#Detention - Among the reasons cited for the detention of a cruiseship in Dublin Port which has remained docked for almost three weeks, Afloat can now reveal chiefly concerned the condition of the ship's lifeboats, writes Jehan Ashmore.

According to the ship's agent, repairs have been made to the slewing mechanism of the lifeboats of the Maltese flagged motoryacht M.Y. Variety Voyager which was detained on August 1st. Also arising were issues over crew safety training.

The 72 passenger megayacht operated by Greek based Variety Cruises, had arrived in the capital on June 27 following a call in the UK.

The detention of the 2012 built ship was imposed by the Paris MoU, the authority responsible for eliminating the operation of sub-standard ships. This led to the cancellation of the cruise resulting in passengers forced to vacate the 68m vessel and be flown out of the country.

Last week a reinspection took place of Variety Voyager and today is been repeated by the maritime authorities. This is to ensure various regulatory bodies among them the International “Safety of Life At Sea” (SOLAS 2010) regulations are met on board the cruiseship. 

The reinspection will determine weather or not the detained cruiseship with a crew of up to 33 is to be granted permission to finally depart the port later today.

In addition since the detention took place, it is understood Variety Voyager has shifted berths twice to free up berths for other visiting cruisecallers. The ship's current location is at Sir John Rogersons Quay in the capital's old docklands which is situated much closer to the city centre.