14th May 2007

Captain is suspended after Condor collision

An HD Ferries captain was suspended after his catamaran collided with a vessel from rival Condor Ferries. He later resigned. No passengers had been aboard at the time but it was an unfortunate incident for HD Ferries, which had only started running its service between the Channel Islands and France two months earlier.

Tricky beginnings

The service had got off to a difficult start, with the first crossing from St Helier suffering engine problems, delaying its arrival when it made the journey on just three of its four engines. On its second day, it cancelled a crossing, and offered passengers a refund, or tickets for Condor. On the fourth day, it cancelled crossings from Guernsey because of the height of the waves, and the following day all crossings from both Guernsey and Jersey were cancelled for the same reason.

The 14 May collision wasn’t the only coming together that HD Ferries and Condor suffered that year, either. Just over two months later, an HD Ferries vessel was coming into port at St Helier, this time with passengers aboard, when it struck a Condor vessel that was loading passengers for a crossing to the mainland.

The Condor ferry was only scratched but the HD Ferries vessel was holed in several places. The holes were above the waterline, so there was no imminent danger of sinking, but it put the vessel – HD1 – out of action until a repair could be actioned.