Red Funnel has cancelled 16 sailings next weekend (September 3 and 4) because of urgent maintenance work at its dock in East Cowes.
The repair works are scheduled for Saturday September 3, between the hours of 8.30pm and 6am and Sunday September 4, between the hours of 8.30pm – 5am, during which time its vehicle ferries will be unable to depart and arrive into East Cowes.
To support essential freight, Red Funnel has added two additional crossings in the early hours of Monday, September 5, with the addition of a 4am departure from Southampton and a 5.30am departure from East Cowes.
Supporting the work will require the cancellation of four sailings in each direction, each day:
From Southampton: 8.15pm, 10pm, 11.59pm and 3am
From East Cowes: 9.45pm, 11.30pm, 1.30am and 4.30am
Red Funnel said it has begun contacting impacted/booked customers, who will be offered alternate sailing times and additional assistance. The ferry firm added that due to the timing of the works, it anticipates that a relatively low number of bookings are impacted.
Vehicle Ferry Service from Southampton:
Sat, Sept 3: Last departure at 7pm / Next departure at 5am (morning of Sun, 4 Sept)
Sun, Sept 4: Last departure at 7pm / Next departure at 4am (morning of Mon, 5 Sept)
Vehicle Ferry Service from East Cowes:
Sat, Sept 3: Last departure at 8.30pm / Next departure at 6.30am (morning of Sun, 4 Sept)
Sun, Sept 4: Last departure at 8.30pm / Next departure at 5.30am (morning of Mon, 5 Sept)
The repair work relates to one of the East Cowes mooring dolphins, known as ‘Dolphin 3’. The dolphin is essential to enabling Red Funnel’s vehicle ferries to moor alongside in East Cowes. A routine inspection uncovered that Dolphin 3’s fendering system - a buffer device used to slow its ships down when docking - requires urgent maintenance.
Leanna Lakes, Operations Director at Red Funnel, said
“We heavily invest in regular maintenance and improvements across all vessels and fendering structures. While we generally get more lead time to schedule larger maintenance projects; sometimes, our inspections uncover essential work that can’t wait and needs to be addressed more urgently, and this is one of those occasions. We have done our best to limit the impact to our customers by carrying out the required work overnight.
“Nonetheless, we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause for those who planned to travel with us during this time. We’ll be signposting this information across all our communications channels from today so that anyone wanting to travel during the impacted time can make alternate arrangements.”
The company’s Red Jet timetable and service between Southampton and West Cowes will remain unaffected.
Any customers booked on cancelled crossings should expect to be contacted within the next 48 hours.
For further assistance, customers should contact [email protected].
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