A damaged engine on the Steam Packet's seacat Manannan will take longer to repair than expected.

It means slower journey times during the Festival of Motorcycling and further rescheduling. Passengers are being warned to check for updates to the service.

Steam Packet chief executive Mark Woodward said: 'The extent of the repairs needed could not be fully assessed until Manannan was withdrawn from service on Wednesday and engine specialists were able to have full and detailed access to the engine.

'Unfortunately, the level of work required is greater than we had hoped and will require specialist machining of the engine block. This is a difficult repair which can only be carried out by a small number of specialist firms. We must now wait until these specialists are available to us.

'We are working hard to ensure the repairs are conducted as quickly as possible, but we are unable to restore Manannan to four engines in time for the Festival of Motorcycling. This will lead to slightly longer journey times and we will try to minimise inconvenience by announcing a revised schedule as soon as possible, so passengers can plan their travel.'


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