Marine | Boatyard

After various delays caused by Covid and “supply chain problems” the two new mark laying boats and the HDPE sampan are complete and are either on board container ships or have arrived in Hong Kong. However, being loaded on board a ship these days does not mean that there are no more delays.

Members who have had new boats arriving from overseas will be aware that there have been many delays in worldwide shipping causing their boats to arrive well after the scheduled dates in Hong Kong. The Club has fared no better with our new boats.

After being handed over on 30 May the sampan was loaded into a container on 8 June and taken to the port of Rotterdam. The container was booked on board HMM Mir but someone forgot to put the container on the loading plan so the HMM Mir sailed off into the distance leaving the sampan behind. As there is a weekly service the box was due to be loaded on the next ship, the Linah, which was due to arrive in Hong Kong on 7 August. The box was duly picked up on 22 July and off the Linah sailed to her next port of call, Hamburg. It was at this time that the dock workers in Hamburg decided to go on strike and so the Linah anchored off Hamburg waiting to dock. After docking two weeks later the Linah set off for Antwerp where she berthed on 10 July. On 14 July the Linah left Antwerp, sailed down the river Sheldt, went out to sea, turned around and sailed back up the river to Antwerp. The first mark layer, the Noel Croucher II, left the boatyard on the Isle of White on 6 June and was lifted ashore in Southampton the same day. She was due to be shrink wrapped and loaded on to a flat rack container so that a ship named CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin could pick her up on 22 June. so the Tosca did a little side trip to Antwerp on the way to Rotterdam, possibly she needed more petrol as well, and arrived in Rotterdam on the 14th. A short stay in Rotterdam for the NCII and then on to the CSCL Star to be taken out to Hong Kong. But as said above nothing is easy in shipping and the CSCL Star headed off

Sitting in Southampton waiting for wrapping and loading on to the flat rack

However due to “Scheduling Issues” the was changed for the CMA CGM Bourgainville with an ETA of the 25th. On the 21st the shipping company decided that the CMA CGM Bourgainville would no longer call at Southampton, as she was late on her schedule and so the NCII was then to be shipped on the CMA CGM Tosca to Rotterdam where she would be transhipped on board the Cosco Belgium. As appears to happen to all ships

these days the Tosca was delayed and so would miss the connection to the Cosco Belgium. Ah well never mind, NCII could go on the CSCL Star instead, which at this time was in Pireaus in Greece !

Finally on 10 July the NCII was loaded on board the CMA CGM Tosca and departed Southampton for Rotterdam to be transhipped. But in shipping nothing is ever straightforward to Hamburg where she sat at anchor, moored beside the sampan on board the Linah for a few days, for 10 days due to, yes you are correct, the dock workers being on strike.

At the date of writing this, 28 July, the CSCL Star has just left Hamburg for Zeebrugge, Valencia, Singapore, Xiamen, Nansha and finally Hong Kong, where the ETA is 29 August.

The second Seaward boat is presently sitting in Southampton waiting for the Brussels Express to pick her up but, surprise, surprise the BE has been sitting at anchor, yes you guessed it, off Humbug, sorry Hamburg, since 22 July and is not due to dock till at least 7 August. And then, to round off the trip the BE will call at Antwerp before heading to Southampton.

So, if you see any of the new boats on the course for the Autumn Regatta, on 17 September, it will not be thanks to the shipping companies.

The track of Linah from and to Antwerp as reported on the ships AIS tracker

The official excuse for this was that the ship did not have enough petrol on board to get to her next stop, Southampton, so had to go back and fill up. Two days later the Linah eventually left and sailed to Southampton. Surprisingly there were no delays or strikes in the UK and the Linah set sail for Suez where she transited on 27 July. We are unreliably advised that the Linah will arrive in HK on 15 August but are not holding our breath.