Mechanical problem behind 12-day delay for 1st voyage of Marine Atlantic's new ferry

Marine Atlantic says a problem with its new ferry has pushed back the date of its first voyage nearly two weeks.

Last week, Marine Atlantic announced a mechanical error with the lubrication system had been found during a review of the vessel.

Captain Anderson Noel, Marine Atlantic's director of fleet operations, said Thursday the Ala'suinu — which had been scheduled to begin its Argentia-North Sydney run on June 14 — will have its inaugural voyage on June 26.

Noel said the problem isn't one he had expected.

"This one's a little outside of what we would normally anticipate when we look at similar vessel constructions and projects over time," Noel told reporters Thursday at a news conference.

"We are adapting to it as we move forward. It doesn't appear that it is as significant as what we would have first first realized when we start looking at the equipment itself."

Noel said they expected some issues to pop up when the new vessel arrived and had scheduled time for a "debugging" process. But bringing the ship to Canada took longer than expected, he said, cutting into the time they had to correct any problems.

The vessel is currently tied up in North Sydney, he said.

3,600 impacted passengers

Colin Tibbo, Marine Atlantic's vice-president of customer experience, said about 3,600 passengers who were booked on the Ala'suinu will be rebooked on other routes.

He said the Crown ferry corporation will be adding 13 routes on other ferries to get affected passengers to their destinations and cut down on port times.

"Every cancelled sailing on Argentia will be replaced with a new sailing on the Gulf route," said Tibbo.

Employees are equipped for the additional crossings, he added.

"Our crew, our terminal staff, our employees, they're really dedicated and they understand the importance of our customers," Tibbo said.

"They understand the importance of moving traffic as efficiently as possible and they are committed."

In compensation, he said. each affected adult and senior passenger are getting $200 vouchers that can be spent on travel and meals with Marine Atlantic. Children will get $100.

The Ala'suinu is owned by Swedish company Stena North Sea, which built the ferry in China. Marine Atlantic is leasing the vessel for five years, after which it will determine whether it wants to purchase the ferry.

Noel said the lubrication problem is covered under warranty. He did not provide an estimate on how Marine Atlantic will be financially impacted by the delay.

"Our focus right now is solely on fixing the issue. It's not about costing out the issue itself. This is a ship warranty issue, a new ship warranty issue, for us."

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