When Do Ferries Stop Sailing?

The Master of the vessel will determine if a sailing is delayed, changed, or cancelled due to weather conditions. They have made a detailed assessment of conditions using their knowledge and experience. If a strike occurs, all passengers affected will be notified as soon as the local port authority makes an official announcement. Passengers traveling by car or other vehicles will be contacted via telephone if their sailing is cancelled.

To help plan your next sailing, view our cross Channel ferry timetables to France and Spain. Departure and arrival times may vary up to 1 hour due to tidal conditions. If your sailing is affected by any disruption, Direct Ferries Limited will contact you via SMS or email with the most up-to-date information and options available to you.

Direct Ferries Limited is an appointed representative of ITC Compliance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the World Leading Website for Online Ferry Booking. For the latest sailing information and travel updates, please check the sailings update page first or view the Twitter feed.

In the event of adverse weather conditions, ferries are usually cancelled if it is too sunny, too rainy, the wind puffs up more than a gentle breeze, or the tide is too high. Ferries would typically be cancelled only in stormy, rather than cold weather.

The ferry does not sail during Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, or New Year’s Day. To help plan your next sailing, view and print our ferry timetables to France and Spain. The ferry runs from mid-May to mid-October, depending on weather conditions.

Are ferries or planes safer?

According to the modes of travel researched for the DOT study, ferry boars are far and away the safest way to travel. Are boats safer than planes? In general, yes. While the type of boat will make a difference, the low incidence of fatalities involving ferry boats bodes well for other types of pleasure boats, including liners.

During the years covered in this study, there were four deaths that involved travel on ferry boats. In short, using a ferry to get where you want to go is one of the safest ways to travel.

Not all accidents involving travel result in death. There are times when you may be traveling by these and other means, only to find that you are injured abroad in some manner. Those injuries may be minor enough to require nothing more than a trip to a doctor and some medication to facilitate healing. At other times, they may lead to a loss of income do to missing work, the need for a hospital stay and possibly surgery, and could involve a recuperative period that includes undergoing physical therapy.

There’s also the chance that the event could lead to some sort of permanent loss of mobility or other impairment that alters your life forever. Whatever the situation, know that you do have the option of seeking compensation through legal means.

Do ferries sail in high winds?

If it’s up to force 8 you should be OK. Above that there may be cancellations, depending on the wind direction.

Why would a ferry be cancelled?

Disrupted or cancelled sailings. Every effort is made to maintain advertised schedules but sailing times can sometimes be disrupted due to technical, operational or weather related issues. However, if your sailing is cancelled we will do everything possible to transfer you onto the next available Irish Ferries sailing. When making your booking please provide us with your mobile phone number and we will endeavour to make contact with you in the event of any major disruption. Please note that no refund is applicable if due to adverse weather conditions, the Dublin Swift is cancelled and travel is undertaken on our cruise ferry service.

How windy does it have to be to cancel a ferry?

Vessel Manoeuvring Limiting Windspeed. When the sustained wind speed within the harbour or at the relevant berth exceeds 40 knots, strong gale force 9, the movement of a vessel should not be undertaken.

Bunkering Operations. Strong winds and accompanying swell, principally from a SW’ly direction, may at times adversely affect the manoeuvring of the bunker barge and the safety of bunkering operations.

The severity of these effects will also vary depending on the tidal height and berth location. During any bunkering operations, and particularly in these circumstances, the need for established and clear radio communication between the vessels’ masters and port control is essential.

Has a ferry ever capsized?

MS Herald of Free Enterprise was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew.

The eight-deck car and passenger ferry was owned by Townsend Thoresen, designed for rapid loading and unloading on the competitive cross-channel route between Dover and Calais. As was common at the time, it was built with no watertight compartments. The ship left harbour with her bow door open, and the sea immediately flooded the decks; within minutes, she was lying on her side in shallow water. The immediate cause of the capsizing was found to be negligence by the assistant boatswain, who was asleep in his cabin when he should have been closing the bow door. However, the official inquiry placed more blame on his supervisors and a general culture of poor communication in Townsend Thoresen. The vessel was salvaged, put up for sale, and sold to Naviera SA Kingstown on 30 September 1987, renamed Flushing Range. It was taken to Taiwan on 22 March 1988 to be scrapped.

Since the disaster, improvements have been made to the design of RORO vessels, with watertight ramps, indicators showing the position of the bow doors, and banning of undivided decks.

Can ferries go in rain?

Ferries overturned by weather & why it’s rare:. Reputable ferry companies will always cancel the planned journey if weather is unsuitable and will stop at the next port if weather suddenly becomes dangerous during the journey. The Princess of the Stars, Toya Maru, Shamia, and Cahaya Bahari all sank in storms & typhoons after the ferry operators decided to continue with the planned journey. However, these ferries all came from countries with less strict laws than most western countries so a trip between two developed nations is unlikely to still go ahead in a storm. There generally isn’t any need to worry if weather conditions are perfect and it’s very unusual for ferries to set sail in dangerous conditions.

