A recently conducted safety assessment has revealed that a new Ro-Pax ferry in the fleet of Australian state-owned operator TT-Line Company is unable to berth at the facility where it is to be stored temporarily.
The assessment showed that in its current state, the interim berth at Point Henry at the Port of Geelong in Victoria would not be strong enough to accommodate the 212-metre Spirit of Tasmania IV, thus necessitating additional infrastructure works.
The ferry would need to be moved between some of the existing berths at Geelong for the meantime.
According to local news outlet ABC, the safety assessment pointed out the need to install two additional bollards at the berth to better accommodate the vessel. The works have been estimated to cost around AU$2 million (US$1.3 million).
The plan is for Spirit of Tasmania IV to be temporarily housed in Geelong until her official entry into service, which is now tentatively scheduled for late 2026.
The project to acquire the new Spirit of Tasmania ferries has been beset by numerous issues such as delays and cost overruns.
Anita Dow, Deputy Labor Party Leader in Tasmania's Lower House, had earlier said that the two ferries, "are five years late, AU$500 million (US$300 million) over budget and unable to operate at full capacity when the first ship is operational – and we are still not sure when this will be."
Construction of Spirit of Tasmania IV and sister ship Spirit of Tasmania V had originally been relegated to a German shipyard. In 2020, the yard filed for insolvency, resulting in the cancellation of the shipbuilding contract.
Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) of Finland was awarded the shipbuilding contract in April 2021, and the ferries' deliveries were set at 2023 and 2024, respectively. However, RMC began experiencing financial trouble in 2022 when it suffered supply chain disruptions, which the company blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
Dr Neil Baird, Co-Founder of Baird Maritime, had earlier warned against delegating the construction of Tasmania's newest ferries to Finland.
"Amusingly, though, Finnish ferry owners purchased similar new ferries, at considerably lower prices and with much shorter building times, from Chinese yards at the same time that Tasmania was buying ships from Finland," Dr Baird wrote in 2024.
"Amazing! No private owners would survive for very long if they indulged in the kinds of acquisition processes indulged in by the TT-Line Company."