World’s worst ferry company or crossing

Andy J

Andy J

Hero member
Location
Isle of Man
Thought I would start a new thread rather than continue on an unrelated one…
Had my first experience of the new Manxman last night. What a pile of crap - and apparently it cost us taxpayers £70m+.
Yes, it’s more spacious and appears a bit more ‘luxurious’ that previous boats but that’s about it.
It was rolling about just turning to get out the harbour and the level of vibration is unbelievable for what I thought was supposed to be a state of the art ‘modern’ boat. If it doesn’t shake itself or most of the contents to bits in its first year I will be amazed.
When I asked the purser about it, he said they all do it. I seem to have heard that somewhere before.
I would have thought harmonics and resonance would be a key part of any design of propulsion units, but presumably not.
The crossing itself was pretty calm, so I can’t comment further on any stability issues, but with more decks than previously (and they seemed to be filling it from the top down which seems arse about face to me) I’ll have to wait and see on what it’s like on a rough crossing.
 
Ever been left dockside while your ferry sailed off calmly into the distance?
At 1 o'clock in the morning, having arrived and checked in at 8 o'clock?
And with all the port gates closed and locked, and no-one around to let you out to find a hotel for the rest of the night?

I have.

Trasmediterranea, leaving Morocco from Nador to go to Almeria.

Fortunately, I wasn't the only one. Also left dockside was a group of 30 odd Spanish bikers needing to get back to Spain to go to work. Boy, did they kick up a shit storm ... :).

At one point I thought they were going to rip down the port gates with their bare hands. Just as well the police arrived to let us all out.
 

Attachments

  • Nador motards en colere.jpg
    Nador motards en colere.jpg
    96.3 KB · Views: 46
Brittany Ferries, absolutely abysmal. My recent trip to Spain was hugely expensive £1200 and they treated the passengers like dirt. They have three new Chinese ferries and the public areas are absolutely dire, all the luxury of an NHS waiting room. They roll about like pigs in bad weather throwing people's chairs over, quite dangerous actually considering the amount of sharp corners on the cheap fitting out. The food is poor but if you pay £170 per person (return) you can go into a separate lounge where they feed you left overs 4 times a day. at certain times there is free wine too, then they come in and padlock the wine pumps. Very classy. The staff were in a terrible mood with themselves all the time making it seem like a floating Fawlty Towers without the humour . Oh and trying to eat a cooked breakfast with a spoon because they haven't put any knives and forks out is fun as well. On the plus side the cabins are ok, just don't venture out of them.
Just to add insult to injury they cancelled the return ferry by text requesting me not to phone them because they were too busy. They couldn't supply a replacement ferry for almost a week. That little episode cost me all my remaining holiday entitlement, 15 hours I had to work overtime for free to make up absence and an extra weeks expense of hotels etc.
It's a shame because they used to be good but now I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.
 
Andy J said:
It was rolling about just turning to get out the harbour and the level of vibration is unbelievable for what I thought was supposed to be a state of the art ‘modern’ boat. If it doesn’t shake itself or most of the contents to bits in its first year I will be amazed.
Click to expand...
LAVERDA engine with 75000 ccm? Ciao, Gert
 
Andy J said:
Thought I would start a new thread rather than continue on an unrelated one…
Had my first experience of the new Manxman last night. What a pile of crap - and apparently it cost us taxpayers £70m+.
Yes, it’s more spacious and appears a bit more ‘luxurious’ that previous boats but that’s about it.
It was rolling about just turning to get out the harbour and the level of vibration is unbelievable for what I thought was supposed to be a state of the art ‘modern’ boat. If it doesn’t shake itself or most of the contents to bits in its first year I will be amazed.
When I asked the purser about it, he said they all do it. I seem to have heard that somewhere before.
I would have thought harmonics and resonance would be a key part of any design of propulsion units, but presumably not.
The crossing itself was pretty calm, so I can’t comment further on any stability issues, but with more decks than previously (and they seemed to be filling it from the top down which seems arse about face to me) I’ll have to wait and see on what it’s like on a rough crossing.
Click to expand...
Compared to the Ben My Chree it seems to take extra time to manoeuvre the vessel into its berth within the confines of Heysham Dock.
I have been on the new vessel twice and both times it was very late.
Once onboard the internal doors are a nightmare to open and those marshalling young children about struggle to move about the deck.
Also considering the amount of motorcyclists using the service you’d have thought they’d have rethought the way bikes were stowed whilst at sea. Unfortunately not, the whole thing is still reminiscent of an ‘Ogri’ cartoon and they are still roped down instead of utilising front wheel chocks 😡. Yup, I’m disappointed and give me the old boat every time.
 
