Wight light ..Wight sun

[adicat]

They will need to up their disembarkation and loading as Wight Sun in Portsmouth takes an age. They will get 20 minutes otherwise the service will run late. Guess IOW side they will get longer as a ship leaving Lym 1200 will take 30/35 minutes to cross so will get 25/30 minutes in Yarmouth to leave at 1300.

[adicat]

Also there goes Portsmouth spare vessel.

[adicat]

Wight Light currently in Falmouth alongside Commodore Clipper, Musketier seems to be added container vessel on Portsmouth to Jersey not Arrow, so not a RoRo?

[TonyMWeaver]

Container Vessel 'Musketier' has been around for a while, she's run by FerrySpeed sailing Portsmouth-Jersey-Guernsey. Completely separate from Condor.

[adicat]

Its quite a surprise the Channel Islands need more freight capacity since their heyday for tourists was back in the 1980s/1990s. Perhaps the population has gone up quite a bit.

[Cabin-boy]

24 minutes ago, adicat said:

Its quite a surprise the Channel Islands need more freight capacity since their heyday for tourists was back in the 1980s/1990s. Perhaps the population has gone up quite a bit.

It has. Jersey is well over 100,000 now and Guernsey is around 60,000 I believe. Ed. 

[canberra97]

Adicat

Regardless of tourism, consumer demands have changed a lot since the 80/90's hence the need for extra freight capacity, for example the CI didn't even have the likes of Tesco in the 80/90's.

Even the Scottish islands have seen a huge increase in freight demand compared with the 80/90's.

Freight is the driving force behind any ferry operation.

[eagleeye]

Wight light on  the way back from Falmouth 

[adicat]

Everydays a school day. 😀

Edited October 23, 2019 by adicat

[eagleeye]

Wight light going to Portsmouth and probaly sun going to lymington 

[adicat]

Is Light busted? Why would they swap and they seem to be a 1 vessel service at Lymington. Wight Sun been sitting doing nothing so why has she not gone to Lymington.

[adicat]

Wight Sun just left. I would have thought take Wight Sun up first so as to keep 2 vessels running and swap and  bring WL back.

[eagleeye]

Crew work from lymington and ferries are not busy today and you can’t make people work overtime so that could be a good reason 

[adicat]

Their figures for November were not good 're delays and cancellations. 93% instead of normally around 98/99.

You should not really be cancelling sailings when you don't really need to. Although you say overtime, yet again customers not a concern as just knock the service on the head and move 2 ships when as mentioned, need not have lost any. Customer service takes 2nd stage nowadays.

[Techsnap]

They can do whatever they want though, they're a near monopoly. I travelled with Red Funnel for the first time this year as it was part of a deal I got, I wasn't any more impressed with their customer service than Wightlink.

I had booked a long time in advance but RF brought their winter schedules in earlier than expected. That wasn't an issue as such but more the person at the ticket booth "Oh how did you get a 5:30PM ticket, there is no 5:30PM sailing, this is weird but you'll have to go on the 6:00PM" in a very angry and dismissive tone, this was after me acknowledging that I'd be texted that the schedules had been changed and that I was fully aware.

First impressions are everything and I definitely prefer WL but you're right, customer service is definitely not top priority, at least that's now how it comes across.

[adicat]

Not sure why the swap was needed as Sun is the Pompey regular W

[Pigeonrat]

5 hours ago, Techsnap said:

They can do whatever they want though, they're a near monopoly.

Yes, this is the problem. Both Wightlink and RF seem to be in a race to the bottom when it comes to customer service sadly, which is a shame as the VoW is a real step forwards. What I find odd is that both companies seem increasingly disinterested in providing a reliable and regular service to their customers. 

The thing is, what to do? If one company really got their act together (in terms of service, price or both) the other would have to respond, but there seems little sign of this happening and the island's tourist industry in particular seems to be suffering. Really a third operator is needed to stir the pot a little, but where? PIP to Ryde? A lot of investment would be needed at the latter and I can't see anyone investing that sort of money. And where else would be available? Newtown (no chance), Fort Victoria perhaps, but these are on the wrong side of the island for most visitors anyway.

Anyway, back on topic, 93% is poor really. The W-Class on the Eastern route must be part of the problem as they take an age to load given their small capacity, time which they appear to be too slow to make up on the crossing. And if you were Wightlink, would you "floor it" across the Solent to catch up given how fragile the W's seem to be mechanically?

I still say they should have refurbished Cecilia and sold a W-Class instead as the former was far better suited to the route, but there you go.

[WightEagle]

21 hours ago, Pigeonrat said:

 

Anyway, back on topic, 93% is poor really. The W-Class on the Eastern route must be part of the problem as they take an age to load given their small capacity, time which they appear to be too slow to make up on the crossing. And if you were Wightlink, would you "floor it" across the Solent to catch up given how fragile the W's seem to be mechanically?

 

This is the biggest problem.... took them too long to replace the C Class, with lots of bad publicity with the LRA ( rememeber them 😂 !) and at the end of it the vessels are just not up to the job... Bad design, rubbish engines, awkward layout that is difficult to load and the handling on anything other that a millpond flat solent is up there with the best from Alton towers.

[adicat]

Looks like Wight Light sits off Fishbourne from 0930 until just after 1000 then goes back in.

[eagleeye]

Wight light just went from Pompey to gurnard and back ..wonder if they are testing a new engine or repair