The recently completed ferry Spirit of Tasmania IV arriving in Leith on 4 December 2024 to lay up. She will not enter service for a couple of years, and is destined for a lay-up Scotland.
JAMES PRENTICE
The harbour at Leith, near Edinburgh, will be the home for a brand-new 48,000gt Australian ferry for as long as the next two years. Delivered by Finland’s Rauma Marine Yard in September 2024, Spirit of Tasmania IV made the short journey south and will stay in Scotland due to long delays in the construction of the new berth she and her sister, Spirit of Tasmania V, launched in February and now fitting out, will use at Devonport. The two ships are to be used for sailings to Tasmania.
Designed to carry 1,800 passengers and 600 cars, the pair will have bowand stern-loading operations, and be powered by twin Wärtsilä diesel engines, for a service speed of approximately 26 knots. Amid the berth problems controversy, Australia’s Infrastructure minister, Michael Ferguson, and TT’s chairman, Mike Grainger, both resigned in August 2024, a month before delivery of Spirit of Tasmania IV.