Last edited:
pf1 said:
Brittany Ferries, absolutely abysmal. My recent trip to Spain was hugely expensive £1200 and they treated the passengers like dirt. They have three new Chinese ferries and the public areas are absolutely dire, all the luxury of an NHS waiting room. They roll about like pigs in bad weather throwing people's chairs over, quite dangerous actually considering the amount of sharp corners on the cheap fitting out. The food is poor but if you pay £170 per person (return) you can go into a separate lounge where they feed you left overs 4 times a day. at certain times there is free wine too, then they come in and padlock the wine pumps. Very classy. The staff were in a terrible mood with themselves all the time making it seem like a floating Fawlty Towers without the humour . Oh and trying to eat a cooked breakfast with a spoon because they haven't put any knives and forks out is fun as well. On the plus side the cabins are ok, just don't venture out of them.
Just to add insult to injury they cancelled the return ferry by text requesting me not to phone them because they were too busy. They couldn't supply a replacement ferry for almost a week. That little episode cost me all my remaining holiday entitlement, 15 hours I had to work overtime for free to make up absence and an extra weeks expense of hotels etc.
It's a shame because they used to be good but now I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.
Click to expand...
Which boat was this ? We came back on the Santander Portsmouth boat which is a new gas turbine one and the cabins were good and the food excellent ? Mind you it was 700 quid return bike and rider ( went out from Plymouth )
 
Don't know if it still runs but a few years ago I boarded what turned out to be a total vomit comet from Dieppe to Newhaven. Big car ferry Cat that appeared to be bobbing around in perfectly still harbour waters. As we cleared the breakwater all he'll broke loose along with most of the duty free bottles . The air was redolent of sick and Bailey's Irish Cream. Crossing ended with the decks sporting little piles of saw dust gently absorbing the passengers last meal with the crew insisting they had never seen anything like it ...🤔
 
Sir Sidney Ruffdiamond said:
Which boat was this ? We came back on the Santander Portsmouth boat which is a new gas turbine one and the cabins were good and the food excellent ? Mind you it was 700 quid return bike and rider ( went out from Plymouth )
Click to expand...
I've been on all three, Galicia, Salamanca and Santona. They were all the identical but Santona had by far the the worst crew. They were terrible. The trip lasts 2 nights on the way there from Portsmouth, a floating prison. They need some competition sharpish.
 
We have two companies plying the Cook Strait route, both have good facilities for bikes (although it pays to take your own ropes) with good helpful staff and reasonable food, all for a fair price. It’s a shame that all the ships are worn out old tubs. Perhaps the conditions accelerate wear but they have some pretty serious issues, props falling off, all four engine failure, gearbox failure (even the Dutch manufacturer didn’t know how to fix it because ‘gearboxes never fail’).
There are a couple of new hybrid ships coming, brand new this time, but still a couple of years away.
 
BC Ferries ( British Columbia Ferries). The largest vehicle transport ferry fleet in the world.
40% sailing cancellation rate in 2023. Logistical problems include unprecedented mechanical breakdowns, and staff not showing up for work to fill minimum requirements to sail the ships. A complete socialist run cluster-fuck.
 
Sir Sidney Ruffdiamond said:
Which boat was this ? We came back on the Santander Portsmouth boat which is a new gas turbine one and the cabins were good and the food excellent ? Mind you it was 700 quid return bike and rider ( went out from Plymouth )
Click to expand...

