Alderney boat charter plan suddenly blown off course
UNCERTAINTY surrounds Alderney's plans to charter a cargo and passenger boat – the vessel has been forced back into service in the South Atlantic.
RMS St Helena, which serves the island of the same name, was due to be decommissioned at the end of July but this has been put back by at least two months after problems with wind and turbulence at St Helena's new £250m. runway mean it may never be used.
Funded by the Department for International Development, the runway was intended to boost tourism and allow Britain to withdraw its £30m. a year subsidy.
But a report by test pilots said the landing experience had been 'hair-raising' and that, even in a simulator, they had never experienced such severe wind shear.
On Friday, the St Helena government announced the push-back of plans to retire the vessel – a former Royal Mail ship built specifically to supply the island – until a solution for the airport issues could be found.
The ship can carry 156 passengers and 3,000 tonnes of cargo.
Alderney Chamber of Commerce has been in talks with the vessel's owners about it being used to operate to and from Alderney.
Vice-president Nigel Lawrence, who also edits a shipping magazine, said as far as he was aware there was only a two-month delay, but conceded that should plans fall through there were not a lot of options.
