Great-gran, 81, has to take a night boat to christening

MORE than 500 passengers' plans were disrupted yesterday when Condor's Guernsey to Weymouth crossing was cancelled.

Both the 6.30am sailing from Weymouth and the 12.35pm from Guernsey were called off.

Guernsey director of Condor Ferries Ian Milner (pictured) blamed the cancellation on a fault with the Vitesse and offered some passengers a refund of half their fare.

In all, 502 passengers booked on the ferry from Guernsey had to endure delays.

Among them was an 81-year-old widow planning to sail to England for her great-grandchild's christening. She contacted the Guernsey Press to express her disgust.

The woman, who asked not to be named, was booked on the lunchtime Guernsey-Weymouth service.

She called Condor to check the boat was on time and was told it had been cancelled.

The company could not, she said, fit her on any daytime sailing before the ceremony on Sunday, so she had to cross on last night's 10.20 sailing which was due to arrive at Weymouth 12.40am. She said she would have to stay over with friends in the town before travelling on to the Midlands.

'I'm beside myself,' the woman said. 'It's not on. It happened the last time I went over. I found out then that the ferry went straight on to Jersey.

'The way they mess people about is appalling and their fares are disgusting. They just don't care about the people of Guernsey.'

Mr Milner apologised for the inconvenience.

'Due to a fault with the engine monitoring system on Condor Vitesse, which has now been fixed, it was necessary to cancel the sailing from Weymouth to the Channel Islands,' he said.

'I can confirm that all passengers who are delayed for over four hours will be entitled to receive a 50% refund on the cost of their ticket on the affected journey.'

He added that all customers had been told about the cancellation and would have been moved to other sailings.

A ceremony for two Bailiwick men to swear their allegiance to the British Army had to be cancelled because of the problems.

Major Kaaren Roche, who was overseeing the event, could not reach Guernsey because of the cancelled sailing.

The ceremony was rescheduled for this morning.

Condor's ferries have been beset with problems this summer.

In June the Vitesse bypassed Guernsey on the way from Jersey to Weymouth, leaving 90 passengers stranded, something the company blamed on tidal movements. Later in the same month problems with the vessel's main engine bearing meant it ran on three engines instead of four, which caused delays for two weeks until the engine was fixed.

Condor's two other fast ferries, the Rapide and the Express, have also suffered technical faults which resulted in disruption for passengers.

nÊThe cancellation of the early morning Weymouth sailing saw passengers, some of whom had stayed in the port overnight to check in at 5.30am, board the Vitesse only to have to come off three hours later and drive to Poole for an afternoon sailing.

The disruption meant that the Tesla electric supercar spent only a fraction of the time on demonstrations from St Pierre Park that had been planned for yesterday.

'It's a shame the ferry's not electric,' Tesla's EU sales adviser Daniel Davey said.