I’ve used BF three times in 23, Ply-Santander return twice on the Pont Aven, and once Portsmth-St.malo return, can’t recall which boat for that one. Both Spain x’ings were £550 return, bike and rider. No complaints at all about cabins and food, other than the food has gone down hill post Covid but is okay - there’s a lack of fresh stuff now. Long delays in disembark, but that seems to be the norm these days.
 
A complete socialist run cluster-fuck. How does that exist in the real world, a socialist-run major company? That word again covers so much ground on that side of the pond.
 
Graham said:
Compared to the Ben My Chree it seems to take extra time to manoeuvre the vessel into its berth within the confines of Heysham Dock.
I have been on the new vessel twice and both times it was very late.
Once onboard the internal doors are a nightmare to open and those marshalling young children about struggle to move about the deck.
Also considering the amount of motorcyclists using the service you’d have thought they’d have rethought the way bikes were stowed whilst at sea. Unfortunately not, the whole thing is still reminiscent of an ‘Ogri’ cartoon and they are still roped down instead of utilising front wheel chocks 😡. Yup, I’m disappointed and give me the old boat every time.
Click to expand...
I agree the punctuality/reliability has been pretty poor since it was introduced into service, but last night's sailing actually arrived early. However, that was negated by the fact it took an interminable amount of time to let us off so that was a complete balls-ache too.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Sounds more like Privatisation to me ... don't know about elsewhere, but in Oz it has been the conservative governments who specialised in that little trick.
Click to expand...
"Government run" and Privatisation are polar opposites!!
Ideologies are usually blurred and either side of the left/right are often accused of the same thing when in power (eg, labor privatised CBA and libs privatised Telstra):rolleyes:
Unfortunately Governments rarely run any business efficiently and the money wasted is horrendous negating any potential benefit.
Of course privatised companies eventually benefit a few at the expense of the masses. (but perhaps the plight in our 1st world countries is overstated either way:unsure:).
I like to think Governments (in Aus) sometime in the now distant past made decisions for pragmatic reasons (what's best for the country - but of course with an eye on re election chances) with the odd one making decisions pretty much down an ideological path - those rarely last long.
Today however, our Governments are short term, media cycle driven reactionaries with no accountability and little regard for when things go wrong unless a journalist bothers to report it.
Red and Blue have become whatever colour you wish and our so called independents are a hotch potch with narrow vision and little regard for the greater good!
(Politics used to be a vocation, it is now a career path from a young age and bureaucracy and practical thinking are worlds apart.)
Oops, was that a rant - apologies......................
 
2 quite recent billion-dollar disasters re privatisation, the massive numbers and costs of Toll roads around Sydney. Surely it could have been done in a way that resulted in the huge profits that will run for decades could have gone into consolidated revenue rather than profits for the monopoly company that built and run them. Same with Snowy 2.0, the company that won the contract cut expenditure and didn't follow sensible procedures when tunnelling to increase profit and that's caused huge overruns in cost and time, no matter, here you go just pick up a few more billion to the tab. It's just not Governments that fail at running projects. And the public pays no matter whose name is on the sign at the toll or any other gate. There is a hell of a lot of BS sprouted about competition, but fake competition that is just invented to look good just adds costs and nothing else.
 
You are correct Vince, it is not just Governments that fail, but it is interesting that the biggest overruns and excessive costs in projects are generally linked to contracts with Governments - what does that say?? Easy money for some............
It is also sad that community owned assets have gradually been lost due to excessive government red tape and controls.
I am involved (on a voluntary basis) with a Community owned not for profit business here and it has damn near become a full time job for me. Our whole board is under extreme compliance pressure and the reporting requirements are horrendous. The (Fed) Government have little care if smaller not for profits fall over as they would prefer to deal with just the larger providers and little doubt we will have to sell out somewhere in the near future, hopefully to another (larger) not for profit organisation but it is sad when this whole business was set up from donated land and successive boards have spent significant capital improving and expanding it as a community owned asset.
Anyway, apologies again, I usually try to avoid any political comments on here, must just have shit on me liver today:(
(Will fix that now - off to play a game of golf with a couple of mates and have a rehydration session;))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top