Same Containership Breaks Down For 3rd Time In Less Than A Year In Wellington Harbour

Following a cargo ship’s breakdown over the weekend on Wellington’s primary shipping route, the harbourmaster is “not happy” with the situation. In less than a year, this is the third incident involving the same ship.

On Saturday morning, the cargo ship experienced a power outage while sailing from Wellington to Napier.

The ship lost power and drifted out of the main channel before lowering two anchors and coming to a stop.

The Singapore-registered ship was met by two tugboats as it reached Wellington’s dock.

The harbourmaster for the Wellington region, claims that the ship’s technical issue in July of last year needed a few days to fix.

For the duration of the ship’s visit at the time, Nalder recorded the weather. He placed such limits on the ship following the most recent incident on Saturday.

Only when the conditions are right for the tugs to be able to safely pull it back, if necessary, may it leave the berth.

Simply put, our goal is to help it leave the harbour safely while also making sure that we can take care of it, bring it back alongside, and handle any problems that may develop.

The ship also had a problem in February of this year, although according to Nalder, it was only a minor blip.

Nalder asserted that he has now expressed his concerns about the ship to Maritime New Zealand.

I find it disturbing that they are now closely inspecting the ship for the third time.

Despite the fact that I am aware she hasn’t had any problems in any other New Zealand ports, I am concerned that it has happened again.

It also occurred at the same time as Interislander’s Kaitaki ferry, which had been idle for more than two months, resumed passenger service last week.

On January 28, the ship, which had 864 passengers on board, sent out a mayday after losing power in Cook Strait and starting to drift towards Wellington’s south coast.

The ship was given the go-ahead to resume taking passengers for the first time in five weeks, but she was only able to do so for less than 24 hours until a gearbox problem was discovered on March 4.

Interislander’s executive general manager Walter Rushbrook said that the gearbox repair happened without a hitch.

The difficult repair required both skilled technical support from the Netherlands and the manufacturing and delivery of a particular sort of metal for the gearbox from Germany. The gearbox breakdown was surprising, given that it had just had an overhaul in drydock at the end of the previous year.

Two brand-new mega-ferries are being built at the Hyundai-Mipo Dockyard in South Korea to replace the fleet of Interislander, which is getting less and less reliable. In 2025 and 2026, respectively, they’ll arrive.

The ship was given restrictions on Saturday, and inspectors are still present today, according to Maritime NZ.

The ship cannot depart Wellington Harbour until all power generators and the primary engine are operational to the satisfaction of the vessel’s classification society and the ship is declared safe to sail to sea in accordance with the conditions imposed. The conditions will continue to be in place up until Maritime NZ provides notice of their withdrawal and the repairs are finished to the satisfaction of the vessel’s classification society.

According to Maritime NZ, the ship has previously experienced two engine failures in New Zealand.

On July 4 of last year, its engine failed in Wellington Harbour. Maritime NZ imposed restrictions that barred its departure while repairs were being done.

In Wellington Harbour on February 11 of this year, it also suffered a small engine failure.

Reference: NZ Herald, Stuff