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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen
Category: More News More News
Published: 02 September 2013 02 September 2013

Funchal has left Gothenburg at 1613 local time for Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, according to Marinetraffic.com shipping traffic information website.

 

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Funchal, the 1961 built cruise liner of the Lisbon based start up cruise shipping company Portuscale Cruises, may be able to sail from Gothenburg in Sweden as planned today, said Tomas Astrom, head of the maritime and aviation unit at the Board of Transport in Sweden.

The vessel, which is on charter to a Swedish tour operator, was detained in Gothenburg last week. Astrom said in a live interview on the P4 radio network that among the problems detected was that the ship did not have passenger certificate, its watertight doors did not close properly and that fire fighting equipment did not meet requirements.

“We have a dialogue with the class (classification society – Bureau Veritas). We will go on board and to go through the list of problems that we have detected,” Astrom said.

Funchal has undergone a major refit and Astrom says Portuscale had given the short time frame of the refit and the amount of work that had to be done as a reason to the problems fond on board. Work has been in progress on board throughout the weekend and provided the problems are rectified, it may sail on a cruise to Sotland with 400 passengers later today.

“Funchal may sail today with passengers if it receives passenger certificate,” Astrom added.

Portuscale Cruises acquired four vessels from creditors of Classic International Cruises (CIC) that collapsed last year. Funchal has retained its original name, while Porto traded as Arion for CIC and started life as Yugoslavian Istra. The Lisboa sailed as Princess Danae for CIC, while Azores was called Athena under the CIC house flag.