During early June, Channel Island based shipping company Huelin-Renouf announced that it had terminated its contract with German shipbuilder NesseWerft Leer GmbH in Leer, Germany, to supply a new vessel for its Southampton-Jersey/Guernsey freight route. The decision was made after the shipyard failed to complete an order on time for a bespoke 85m-long, 3,600tdw replacement cargo vessel scheduled for December 2008. The ship had been specially designed to operate within Jersey and Guernsey's harbours with capacity for 148 containers. Huelin-Renouf has shipped supplies from the UK to the islands since 1935.

The ship, commissioned by Huelin-Renouf, was due to replace the 30-year-old Huelin Dispatch, which the company sold in December 2008. Initially the delays forced the temporary charter of the 1983-built Soul Sound (2,046grt) and this has now been swapped for Coastal Wave, a sistership from this series of ships. Huelin Renouf are now considering buying second-hand tonnage in the interim whilst looking at other shipbuilders to commission a vessel that will become the new Huelin Dispatch.

In December 2008 the company had also moved its UK operation over the New Year holiday and is now based at Southampton’s Eastern Docks, where a £6 million specially commissioned container ship terminal had been completed. The new facility is the result of a 25-year partnership development with Associated British Ports.

Andrew Cooke