Manxman’s Island Cruise Postponed

The Manxman will not be touring the island’s coastline tomorrow as the weather forecast results in changes to the Steam Packet’s sailings.

This is due to the predicted strong winds exceeding Manxman’s current operating limit for entering Douglas.

Other changes mean that the Ben-my-Chree will operate the Sunday morning sailing to Heysham, departing Douglas at the revised time of 8.30am and coming back at 2pm.

Manannan had been due to operate the service, but due to her currently operating on three engines a decision had been made that she will be unable to sail on Sunday due to reduced ability to manoeuvre in the confines of Heysham Port and there being no tug on hand to assist.

Manannan’s sailing to Liverpool at 4pm has been rescheduled to depart at 3.15pm with the return remaining as scheduled at 8pm.

Manxman will remain at sea until the weather conditions allow a return to port later in the afternoon and Sunday evening’s 8pm sailing to Heysham, due to be undertaken by Manxman, will sail as planned.

Managing Director Brian Thomson said: ‘As ever, the decision to make changes to the published schedules is not one taken lightly. Our team has considered various options to ensure sailings can go ahead as far as possible, but we can’t ever compromise on safety. We have done our level best to ensure minimum inconvenience, but we can only apologise to those customers who have to make changes to their plans because of this announcement.

‘We will be in touch with customers looking forward to the Round the Island Cruise on Manxman. We will be making an announcement as soon as possible about the replacement date and we’ll work with customers to try and ensure everyone gets the chance to experience Manxman.’