Engine gremlins mar maiden voyage

NORTHERN isles ferry operator NorthLink’s new cargo vessel had to turn back on her maiden voyage north on Thursday morning after one of her engines lost power.

Helliar had left Aberdeen at 6pm on Wednesday with 12 trailers on board, but suffered a turbo charger failure in one of her engines.

As the weather deteriorated with strong north westerly winds and rough seas, the master of the vessel sheltered off Orkney before deciding to head back to Aberdeen.

She was due in on Thursday evening when engineers were waiting with parts to effect repairs to the 122 metre vessel, which replaced the 37 year old Clare.

NorthLink chief executive Bill Davidson said that the ship had undergone modifications at the Cammel Laird shipyard in Birkenhead and there had been no engine problems on the voyage to Aberdeen.

Mr Davidson apologised to customers whose cargo was delayed, saying that it was unlikely to be in Shetland until Saturday. However he said that only seven of the trailers on board were full.

Freight due to go south on board Helliar on Thursday was loaded onto the passenger ferry Hrossey, while the second freight boat Hildasay was due in Lerwick from Aberdeen on Friday.

Mr Davidson told BBC Radio Shetland: “It’s a real disappointment on our maiden voyage. Unfortunately it’s not that unusual that when you get an awful lot of work done on engines then things can go wrong.”

“It’s not an unknown problem and the company are confident they can fix it quite quickly By the time she gets back to Aberdeen there will be a specialist engineer waiting for her to do the necessary work.”