The Steam Packet has sailed into stormy waters — after an online magazine questioned the reliability of its fast craft winter service.

Irish Sea Shipping's website shows that no fewer than 33 sailings of the Sea Express 1 have been cancelled since the autumn and winter schedule began in September.

All but five of the cancellations between September 25 and January 13 were due to storms in the Irish Sea.

The website feature is dedicated to the 'enduring memory' of the Lady of Mann, the last traditional Steam Packet ship to serve the Douglas to Liverpool route in all weathers.

There was widespread criticism of the decision to dispose of the veteran Lady of Mann in 2005, leaving winter Liverpool sailings to be operated by the SuperSeaCat Two and then the Sea Express 1.

But Steam Packet director of marketing Rupert Trevelyan insisted that despite the cancellations, the fast craft have carried more passengers than the Lady of Mann.

He said: 'The Lady of Mann used to operate around 40 trips every winter from November to February and these trips are now covered by fast craft which has reduced the passage time to Liverpool and encouraged growth in traffic.

'Last year the fast craft lost only two trips in the peak winter period, but this winter the weather conditions have been exceptionally stormy and have affected all Irish Sea operators of both conventional and fast craft.

'Fog has also led to numerous cancellations at the airport. These cancellations are regrettable, but the company still offers customers the choice of 14 return conventional sailings a week in the winter, whereas 10 years ago there were only seven trips a week.'

He added: 'Effectively, we offer twice the conventional service plus the choice of fast craft backed up by conventional capacity four times larger than demand.

'Fast craft overall have a 97 per cent reliability and conventional ships have 99 per cent-plus. We use the Ben-my-Chree as back-up for fast craft and transfer customers when there is a cancellation and offer foot passengers free coach travel to and from Liverpool when this happens.

'The Ben-my-Chree has proved to be the most reliable ship ever deployed by the Steam Packet Company.

'Fast craft have dramatically improved accessibility to the Isle of Man and led to substantial growth in traffic.'

Scaling down of the Irish service by the Steam Packet has prompted much criticism in Tynwald but, from April through to September, there will be three sailings to Belfast and two to Dublin each week.

The timetable has also been altered to make departure times more convenient. Dublin sailings will leave at 3.30pm on Sundays and 9.30am on Fridays, while Belfast will be served by sailings at 3.30pm on Mondays and Thursdays and at 9.30pm on Saturdays.

Firstly, there have been few "storms", although Mr. Trevelyan is reported as having said "this winter the weather conditions have been  exceptionally stormy".

The fast craft have to cancel when wind speeds exceed force 7 (and we have had a lot of gales this season). The gales have indeed caused disruptions elsewhere in the Irish Sea, but not so many cancellations - other than to fast craft.

Secondly, I recall many Saturdays in the winter season when the Lady had 500+ passengers to/from Liverpool. Lady's schedule facilitated a Friday evening to Sunday evening weekend excursion from Liverpool to the Island, which the Seacat's schedule does not accommodate.

When it does sail, the Seacat seems to carry not a lot over 100 passengers. Where does Mr. Trevelyan get his figures from?

This does not seem to amount to the growth in figures that he is claiming. Quote: "Fast craft have dramatically improved accessibility to the Isle of Man and led to substantial growth in traffic".

The Steam Packet need to realise that when they cancel SE1, and divert the passengers via Heysham, they are inconveniencing 100% of the people who wanted to go to Liverpool (such as those who may have wanted to watch Liverpool's lunchtime kick-off against Chelsea today).

The other operators who brazen it out with a fast craft during the winter on the Irish Sea do at least have a conventional back-up which goes to the passengers' port of choice (or moderately close, in the case of Dun Laoghaire/Dublin).

Quite apart from all this, we have received our copy of the Steam Packet's "Sailing Schedule" for 2007. This tells us that "As we already have over 60% of our customers booking online, we will not be producing details of our full schedule in this brochure. Instead, we will have downloadable versions of our timetables online..".

What a triumph of non-information for the 40% who do not have a computer or go to a travel agent! These people are told that Liverpool to Isle of Man has "1/2 daily sailings departing mainly 11.15 and 19.00", from Belfast, there are "2/3 weekly sailings", and from Dublin there are "2/3 weekly sailings". A masterpiece!

How on earth anyone is supposed to plan a journey defeats me - it will probably also defeat a lot of people who might otherwise have felt tempted to visit the Island.

It suggests to me that we are being told.. well we have got a timetable, but we don't run to it anyway, so we'll keep it secret!! 

Yours, in despair

Jenny Williamson

January 20, 2025