Spirit of Tasmania ferries ditch autopilot in Port Phillip Bay after steering faults

Spirit IV was nearing Geelong on its fifth-ever passenger voyage last Thursday when its primary steering system failed, according to ABC News. The fault hit as control switched from autopilot to manual mode. Crew fell back on a back-up steering system and a tugboat escorted the ferry into port, pushing its arrival about four hours late.

It wasn't the first scare. Sister ship Spirit V briefly drifted outside the bay's charted shipping lane during a trial voyage in October after a separate steering fault. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is now investigating both incidents.

TT-Line chairman Ken Kanofski called last week's failure a “frustratingly minor issue” on Monday, telling 936 ABC Hobart that an inspection in Geelong found a problem with mechanical electrical processes inside the steering console itself. He said he didn't want to prejudice the ongoing investigation by declaring everything resolved.

The fix for now: no autopilot when approaching or leaving Geelong. “So at the moment, we're not using autopilot in the bay, in Geelong, in Port Phillip Bay,” Kanofski said. The system is still used once the ships reach the open waters of Bass Strait, and it was never used for arrivals and departures at Devonport, where the short run through the heads has always been handled manually.

A TT-Line spokesperson told the ABC there are “no plans to resume the use of autopilot for all channel and close quarter navigation,” with the situation to be reviewed once the ATSB report lands by the middle of next year. Meanwhile, Spirit IV ran what TT-Line described as a “planned, routine check of its equipment” off Devonport on Sunday, posting that it was part of keeping the vessel “maintained at the highest possible level of safety.”