Controversy surrounding the vessels brought in to operate the Sydney harbour route shows no sign of dissipating. A leaked report published in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that damage discovered on the ferry Fairlight,only months after it began carrying passengers, was expected to get worse and was also expected to emerge on the other overseas-built vessels that were now being used on the Sydney harbour route.
In April this year independent inspectors found a deformed plate, buckling to a crucial internal rod, and cracked coatings and welds near the front of the ferry. These had not been evident during an examination about four months earlier.
The inspectors warned that similar damage appeared to be on the Balmoral, one of the three new Emerald-class ferries which sail between Circular Quay and Manly.
The leaked report, by independent inspectors hired by Transdev, which operates the government-owned fleet, warned that the damage to the ferry’s port side would increase with time due to further fatigue of the area. The inspectors said that, while unlikely to compromise the ferry’s structural integrity, it was likely that eventually the damage would also appear on the starboard side of the Fairlight as well as the two other new Manly ferries (which share the same design and operational loadings). “Some evidence of this is already present on Balmoral,” the report stated.
The inspectors who examined the ‘Fairlight’ in April thought that the damage to the plating near the front of the ferry was the result of flexing of its hull, and not due to the ferry hitting a wharf or other structure.
The report concluded that, if the damage was simply repaired without addressing the cause, any such repairs were not likely to be effective in the long term”.
