Alderney awards ferry operator a licence for year-round vessel
ALDERNEY Ferry Services’ new vessel, Dart Fisher, has been awarded a licence to operate from Alderney, but the decision has come too late for the vessel to go into operation immediately.
Unlike the company’s other boats, the 24-metre Dart Fisher, which can carry 12 passengers, is capable of sailing in rougher waters so will become its first all-year-round vessel.
The ferry has a cruising speed of 20 knots, making it capable of reaching Guernsey from the northern isle in about an hour.
Charlie Smith, a director of the family-run operation, said she was pleased for the company and the whole island to be able to start operating a winter service.
‘Unfortunately the decision has come too late for us to include in our schedule which finished at the end of the October on Thursday. I only found out myself that we had the licence through social media,’ she said.
‘We have people who want to book but we haven’t been able to take those bookings without knowing the licence would be granted. I actually thought it would be a “no” as we haven’t heard anything from States members, and no one has been down to see us.’
She said the company would now have to sit down and sort out a timetable and reopen its booking portal.
‘This means it will probably be a couple of weeks before we are able to start sailing.’
Alderney States said earlier in October that it was not ‘dragging its feet’ over the decision.
The Dart Fisher been granted its Guernsey licence already, despite undergoing berthing trials in St Peter Port a week later than those in Alderney.
The island’s General Services Committee granted the licence yesterday and said in a statement that the ferry’s size had placed it within the scope of the Alderney Pilotage Ordinance 1988, which applies to commercial vessels exceeding 60 gross tonnes.
Under this ordinance, masters must undertake an examination to demonstrate sufficient levels of local navigational knowledge and boat-handling prowess to obtain a vessel-specific pilotage exemption certificate.
General Services added that it had been told that the Dart Fisher would leave Braye Harbour to seek refuge elsewhere when strong or severe weather was forecast.
