Australian operator TT-Line Company welcomed one of its newest Ro-Pax ferries to her homeport in Devonport, Tasmania, on Sunday, August 23.
Spirit of Tasmania IV is one of two Ro-Pax ferries built to TT-Line Company by Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) of Finland. Her sister, Spirit of Tasmania V, was delivered in 2025.
Spirit of Tasmania IV is now in Devonport for berth testing. She is scheduled to enter operational service this October.
The project to acquire the new Spirit of Tasmania ferries has been beset by numerous issues such as delays and cost overruns.
Construction of Spirit of Tasmania IV and V had originally been relegated to a German shipyard. In 2020, the yard filed for insolvency, resulting in the cancellation of the shipbuilding contract.
RMC 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."
