Frazer Ferries sincerely apologises for the delay in the commencement of Scenic Lough Foyle Ferry operations. We understand and greatly regret the disappointment and frustration that the public feel. We are doing everything in our power to commence operations as soon as possible.
Over the course of the last two months Foyle Port Engineering have undertaken and completed the final required work to our vessel, the Frazer Mariner. In recent weeks they worked double shifts to undertake all the works, which they completed in the tightest of timeframes and to the highest standards.
The two statutory authorities, the Marine Survey Office and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, attended on board our vessel on Monday and Tuesday of this week and approved all the work. Our operating licenses for Lough Foyle were, therefore, approved by the agencies subject to one piece of piping being changed. The pipe in question is a double walled high-pressure fuel pipe approximately 10 inches long. This pipe carries 1800 bar of pressure. To put that into context, a car tyre carries approximately 2-3 bar of pressure. Our engineers did their very best to get the pipe fabricated in Ireland but have been unsuccessful due to its very specialised nature. They then went directly to the manufacturer of the engine in Finland with the precise details of the pipe required. We received the pipe this morning, but unfortunately it was not the correct one. We are doing our utmost to resolve the problem. It will now not be resolved until sometime next week at the earliest.
We have done our best to keep our Facebook page updated for the benefit of the public. We feel this is the most appropriate real time method to communicate with our customers due to the fact that circumstances are changing so quickly. It is extremely upsetting from our point of view that a seemingly innocuous problem could result in the delay to the commencement of operations and the resultant frustration that this causes to the travelling public. On behalf of our company, I can only reiterate our very sincere apologies and reassure everyone that we are doing our very best to resolve the problem as soon as possible.
Similar to Frazer Ferries’ other ferry services, our commitment to Scenic Lough Foyle Ferry is a long-term commitment and safety is our first priority.
