She is now in her original colours with a black hull, white superstructure and yellow funnel with the companies logo added to the funnel..

She is heading for Gothenburg from where she wll depart on a seven day Norwegian cruise on the 27th August 2013.

On her second cruise from Gothenburg she is due to visit the scottish ports of Kirkwall, Invergordon, Aberdeen and Leith between the 4th and 7th September 2013.

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"We found serious deficiencies in the ship, there was so much that we chose to cancel the inspection", says Morten Dahl, Principal Marine Surveyor at Transport Agency Maritime Department.

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Originally posted by PamM:
Unfortunately it seems she has not commenced cruising and has been detained in Gothenburg

Pam

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I'll be surprised if this company lasts through the end of the year. It's off to a really bad start.

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"- The deficiencies we particularly noticed was that they did not have any permission from the flag state is responsible for certification. Such a state must have in order to be able to sail at all, says Thomas Åström, head of shipping and aircraft unit on the Transport Agency.
According to Thomas Åström has not coated vessel with detention. But he believes that it could have been serious if the ship had gone away with the shortcomings identified.
- When we are notified that they have received authorization from Portugal so we embark again and continue our inspection as scheduled, says Thomas Åström."

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A paperwork oversight? or did they not get permission and just sail anyway?

I doubt if they would have just sailed away as there was a re-dedication service on board after she left drydock which was hosted by the ship's owner and attended by many Portugese government officials including the Prime Minister.

After that she was out on trials off of Lisbon before going to Gothenburg

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
Hi Pam

I doubt if they would have just sailed away as there was a re-dedication service on board after she left drydock which was hosted by the ship's owner and attended by many Portugese government officials including the Prime Minister.

After that she was out on trials off of Lisbon before going to Gothenburg

..

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Neil,

it would appear they did just that - sail off! A sad failure on the part of the Portuguese authorities as well as the cruise line management.

I am frankly gob-smacked that something like this can happen and no one has any answers. It certainly does not inspire confidence in their management's capabilities.

Had you been following the return of the Portugese owned classic cruise ship ' Funchal ' to service you would have known that the ship had her dedication service and trails between the 15th and 17th August 2013.

She did not sail from Lisbon until the 22nd August 2013.

Not what I would call her ' Just sailing off '.

It is wrong reports that do a new cruising company no good. !

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
Tim

Had you been following the return of the Portugese owned classic cruise ship ' Funchal ' to service you would have known that the ship had her dedication service and trails between the 15th and 17th August 2013.

She did not sail from Lisbon until the 22nd August 2013.

Not what I would call her ' Just sailing off '.

It is wrong reports that do a new cruising company no good. !

.

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Neil,

sea trials and a dedication ceremony have nothing to do with issuance of certificates of class or certification by the flag state. As the vessel was not able to produce a safety certificate from the flag state (Portugal) to the Swedish authorities, she did indeed without the proper paper work - whether it was an oversight or otherwise.

And if it was an oversight and the flag state did issue a certificate, someone should step up and inform the authorities.

Fact of the matter is the ship is in its 4th day of detention which is not a minor event.

200 of the passengers who do not live locally are apparently enjoying touring Gothenburg while staying on board so it can't be all bad hotel wise. It all seems rather an odd way to go about things.

With the passenger and crew areas on the ship being completely rebuilt, and some of the work carried out before the ship had the present new owner, it is possible with the miles of cable that was replaced there has been a connection missed.

I had an old house rewired some years ago and I know the problems there was with that job.

The refurbishment on the ship is said to have put her in a four star class now so I would think the quests on board are very comfortable.

Pictures of the refurbished public rooms and some cabins are on their own Portuscale Cruises website, the Australian ss maritime website and also on ' Neil's Cruisingchat ' on Facebook.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
[...]With the passenger and crew areas on the ship being completely rebuilt, and some of the work carried out before the ship had the present new owner, it is possible with the miles of cable that was replaced there has been a connection missed.

I had an old house rewired some years ago and I know the problems there was with that job.[...]

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There are many reasons why the connection could fail but 'new owner', 'miles of cables' would not be acceptable explanations - utmost definitely not. A ship is not like your old house.

[ 08-30-2013: Message edited by: Ernst ]

If you read what I said you would see it is not a comparison but something that I had experience when I had a re-wiring job done !

The Funchal has had about 300 Kilometers of cables replaced. and unfortunately there is a couple of faults .

It did not stop her arriving in Gothenburg on time, after her voyage from Lisbon, having not undertaken a sea voyage for nearly three years.

.

[ 08-30-2013: Message edited by: Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company. ]

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
Ernst

If you read what I said you would see it is not a comparison but something that I had experience when I had a re-wiring job done !

The Funchal has had about 300 Kilometers of cables replaced. and unfortunately there is a couple of faults .
[...]

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I did read what you wrote. My statement as an engineer is that re-wiring a old house is not at all comparable to re-wiring a passenger ship.

There are always miles of cables - the numbers are impressive for laymen but there are methods to handle this professionally. One can imagine many reasons why these connections failed: Some explanations are acceptable - e.g. mistakes indeed happen - but some are simply not acceptable.

I'll take the word of the Swedish maritime inspectors. For the company to issue a statement minimizing and almost trivializing this is idiotic to insane. They should simply admit to what is wrong and that the ship was not finished. Instead, they are trying to shift focus to rumor mongering and stating that they pointed these deficiencies out to the authorities.

Ships don't get detained for trivial reasons and if it was a case of paperwork not being in order, such as what happened with MSC in the UK, the authorities would have stated so.

