Ferry's Lost Propeller Recovered From Cook Strait
KiwiRail confirms that salvors Seaworks have successfully recovered the ferry Aratere’s propeller, which was lost from the ship when the shaft fractured on November 5, 2013 outside the Tory Channel. “The propeller was retrieved from a depth of around 120 meters and approximately two nautical miles from Tory Channel using strops that were fitted around the blades of the propeller and part of the shaft via a remote controlled underwater vehicle. The propeller was then secured to…
Lost NZ Ferry Propeller Found 120m Down in Cook Strait
The propeller had been lost earlier this month from the Interislander ferry, the 'Aratere', which is expected to be out of service for 6 months as a result, but the propeller has now been found in Cook Strait by Seawork Salvage Co., contracted by KiwiRail, reports Radio New Zealand. The propeller was discovered about two nautical miles from Tory Channel, by using sonar equipment and an unmanned vehicle. Citing a Seawork spokesman, Radio NZ say that the company will probably use its survey vessel, the unmanned submarine [sic] and another ship to salvage the propellor.
MSA to investigate Ferry Incident
The Maritime Safety Authority is investigating an incident following a problem with the Aratere ferry’s automatic navigation system at the entrance to Tory Channel at 5.20pm yesterday. MSA General Manager Operations John Mansell says the MSA is very concerned there was potential for a serious grounding. “Fortunately, the Master was able to alter the course manually and bring her back on track. “The MSA is carrying out an urgent investigation. We have also imposed conditions that require the Aratere to be manually steered through the Tory Channel and in Wellington Harbour until the cause of the problem has been identified,” he said.
Near Miss in New Zealand
The New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) issued a report of the near grounding of the ferry ARATERE on September 29, 2004. The ferry was entering Tory Channel, a restricted waterway, when it failed to make a programmed course alteration while in automatic steering. The master intervened and made a manual alteration of course moments before the ferry would have grounded at full speed. The cause of the problem has not been definitely determined, but it appears that the automatic navigation and track steering system probably defaulted to autopilot mode because it received an erroneous signal from an external input…
