The Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) has drawn a line in the sand, setting four conditions that must be met before Goundar Shipping Ltd can operate its newly imported high-speed ferry, Captain Inoke.
The vessel, which arrived in Suva on January 3, has remained docked at the Suva Wharf since, amid an ongoing regulatory standoff.
MSAF chief executive officer Joeli Cawaki said the ferry – the first of its kind in Fiji arrived without being surveyed and bypassed key regulatory processes.
“From January 3, until now, it has been there at Walu Bay,” Mr Cawaki said.
“We have been going to and fro, MSAF to Goundar Shipping, back to MSAF.
“Our surveyors were supposed to survey the vessel in Korea before it leaves. Unfortunately, that did not happen and it left.
“It left Korea with the Mongolian flag. That is the flag of the country where the boat is registered.”
Cawaki confirmed that Captain Inoke had not been issued a provisional registration or survey certificate.
“This vessel is a high-speed craft vessel.
“It comes under a regulation or convention called the High-Speed Craft Code.
“And for us, this is the first of the high-speed craft vessel that has come into the country. So we are trying to accommodate, and our technical team have gone to the vessel.”
To allow operations, MSAF has given Goundar Shipping four mandatory requirements.
“We need all documents for us to see that it can operate in Fiji.
“So that is the seesaw that has been going on from January until today.
“We had tried to facilitate him (Goundar Shipping) within the current legislation that we have, but unfortunately for us, we don’t have a High-Speed Craft Code domestically for us to be able to enforce.
“And also, this is a special type of vessel. The crew needs to be trained, and the operators need to be trained.
“And also, for us, our surveyors need to be trained in surveying of this vessel, which we do not have, but we tried to, because the vessel is already in the country.
“We tried to make it easy for Goundar Shipping some leeways, or some options for him to be able to qualify with some of these conditions that we are putting forward.
“We’ve written this set of conditions, it came back, no, we are not going to go with those conditions.”
MSAF issued a fresh letter yesterday reinforcing its requirements.
“That he (Goundar Shipping) produces a docking report of the last dock, and because it’s an aluminium vessel, that he produce a thickness report of the hull.
“And thirdly, that he produced the last classification report from the classification society that was looking after the vessel.
“And fourthly, that we are going to do a sea trial of the vessel to determine the speed, and we can lock a safe speed for him to operate in Fiji.
“We understand that the speed goes up to 45 to 50 knots. No vessel in Fiji has done that. Even some adventure from Yasawa flyer, it goes up to 15 to 20 knots.
“Those are the four conditions that we are telling him. If he comes up and addresses all these four, then we can allow with other conditions to register it and operate in Fiji.”
Attempts to obtain comment from Goundar Shipping were unsuccessful when this edition went to press.