The Princess of the Stars sank in the Philippines, which used to be known for having the most dangerous ferry travel on Earth. However, starting in 2016 they have begun to completely transform.

Transforming Ferry Safety in the Philippines – where The Princess of the Stars sank.

What wind speed makes the sea rough?

Strong prevailing winds and large combined seas. Sustained winds of 22 – 33 knots (Beaufort Scale 6 – 7) capable of driving seas of 10 – 18 feet. At Beaufort Scale 6, larger waves form. Spray is present with white foam crests everywhere. At Beaufort Scale 7, even larger waves form, but seas begin to heap up. White foam is present and blowing in streaks. Bay and inland waters becoming very rough. Conditions typical for a “Small Craft Advisory”.

Prevailing winds and combined seas are moderate. Sustained winds of 17 – 21 knots (Beaufort Scale 5) capable of driving seas of 7 – 9 feet. Moderate waves but with a more pronounced long form. Bay and inland waters becoming rough. Conditions typical for a “Small Craft Advisory”.

Prevailing winds and combined seas becoming moderate. Sustained winds around 14 – 16 knots (Beaufort Scale 4) capable of driving seas of 4 – 6 feet. Small to moderate waves but with a long form. Bay and inland waters becoming choppy. Conditions typical for “Small Craft To Exercise Caution”.

Are ferries safe in storms?

Fortunately, overcrowded ferries are sometimes only a major problem when coupled with other causes, such as weather. An overcrowded ferry is far more likely to capsize in a storm than one that isn’t. So even on the off chance your ferry is weighed down, your chances are still better if weather conditions are perfect.

Ferries sank by poor maintenance & why it isn’t a concern:. Not maintaining a ferry can cause many safety issues to arise. Making DIY repairs, not attending to issues that concern the vessel being watertight, and not carrying out regular checks are all common causes of ships sinking. Due to most modern vessels having watertight sections, a small breach is unlikely to become a major issue. At the very least, the crew will have time to get the ship to the next port before the passengers are put in danger. It would also take a lot of water to topple the ship, enough to majorly unbalance it. At Rapid we don’t use companies known for not maintaining their ships and check reviews carefully to ensure this type of negligence doesn’t affect our clients.

Zeebrugge. You might be wondering how to avoid falling victim to a capsize such as the MS Herald of the Sea (the famous Zeebrugge ferry from 1987) but there simply isn’t any need. Since that ferry capsized many improvements have been made to prevent that ever happening again. These include watertight ramps, indicators for the position of the bow doors and the banning of unmanned decks. The ship in question sank after the bow doors were left open. The fame of this ferry disaster has made it unlikely that these mistakes would be made again. Indicators for the position of the bow doors ensure that the Captain always knows if they are open or closed and leave port. Many vessels have removed the bow doors altogether. It was also the UK’s worst peacetime maritime disaster since 1919, showing how rare the incident was.

Is 15 knots ok for sailing?

The general rule is that 10–20 is ideal. Up to 25 knots is good for heavy offshore boats. Mine is a heavy 76-foot yawl. I have been out in 35–40 knot winds.

What is too windy for sailing?

What is too windy for sailing?. Generally, anything over 20 knots can be too much to handle for many sailors, especially if they’re in a gusty area. More experienced sailors will head out in up to 25 knots (gusting 30-32).

You should decide when to stay at the dock based on a variety of factors. These are:

Any deadlines you may have, such as a hurricane approaching.

The area you’re in – are there places where to shelter?

What wind speed do ferries stop running?

Where are you going on a five-hour hydrofoil trip? Hydrofoils were used mostly for trips in sheltered waters, but their numbers are now dwindling rapidly. Most of the ones in Greece were Soviet-built, and they are now coming to the ends of their lives. The Greek weather forecast is on emy.gr. Ferries are generally allowed to operate up to force 8 (a gale) but it depends greatly on the route and the direction of the wind. A hydrofoil would be unpleasantly bumpy on the open sea in a force 5, but their routes are generally sheltered by land, so it would depend on the direction of the wind.

The hydrofoils are being replaced by catamaran-hulled passenger vessels such as the one that travels from Crete to Mykonos and back.

The only Hydrofoils operating now are in the Saronic, N. Sporades islands or the Dodecanese. I suspect you actually mean a Catamaran hi-speed car ferry which are much larger, although there are a number of small foot passenger only ones. The wind speeds for Athens are no use at all, neither are averages. In the Aegean the Meltemi wind springs up for days on end and this can disrupt ferries, the small ones stop running the larger ones usually run late.