No passengers permitted on troubled ferry

Toll Shipping insists there was never any danger to almost 200 passengers on its problem-plagued Cook Strait ferry the Aratere, despite top maritime officials refusing yesterday to declare it fully safe.

Last night, the Maritime Safety Authority released Aratere under strict conditions, after it was detained in Picton because of a faulty rudder. One of the release conditions was that it sail without passengers - only cargo.

But it was also clear that official patience has run out with the troubled ship, which is now subject to three investigations for mechanical breakdowns in recent months.

MSA director Russell Kilvington said the Aratere was having too many problems too often just to be allowed to sail again after its latest forced detention in port.

"We just cannot let it go back into service. The vessel has been taken out of service because it might not be a safe ship," Mr Kilvington said in justifying the ship's detention early yesterday.

"It is my job, as head of this organisation, to assure the public of New Zealand that it's safe to go on this vessel. Just at the moment ... we're struggling to do that."

Toll ramped up the pressure on the MSA by insisting on a meeting with Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven yesterday.

Evidence of the obvious tension between the two parties emerged soon after, when Mr Duynhoven described it as an attempt to restore "goodwill" between the company and the MSA.

Besides not being allowed to carry passengers, the Aratere's release was subject to other conditions, including the ferry undergoing a technical risk assessment, from which actions and risk-mitigation strategies will be developed.

The MSA will also require emergency procedures and contingency plans to be reviewed. The conditions will remain in place until the MSA is satisfied they have been met.

Mr Kilvington said ridding the Aratere of its problems was not for want of trying.

A huge amount of time, money and expertise had been expended trying to make it seaworthy. "And still it seems to defy us."

The Aratere has been detained by officials for safety reasons before - including twice within three days soon after it began operating in 1999.

Yesterday's detention came after the ship had rudder problems in Wellington harbour on Wednesday night, with 188 passengers and crew on board.

It berthed safely, but was asked by the MSA not to undertake the return crossing to Picton because no one could identify the mechanical failure.

But according to the MSA, Toll decided the ship would sail, and it was later detained in the southern port. Toll's decision is also now the subject of a separate investigation.

The cause of the rudder problem has still not been identified.

Toll Shipping divisional general manager Paul Garaty told the Herald that independent surveyors had cleared the Aratere after inspecting it in Picton and said it had the ability to operate with either or both rudders.

He said safety remained paramount to the company, and there was never a time on Wednesday evening when the ship was uncontrollable or the people on board in danger.

He said the costs of not being able to use the ship were "quite substantial. It's a quarter of our fleet out of service".

Union officials also yesterday expressed their worries about the safety of the ship, which cost $118 million and broke down even on its delivery run from Spain.

One former worker described it as a "disaster waiting to happen".

The Wellington branch president of the Maritime Union's seafarers section, Mike Shakespeare, said his union fully supported the MSA.