Since I have started the blog I have been trying to pin down the Ships Operations Manager Owen Barry for an interview. Owen is a busy man but I told him I was annoyed when I saw him giving a scoop to the Irish Examiner over my blog.
This week I told Owen I would do a blog on him and fill in the blanks if he did not come into me. Wisely Owen came into see me this morning.
As I said Owen is the Ships Operation Manager and hails from Timoleague in West Cork.
Owen has been involved in the shipping industry for 15 years now. He previously worked with Irish Ferries. He also spent some time with BP in Singapore & Texas.
Owen is a key person in getting the Julia ready for action. Of his many duties working with the ports of Cork & Swansea, suppliers & crewing are keeping him busy at the moment.
Fuel costs in a year could be as high as €4m running the Julia so getting the best deal possible is vital for Fastnet line. On a sailing between Cork/Swansea the Julia could use up to 20,000 litres of fuel on her engines & 8,000 on the generators.
Owen said service speed would be around 19 knots as the Julia cruises across the Irish Sea.
Among the other duties that the ships Operation Manager is responsible for are
Overseeing safety procedures for the company
Moving to new offices at Ringaskiddy
Talking to customs & immigration in Cork & Swansea
A big decision to make is where the Julia will go to dry dock for her annual survey in Jan/Feb. Price and Quality of work will be the major factors in deciding this.
Owen said Fastnet Line is a close team which will work well for the company. If you give me the scoops Owen it could even be closer?
Prices
We had hoped to have our prices online this week. Apologies for the slight delay. We will go live with prices next Thursday the 10th of Dec in the afternoon or early evening. Thank you for your patience.
Other news - Ann Cronin started this week as Sales Manager for Fastnet Line. I am sure we will be hearing more about Ann on the blog soon.
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