Nope, sorry, my BS detection meter is pointing into the red zone with this one.

There are many people that do not like the large floating holiday parks with a hotel and much prefer a traditional smaller cruise ship as is shown by the numbers that travel with Fred Olsen Cruises, Saga Cruises, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, and Voyages of Discovery to name but some of the companies that still operate the older cruise ships !

.

[ 08-30-2013: Message edited by: Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company. ]

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
It would be nice to see some support, rather than nit picking[...]

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You need to be conducting the inspections on board to know what the exact problems are so like others you can only read the various news reports that are published.

Often when these reports are translated details may not be the same as the original publication !

Are you a qualified mariitime surveyor or just an engineer ?

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
You need to be conducting the inspections on board to know what the exact problems are so like others you can only read the various news reports that are published.

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No, I can also read and understand what has been reported.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:

Are you a qualified mariitime surveyor or just an engineer ?

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I am not a qualified maritime survery but I am also not 'just an engineer', if I may say so.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
You seem to be very anti this new Portugese company !
.

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I do not know if you speak Swedish but it is well known, and has been quoted already on this topic, that the translations of the Swedish news items may not be accurate.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
Ernst
I do not know if you speak Swedish[...]

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That would be correct. You do not know that.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
It would be nice to see some support, rather than nit picking, for a company that are returning four classic cruise ships back to service which could have finished up in a shipbreakers yard !.

There are many people that do not like the large floating holiday parks with a hotel and much prefer a traditional smaller cruise ship as is shown by the numbers that travel with Fred Olsen Cruises, Saga Cruises, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, and Voyages of Discovery to name but some of the companies that still operate the older cruise ships !

.

[ 08-30-2013: Message edited by: Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company. ]

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Neil,

let's not be ridiculous here. What is this, some sort of high school popularity contest? Let's not be so fekking petulant.

I can only speak for myself, I am neither "for" nor "against" anyone or any company. I am merely expressing my opinion on a subject. And while I do not portend to speak for Ernst, from what I read here, he is doing the same. Making observations and comments.

Speaking of observations, I always find it amusing that when someone levies criticism that people all of a sudden turn to the "for" or "against" point of view, or even better, "conspiracy theories" as some people have opined - perhaps not on this forum, but have opined none the less.

The fact of the matter is the ship has been detained and is going into its 5th day of detention, that signifies a rather serious matter.

I hope they get it sorted out to everyone's satisfaction but the damage has been done. I am sure the charter party and the Swedish authorities are leery, and you had better believe that every country this ship now calls on will have the microscope out. The cruise line, the officers, the crew and the management brought this scrutiny upon themselves and now are trying to minimize and trivialize it.

If there's anything worse than a stupid mistake, it's a stupid explanation.

Best,

Dear stakeholders and friends,

It is not correct to say that M/V Funchal has non-certified lifesaving equipment and that her crew has not enough knowledge to handle any security situation.

Our crew is all certified by the relevant authorities. Moreover, no crew can embark without meeting the conditions of this certification.

It is true to say that there was an inspection, that we knew beforehand that it was going to be, and this we already knew in Lisbon, before departure. Moreover, inspections of various kinds are a common practice during a ship's operation.

This inspection occurred within normality, having the authorities (Inspectorate for the Port Control Authority of Gothenburg) been informed about the 2 breakdowns that were detected.

Well before the arrival at Gothenburg, the electric connection between the Bridge and 2 of the 15 watertight doors and 1 fire station were faulty.

Some other recommendations were made and measures were immediately taken for its resolution.

The inspection was suspended until all recommendations be implemented. All means are available on board to enable that all problems are resolved in the next couple of days.

Port authorities will then conduct a new inspection and we are sure that our ship will pass with flying colours and will resume her normal operation.

M/V Funchal is an excellent vessel that has just been totally refurbish with the highest quality materials and the best technical means.

It has been said many times: M/V Funchal is now as she has never been before!

Thank You.

Rui Alegre

The statement 'This inspection occurred within normality' is not really consistent with the statement of the ship inspector: 'The standard is far below what should be expected. After half of the inspection, we didn’t think there was any use to continue' (see article posted above).

It will be interesting to see whether she will be allowed to leave port tomorrow.

[ 09-01-2013: Message edited by: Ernst ]

So the inspection was normal .... the results were not.

> M/V FUNCHAL WITH ALL CERTIFICATES AND INSPECTIONS CLEARED (2nd September of 2013)

Dear stakeholders and friends,

The beautiful Lady M/V Funchal will sail today for the Scotland Cruise, with all certificates and inspections cleared.

The inspections conducted during the last two days were deep and detailed, as it should be.

Bureau Veritas in Sweden from the class side and Port State Control from State of Sweden, held a total inspection to every detail of the Vessel. From materials, equipment, documents, procedures and of course all safety means.

M/V Funchal is clear and approved. These are great news for all who wanted and did everything to have M/V Funchal sailing again.

Portuscale Cruises has proved its value for truth. It has demonstrated also its commitment to stakeholders, delivering all means needed for them to be safe and comfortable.

The better each one will be the best we all be.

Portuscale Cruises is committed to its stakeholders and will always practice its values of truth, safety and sustainability.

To our clients in particular, I thank you for the hundreds of letters, calls, mails and great incentive words that you have been sending me and my crew.

Friends and stakeholders of M/V Funchal, thank you for your support and lets proudly see the beautiful Lady Funchal, "the being of the sea" back to sea tonight.

Thank You.