New isle of wight ferry

[Keith Tindell]

The new Isle of Wight ferry is on its way from Turkey.What i find surprising is she is being towed all the way back here, 17 days estimate, no crew cabins for a delivery crew. I would have thought that sleeping arrangements and victualling could have been easily sorted. Every thing else is available except showers, but good money for the delivery crew would have overcome that i would have thought, kt

https://onthewight.com/victoria-of-w...ea-of-marmara/

[robpage]

if like some of the others it is Voith Schneider , I would not fancy self propelled all the way home , they could strap a caravan down on the car deck for comfortd

[Keith Tindell]

I bow to your knowledge on that Rob, having never heard of them. Are they unreliable ??, what other types of ship are they fitted on ?, kt

[robpage]

brilliant for manoeuvrability, but would not fancy deep sea with them
Voith Schneider Propeller VSP | Voith

[Keith Tindell]

I have never been involved with towing ships, well not large ones anyway. Would there be no one on board the ferry at all ??, would she not yaw all over as being shallow draft ??, would the tow line on the ferry be checked at regular intervals ?. , kt

[John Arton]

She is being towed by an offshore supply/ towing vessel. JWS could give you the full monty on towing but would suspect that the ferries anchors would be removed, cables run out to a bridle that's connected to a towing wire via a length of man made fibre rope ( to allow for stretch and acts as spring relieving tension). The tow wire will be led to the towing winch we can lengthen or shorten the tow length. Apparently once the tow is underway, the towed vessel settles down at an angle to the tow with little yawing.
Rgds
J.A.

[Chris Allman]

Here is the towing vessel Amber II - looks very capable.

2496316.jpg

[robpage]

It's got me wondering as to whether it is towed dead ship or whether they've got a small crew on there . It seems sensible to have a few people on there and a running generator I also suspect that because it's on the Isle of Wight run that the fuel tanks are quite small

[Keith Tindell]

Surely the towed vessel has to show lights ?, and would that not require some one on board ?, also for any problem occurring at sea. I find it interesting subject,as John A says, maybe John Sabourne will enlighten us all , kt

[robpage]

I wished we have had this discussion a week ago Keith I attended the funeral of an old friend who was an engineer cadet with British and Commonwealth and who I met many years later with Sealink , I was talking to an ex colleague there who is one of Wightlink chief engineers . Missed opportunity I could have found out .