Pete Bevington

9 April, 2008

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after a Shetland inter island ferry ran aground on a beach yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) after her steering control mechanism failed.

The Geira, with four crew on board, was leaving the Gutcher terminal, on Yell, at 1.40pm when the skipper was unable to shift the vessel out of reverse as he usually does to cross the Bluemull Sound to head for Unst.

To avoid damaging the propellers, he engaged the clutch and the 20 year old ferry simply drifted onto Gutcher’s pebble beach. No one was injured in the incident.

Last night, Shetland Islands Council’s assistant marine superintendent David Polson said the Geira had been towed to nearby Cullivoe pier by her sister ferry Thora where divers were inspecting her hull for damage.

Captain Polson said there appeared to be no water getting into the ferry, but the rudders were damaged and “stuck hard to port” by about 20 degrees.

Describing the incident, he said: “She couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to go into the ahead position and the skipper could see she was going ashore, so rather than have the propellers damaged he took the clutches out to stop them.”

The Geira has been serving as the main Bluemull Sound ferry alongside the Thora while the Bigga was having technical problems repaired.

Yesterday’s incident happened as the Bigga came back into service and the Thora was being chartered to deliver smolts to the Mainstream salmon farm in the area. The Thora was brought back into service so the sailing schedule was unaffected.

Captain Polson said the council had informed the Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and would run its own internal investigation it what happened.

Last month the Geira was put out of action by a faulty turbo on its starboard engine.