The iconic Waverley Paddle Steamer’s Solent visit has been cut short due to the adverse weather.
Due to forecasted strong winds and expected swell conditions, Waverley’s sailing from Southampton, Yarmouth and Portsmouth over the next 2 days have been cancelled.
The paddle steamer has now repositioned to Gravesend ahead of her planned Thames sailings on 22nd September.
The Clyde steamer was launched in 1946 to serve the communities of Lochgoilhead and Arrochar in the Scottish Highlands. In 1974, after a lifetime of service, she was sold by Caledonian MacBrayne to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society for £1 and began a 2nd career as a much-loved tourist attraction.
Since then, she has carried more than 6million passengers from over 60 ports around the UK. Waverley first visited the South Coast in 1978 and last called at Ryde almost 10 years ago.
I wonder if services would have been cancelled when she was a working ferry in the Scottish Highlands and Health and Safety had no place in society.?
Yea and innocent passengers lost their lives in the name of Profit First.
People who moan about health and safety are people who do not understand health and safety and are the first to shout ‘this should not be allowed’ when someone is killed at work or some public space.
Obviously a sensible thing to do, what I would expect from a
Mainland Company.
On the Island Health and safety is shoddy!!
Waverley sailed in the Firth of Clyde from her first commission until the 1970s. It is only since her preservation that she has ventured south and out to sea. The seas south of the IOW are much more challenging than the Kyles of Bute. The Highland ships tended to be Turbine Screw Steamers, the last of which was TSS King George V. Quite apart from Health and Safety, Waverley rolls spectacularly in a heavy swell!
Well said! She is after all, primarily a ship designed for Clyde area excursions, not a sea-going ferry…