Yet more offers made to rescue Finnjet from being scrapped
Doubts raised on unofficial website over possible Indian buyers
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As the clock ticks down, new groups of entrepreneurs have appeared with a view to rescuing Finnjet, a cruise ferry which was built in Helsinki in 1977 by Wärtsilä, from being scrapped and broken up in India.
The most recent potential Finnish buyer is Mauri Murotie, a businessman from Pori, who claims that he negotiated with ”well-established backers” on Wednesday over purchasing the ship in order to bring it back to Finland.
According to Murotie, the prospective Finnish buyers were not willing to acquire the vessel, with a price-tag in excess of EUR 7 million, without first assessing its present condition with their own eyes.
In the meantime, Indian buyers got there first, snapping up the ship for a price of EUR 8.2 million.
Murotie reported to Helsingin Sanomat that the Indian owners plan to use the vessel for scheduled traffic.
Two brokerage firms have been offering Finnjet for sale. One of them, US Shipbrokers, still had an advertisement for the vessel on its website on Wednesday.
Murotie’s plans for the former gas turbine ferry were first reported by the Finnish daily newspaper Satakunnan Kansa.
On Wednesday, the Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat published a secret condition assessment that had been carried out in Genoa last spring. According to the survey, Finnjet is in tip-top condition.
At the time of its delivery from the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki in 1977, GTS Finnjet was the fastest, longest, and largest car ferry in the world, and the only one powered by gas turbine engines.
The large passenger ferry, which became familiar to tens of thousands of Finnish tourists over a period of nearly 30 years, sailed between Finland and Germany over the period from 1977 to 2004. Rising fuel costs proved its undoing.
The Dutch-owned Club Cruise Lines purchased Finnjet last year from the former parent company of Silja Line, Sea Containers, and in January the vessel was re-christened M/V Da Vinci.
Finnjet was brought back across the Atlantic to the Italian city of Genoa. However, Club Cruise then fell into economic difficulties and sold the ship, which left Genoa for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in May.
Somewhat later Finnjet, presently sailing under another new name Kingdom, left the port of Jeddah heading for Mumbai in India.
Only when the news reached Finland that the vessel was on her way to India for potential scrapping did Finns start hankering after the iconic ship, wishing they could get Finnjet back home.
The unofficial website and forum Finnjetweb.com has expressed scepticism about the existence of possible Indian buyers, and some posters fear that the ship's fate remains very much in the balance.
The site has attempted to garner funding to buy back the vessel.
Previously in HS International Edition:
Businessmen still trying to rescue Finnjet (27.5.2008)
Finnjet might not be scrapped after all (15.5.2008)
GTS Finnjet headed for breaker´s yard (7.5.2008)
Finnjet houses Katrina evacuees (20.12.2005)
Links:
GTS Finnjet (Wikipedia)
Finnjetweb.com, a unofficial site and forum maintained by devotees of the vessel
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 5.6.2008 - TODAY |
Yet more offers made to rescue Finnjet from being scrapped
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