Province's ferry woes unacceptable, says marine expert

A master mariner and former marine safetyinspectorsayssomeone should be held responsible for the province's ferry fiasco.

• 'Disrupting our lives': Change Islands mayor disappointed with MV Veteran
• 'We do have a lemon': Fogo ferry users frustrated by problems with MV Veteran

Capt.GlennMackey saysa public inquiry should be heldinto therecent purchases of the MV Veteran and its sister shipMV Legionnaire, which has yet to arrive.

"I know there's problems with the Veteranand they'replagued with problems, andthey spentway too much money for that vessel," saidMackey.

"We don't need complicated vessels like the MV Veteran."

TheVeteran, which runs betweenFarewell,FogoIslandand Change Islands, has been out of service four times since it launched last year, and isout of service againfor repairs tothe port thruster.

In the meantime, the government has brought in a replacement ferry,BeaumontHamel, and is paying for an air serviceto get people to and from the islands.

Accountability

Mackey believes government should be held accountable for theongoing problems with the MV Veteran, and said the reviewprocess was flawed.

He added that government'soriginal request for proposals(RFP) wasfor only one vessel, butshortly after the second ship,Legionnaire, was announced.

What strikes me is that none of the people that hold theexpertise were ever consulted.- Capt.GlennMackey

Comparing theRFPdocumentation that he obtained, Mackeysaidthe lowest bid on the 80-metre Veteranwas$24.4 million, delivered to St. John's, and said the province has now spent more than $50million on two vessels.

Mackeyalso said there wasno comprehensive review of all theshipyard bids,and that three companies whosebids he has obtained were never contacted.

"The budgetarydocumentssay they spent about $7.5 millionon consultants. This is why it's important to have an inquiry into this. We spent double the money," Mackey told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"When you go through a process like this of building a ship, there isconsultancy,butwhat strikes me is that none of the people that hold theexpertise were ever consulted, especially the captains of these runswho know this area like the backof their hands," said Mackey.

"Nor have theengineersbeen consulted on the machinery requirements."

He saidhis documents also show government changed itsspecifications for the ferry thrusters, to what he considers to be a lesser quality, and wonders if this has any bearing on the issues the Veteran has been experiencing.

Wrong boats for the job

Mackeyalso said the the Veteran is thewrong boat for theFogorun.

He saidit's not only thevessel'soperation that has him worried. Thesize is also a concern.

Normallyvessels for these runs would be around 56metres, said Mackey, and the 80-metreVeteran creates problems with "windage" where "a ship's side acts as a sail and when the wind catches that, it'll set the vesselin a different direction."

The Veteran's sister ship, the MV Legionnaire, wasexpectedto be on the Bell Island run in March butstill sits in Romania, said Mackey, because the Portugal Cove and Bell Islandports aren't able to accommodate the vessel at this time.

It almost seems inconceivable that someone would build a ship first and then build a port after.I mean it doesn't make sense.- CaptainGlennMackey

Mackeysaid a lot of work still has to be done for the vessel to fitthe dock and perhaps government put the cart before the horse.

"It's not only myself, but a lot of peoplein my profession believe that that isgoing to be a dangerous situation for a vessel of that size," saidMackey.

"The talk is that there has to be dredgingor underwaterblasting to be done in Portugal Cove inorder to fit thisvessel in there, and they're spending $10 or $11 million dollars doing the wharf toaccommodatethis vessel, I mean that's a scary thought my opinion is that vessel may never go in there," he said.

"It almost seems inconceivable that someone would build a ship first and then build a port after, I mean it doesn't make sense."