{"id":304660,"date":"2025-10-21T02:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=304660"},"modified":"2025-10-21T00:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:13:27","slug":"spirit-of-tasmania-iv-ship-unable-to-dock-at-interim-berth-at-point-henry-in-geelong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=304660","title":{"rendered":"Spirit of Tasmania IV ship unable to dock at interim berth at Point Henry in Geelong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
State-owned ferry operator TT-Line has been forced to scrap plans to dock Spirit of Tasmania IV at a berth in Point Henry in Geelong after a safety assessment found it was not strong enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newly constructed Spirit of Tasmania IV was going to be stored there temporarily after leaving Hobart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spirit IV, which has been getting its final fit-out over the past two months, has been moored at Hobart’s Macquarie Wharf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wharf is used by many cruise ships that visit over the summer, meaning it cannot stay there.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nThe new ships can carry more people and freight than the old vessels. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
While it was originally set to be temporarily stationed at Point Henry at the Port of Geelong, TT-Line has confirmed “a mooring safety assessment indicated that the berth required infrastructure works”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, it will need to be moved between different berths at the Port of Geelong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
“As there is no viable option in Tasmania, the vessel will be temporarily stored at the Port of Geelong at a combination of Spirit’s existing terminal, at anchor and at a nearby berth,” a TT-Line spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\nThe government explored leasing opportunities to recoup some costs, but in the end the ship came to Hobart.(Supplied: Andy Marriott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The ABC understands that a recent safety assessment found the berth would need two additional bollards for the ship to berth there, at a cost of $2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ship was due to leave Hobart for Geelong on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spirit IV will be stored at the Port of Geelong until it can enter service, which is expected to be in late 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TT-Line has previously said that even at anchor, it was cheaper to keep the ship in Geelong than Hobart, because of crewing requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Geelong requires a 12-person crew on board, while in Hobart it is required to have a 22-person crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ship was due to leave Hobart for Geelong on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":304661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,35],"tags":[4598,8573,18500,8],"class_list":["post-304660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","tag-geelong","tag-hobart","tag-spirit-of-tasmania","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304666,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304660\/revisions\/304666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/304661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7bbe41879321fb120f517caf2bf02a32.avif\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e931b6f1904bc376aff45f60a8d51339.avif\")