The 94m LOA, 5,300 gt vessel was towed to Kiel’s commercial Ostuferhafen in October. It had earlier spent weeks at Kiel’s Lindenau Schiffswerft before being transferred to the Ostuferhafen when it became clear that repair would take longer than initially thought. The latest word is that it could be next year before the ship returns to service.

Lürssen and Kroeger refused to say anything about the ship’s problems. Manager Briese Schiffahrt and owners BAW also had nothing to say. However Schottel marketing head Kurt Scholz told MJ the difficulties had been caused by propulsor sealing and slip ring transmitter problems.

He reported two instances of sealing damage. The first in April was not caused by any external influences, he said. The second leak, in July, 'Was at the very least made worse, if not actually caused, by operational damage to the propeller by the user', Scholz said. Since then, Schottel and the makers had developed improved sealing and this was now being incorporated as part of the repair, he reported.

Scholz added that the slip ring transmitter problem had 'existed from the very beginning' and that all efforts at repair had failed. The old design was now being replaced by a new design from another maker which would be available at the end of January 2008, he told MJ.

By Tom Todd