adicat Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Also there goes Portsmouth spare vessel. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 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? Link to post Share on other sites
TonyMWeaver Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 Container Vessel 'Musketier' has been around for a while, she's run by FerrySpeed sailing Portsmouth-Jersey-Guernsey. Completely separate from Condor. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
Cabin-boy Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
canberra97 Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
eagleeye Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 Wight light on the way back from Falmouth Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 (edited) Everydays a school day. 😀 Edited October 23, 2019 by adicat Link to post Share on other sites
eagleeye Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 Wight light going to Portsmouth and probaly sun going to lymington Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
eagleeye Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 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 Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
Techsnap Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Not sure why the swap was needed as Sun is the Pompey regular W Link to post Share on other sites
Pigeonrat Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
WightEagle Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 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. Link to post Share on other sites
adicat Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Looks like Wight Light sits off Fishbourne from 0930 until just after 1000 then goes back in. Link to post Share on other sites
eagleeye Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Wight light just went from Pompey to gurnard and back ..wonder if they are testing a new engine or repair Link to post Share on other sites
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