Hans J Marter

16 November, 2007

THE Faroese superferry Norröna will return to her normal winter schedule this morning (Friday) when she leaves Tórshavn bound for Bergen and Hanstholm.

Ship classification agents Den Norske Veritas and the Faroese authorities have now given the 163 metre ferry the all clear after she damaged her hull after losing power and drifting for 12 minutes in a storm halfway between Norway and Shetland, on Sunday night.

On Monday the Norröna,, with 325 people, on board came into Lerwick harbour for urgent repairs, and to assess damage worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to vehicles on the car deck.

A trailer laden with winter feed had toppled due to the extreme list of 42 degrees and had crushed around 12 cars. A further 70 or so brand new cars were also damaged.

The Norröna sailed from Lerwick on Tuesday night and arrived back in the Faroese capital on Wednesday morning.

A spokesman for the company in Torshavn said yesterday: "The Norröna has now been approved to resume its sailings by the Norske Veritas and Faroese authorities and been given a full licence."

He added that as a consequence of Sunday's events the company would make changes to its own sailing guidelines which mean that in future the vessel would delay its sailing times more often when the weather was poor.

He said: "The consequences of these new guidelines will be the chance of a higher inconsistency in the regular sailing-schedule for the winter-period.

"Smyril Line apologises for this whole situation and hopes that passengers, freight-customers and other close partners understand the situation of the company."

Sunday's events mean a major setback in the company's financial recovery. Earlier this year, Smyril Line had announced that they were confident of making a profit this year, but this now appears to be questionable.

Shetland Development Trust has an 18 per cent share in the company, originally worth £4.2 million.