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Displaying items by tag: Returns to Service

The main Isle of Man ferry (has returned) to service after delays during its annual overhaul (at a Merseyside shipyard).

As BBC News reported, the Ben-my-Chree had been due to resume crossings in mid-May but was delayed after inspections found its stern tube bearings were more worn than expected.

The vessel's first passenger and freight journey will leave Douglas for Heysham, Lancashire, at 20:45 BST, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company said.

The ferry arrived back in Douglas Harbour on Thursday evening.

A Steam Packet spokesman said both the Manannan and MV Arrow, which had been undertaking the services, would "now be rested for a few weeks".

The fastcraft would resume its services to Liverpool on 1 July "subject to borders opening", he added.

Published in Ferry

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago