Head Scratcher or “Stuff-Up”

Spirit of Tasmania IV

The Australian slang “stuff-up” is for a jumbo mistake. And in reality, in any language, this was a whopper of a slew of mistakes.

I was sailing out of the port of Leith, Scotland when I noticed a sight that whipped my head around, a huge gleaming ferry imprinted with Tasmanian Spirit, which was moored in the port. As a lover of Tasmania, I had seen these ferries before but definitely not in Scotland!

It just so happened that I was standing next to a lady along the railing when I head swiveled and I said, “That’s strange.” And she said, “Oh, you don’t know”? She was an Aussie and filled me in to the tumultuous story.

The new Spirit of Tasmania is a gleaming 695 feet long ferry weighing 48,000 tons and was built in the shipyards of Finland. Once completed and passed her sea trails last year, winter was quickly coming to the Baltic Sea where the pack ice could damage it. So, it had to be moved… it turns out to everyone's surprise that the new Spirit is too large for current docking facilities back in Tasmania. OOOooops!

Spirit of Tasmania IV is one of two vessels set to replace two 30-year-old ferries on the Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland state of Victoria. This vessel had been described as a “game-changer” for the island’s tourism industry. However, a series of delays in its construction, skyrocketing costs and problems upgrading current berths led to one Australian politician describing it as “the biggest infrastructure stuff-up” in the state’s history. To have it relocated to Tasmania whilst these options are explored would be far more expensive and waste a significant amount of taxpayer money." A new berth in Davenport to accommodate the ship, and sister vessel Spirit of Tasmania V, may not be ready until late 2026 or 2027 and the saga has sparked a huge political row on the other side of the world with heads rolling!

The cost of building the two LNG dual-fuel ships had escalated more than $94 million Australian dollars from the original Australian $850 million when the contract was signed in 2021. Meanwhile the cost of upgrading current infrastructure in Devonport, which handles about 450,000 passengers a year, has more than quadrupled from an original estimate of $90 million Australian dollars. Another OUCH!

Them in a new twist of events I hear that the vessel departed the Leith’s Imperial Dock for Hobart on Monday June 30, where it will undergo a final "fit-out" before its future crew undergo training, the company said.

The vessel will travel to Hobart via Gibraltar, Cape Verde Islands, Cape Town in South Africa, Port Louis in Mauritius and Fremantle in Western Australia covering 14,857 nautical miles.

Spirit of Tasmania IV is required to stay in Fremantle for four days for the vessel’s importation into Australia, Customs and Immigration formalities, a crew change, bunkers and fresh stores. CEO Chris Carbone, said Spirit IV was expected to complete the trip to Australia’s port of Fremantle in approximately six weeks, weather conditions permitting.

As I write this – it is still out at sea and politicians still have lots of egg on their faces. But, shouldn't they have known better than to get them involved? You know, it's not their money, but taxpayers with more common sense.

See you in Hobart soon!