{"id":4829,"date":"2025-06-22T09:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T09:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/4829\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T09:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T09:06:16","slug":"one-delayed-spirit-of-tasmania-ship-to-arrive-in-august-premier-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/4829\/","title":{"rendered":"One delayed Spirit of Tasmania ship to arrive in August, premier says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The newest Spirit of Tasmania ship is finally set to leave Europe and start heading to Tasmania in just over a week.<\/p>\n

It follows a lengthy saga involving mechanical delays and an infrastructure debacle.<\/p>\n

Spirit of Tasmania IV was due to leave Finland late last year, but ferry operator TT-Line failed to build its berth on time.<\/p>\n

Critics lash ads about Spirit ferries<\/a><\/p>\n

Tasmania’s government has paid for double-page ads across three newspapers to address “frequently asked questions” about why the Spirit of Tasmania ferries are still a long way off operating.<\/p>\n

The ship was then moved to a port in Scotland<\/a> while the Liberal government explored options to lease it out. That is where it has been for the past six months.<\/p>\n

The ship was expected to leave in May, but then an issue was detected with its liquid natural gas (LNG) system.<\/a><\/p>\n

Finnish shipbuilder Rauma Marine Construction has managed to modify the system, and the ship has been undertaking sea trials.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff revealed the ferry would be expected to leave Scotland and make its way to Australia in 10 days’ time.<\/p>\n

He said the journey would take about six weeks, with the predicted arrival in August.<\/p>\n

“We welcome the fact that Spirit IV will commence its journey for the first time to Tasmania within 10 days,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Rockliff said.\"Spirit<\/p>\n

The journey will take about six weeks, with the predicted arrival in August. (BBC\/Eurovision)<\/p>\n

The ship will head to Hobart where it will receive final fit-outs.<\/p>\n

Its berth in Devonport is not expected to be completed until at least October 2026.<\/p>\n

It is unclear what will happen to the ferry until it can be used to transport passengers between Tasmania and the mainland.<\/p>\n

The ship is one of two new ferries that were built in Finland. Spirit V is still undertaking sea trials.<\/p>\n

Loading…Labor promises to ensure locally produced LNG<\/p>\n

The Spirit of Tasmania saga was one of three reasons listed on Labor’s successful no-confidence motion against the Premier.<\/p>\n

The no-confidence motion eventually led to the calling of the election.<\/p>\n

During its campaign, Labor has drawn attention to the many issues with the project and promised that both ships would be home before Christmas.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Labor leader Dean Winter also said he would make sure the new ferries could refuel with locally produced LNG at their home port.<\/p>\n

\"Dean<\/p>\n

Dean Winter said upgrading the LNG facilities in Devonport will create 150 construction jobs and 15 ongoing roles. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)<\/p>\n

The two new ferries have a dual fuel system, meaning that they can run on both diesel and LNG.<\/p>\n

Mr Winter said upgrading the LNG facilities in Devonport will trigger more that $70 million in private investment and create 150 construction jobs and 15 ongoing roles.<\/p>\n

“Refuelling with LNG is good for the environment, it’s better for Devonport, it’s better for passengers,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Winter said.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Gas Pipeline chief executive Wacek Lipski said this was <\/strong>not new technology and the fact private companies ran on it proved it made economic sense.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The berth in Devonport is not expected to be completed until at least October 2026. (Supplied: Dennis Conaghan)<\/p>\n

“All up there’s 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions to be saved by switching to LNG,” Mr Lipski said.<\/p>\n

“The vessels are covered by safeguard mechanisms \u2026 [that] means the vessels must reduce emissions now and by 2030 be 43 per cent from where they are now.<\/p>\n

“There’s just no other way this can be achieved unless LNG is adopted.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Lipski said his company had the capital and technical knowledge to take on the project, it just needed an agreement with ferry operator TT-Line.<\/p>\n

“We need to build infrastructure and we need to build it now,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s almost two years to build this. To build the refuelling facilities here in Devonport, to build the LNG liquefaction facilities further away.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Jeremy Rockliff said all fuelling options will be considered. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)<\/p>\n

The Liberals said all refuelling options were being planned for.<\/p>\n

“These are matters that are already being addressed by TT-Line,” Mr Rockliff said.<\/p>\n

“All options will be canvassed to ensure that we do have the right infrastructure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The newest Spirit of Tasmania ship is finally set to leave Europe and start heading to Tasmania in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,6310,454,6315,6312,50,6314,6313,6311,6309,3155],"class_list":{"0":"post-4829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-ferry","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-jeremy-rockliff","12":"tag-leith","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premier","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-ship","17":"tag-spirit-of-tasmania","18":"tag-tasmania"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114726226254740347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}