements have been updated with a reasonable degree of confidence, which included a detailed examination and measurement of the bow visor both pre- and post-removal from the vessel. The current expectation is that the repairs, replacement, testing, and certifying process will take 10 weeks, with two shifts of welders and repair teams working 24/7 at the shipyard, leaving us with an earliest in-service date for MV Confederation of December 9, 2024.
NFL has reached out to other ferry operators to see if any other vessels could be available in the short term and unfortunately there simply aren’t any vessels available for this service. Due to the high importance of service recovery, NFL is fast tracking the possibility of temporarily and safely returning MV Confederation to service without one bow visor. We believe we will be in a position to determine the feasibility of this by the end of the week but there is considerable work to do in terms of both our internal and external approvals.
NFL understands the impact this is having on our customers and we are doing our best to get them the most accurate picture possible on the timelines for these repairs to both vessels. The repairs to MV Confederation are under NFL control and supervision, while the repairs to MV Saaremaa I are under the control of STQ as part of the charter agreement of the vessel to NFL. We apologize for the disruption this outage is causing. We will continue to do all we can to fast track the repairs to be back in service as soon as possible.
NFL is further suspending service on the route until Saturday October 19, 2024 when MV Saaremaa I should be ready to return to service. NFL will continue to progress the feasibility of returning MV Confederation safely to service without a bow visor and will further report on this by the end of this week.”
Updates will be provided at our website www.ferries.ca when further information becomes available.