Portsmouth-based shiprepairer Fleet Support Limited (FSL) has agreed a multi-million pound deal with leading cross-Solent ferry operator Wightlink to dock its fleet of eight ro-pax ships for the next three years.

FSL will use its Portsmouth Naval Base facilities to dock Wightlink’s fleet of five Saint Class ships, including their flagship St Clare, and three smaller C Class vessels, with the contract starting this winter and continuing until winter 2009/2010.

FSL will carry out annual surveys and refit maintenance, including engine and Voith Schneider propulsion unit overhauls, and painting. The programme will allocate around two weeks for work on each ship and the initial timetable will extend from next month to the end of March, with double dockings where appropriate.

Wightlink operates 5 Saint Class ships on its Portsmouth-Fishbourne route and the 3 C Class ships offer services between Lymington in the New Forest and Yarmouth in the west of the Island. Wightlink carry over 5.6 million passengers; 1.2 million cars; 19,000 coaches and over 171,000 freight vehicles per year over its three routes, which also include a dedicated FastCat foot passenger service between Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier Head

Wightlink returned to FSL in winter 2005/6 after a period of several years away and expressed considerable satisfaction with FSL’s performance. This latest work provides a further boost to Naval Base workloads and  FSL’s commercial shiprepair activity.

FSL Engineering and Ship Support Director Mal Lewis explained: “We are now much more in tune with the demands of commercial customers and able to respond to their needs. This long-term agreement with Wightlink confirms our position as the leading shiprepair location on the UK South Coast.”

 

Wightlink General Operations Manager John Burrows added: “We were encouraged by FSL’s performance last winter and have found their “Team Portsmouth” approach to commercial shiprepair refreshing and good value. We are confident they can deliver the high standards of work that we seek, helping us to maintain the high availability of services that we provide to the island.”