Member Info for Si_Derman

I noticed on JW's profile that before he came to Infrastrata, as a consultant on FEED for IM, that he worked for a company named Teramar. At first I thought it might be the same one that Francisco Porras was involved with. But it appears not, different spelling (Terramare) and that's a relatively new company. Then we have one the recent addition to the H&W family, Kraken Marine Servcies, that just so happens to have a vessel named the KMS Terramare.

Coincidence?

Spooky X-files moments. :)

Oh, btw, a couple more vessels for the fleet might turn up eventually.

It will be be interesting to see the details. Type of vessel, age, condition, etc.

Stokey, the Valonia is anchored off Hugh Town on St Marys. It's been working with some survey vessels over there on the Scilly Islands.

SSG reasons for not using the LUF on the signing of both the shipyard contracts and the loan agreement.

1. LUF is not a grant. It is not free money. The Company would have to pay a substantial annual lease charge for the use of the vessels.

2. There was a high risk of challenge from other shipyards as our procurement process, although rigorous, did not follow a public procurement process. There was also a risk of challenge from other operators due to the initial operation of the route under LUF being awarded directly to the Company.

3. If these risks of challenge materialised, which was highly likely, this would result in further delays of potentially 2 years, resulting in new vessels not being in operation until 2028 as a result of having to restart a new public procurement process and to respond to legal challenges. This would mean significantly higher build costs and also a great deal of Company money having to be spent fighting the challenges.

4. The current vessels are over 40 years old and in urgent need of replacement. Any delay beyond 2026 will result in more disruption to the service and increasingly higher maintenance costs.

5. There was no certainty with LUF. The money was not guaranteed from Government. It may never have materialised. The Company had already waited over 2 years following the announcement of funding being awarded but there was still no mechanism in place to obtain the funding. Private finance ensures certainty that the vessels will be in the water by 2026.

6. A condition of the LUF is that the level of profit generated by the sea link operation would be restricted to a “reasonable level”. This restriction in profit to this level would have meant the Company could not provide the current level of support to Skybus for its capital expenditure requirements. Therefore Skybus prices would have to increase by at least 25% which would be a detrimental outcome for the community and would consequentially reduce the number of visitors to the islands. Although we raised concerns with officials on the impact this condition would have on Skybus fares, our concerns were rejected.

7. The Company would have to tender for the operation every 5-7 years, meaning not only a huge amount of cost - both financial and time - having to undergo a tender process, but also uncertainty for existing employees and difficulty in recruiting new or replacement employees.

8. The Company would not have full control of its own business as it would have minor representation on the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Board.

9. Long term, the private finance route is more financially favourable as the loan repayments would stop in 20 years (reducing each year throughout that period) but the lease payment under LUF would continue forever and most likely increase.

https://www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Fact-Sheet-funding.pdf

Response by John Wood

2 m ·

"Harland & Wolff's plans for the Isles of Scilly have always comprised three pillars: fast ferry, freight and levelling-up-funded ro-pax vessels. We will continue to progress the activity within our gift and look forward to the launch of our fast ferry service in May alongside the growth and development of H&W Marine Services, formerly KMS, through which we aim to provide more than 50% of the freight market.

We continue to believe that the most sustainable and affordable year-round fares for islanders can only be achieved through utilisation of levelling up funding and fear that residents and businesses will suffer if this once-in-a-generation funding is lost.

But that is not in our gift, whereas our other plans are, and we look forward to working with the community to deliver faster and more competitive services very soon."

Thanks, K. Heb.

https://www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk/2024/01/shipyard-contracts-signed/

Pidgeons meet un chat. :)

Must get a better search engine. I've got nowt showing up. Even tried this new fangled linkydink.

Gis a clue.

Btw. I had an inkling. It has now become a suspicion. Just sayin'. ;)

Seems an unnecessary, or maybe unfortunate burden for the staff of the SSG to endure, in regards to their furure.

"lease costs " Nah, she'll be right, We've got a MoU with Austal. No worries.

Glad we got the Searose contract or Cenovus would of had to look out for a buyout. :)

But isn't that exactly what you have been saying for ages, BT. That if they sign the contract with the French company then the LUF goes away. The council just don't seem happy with a 20 year debt of £m's to claw back through the sea links service.

This will end up with the SSG having to use H&W to build the ferries on threat of being put out of business. As i've said before, brinksmanship by JW.

"newbuilds in Commercial" I would assume would be Cory barges.

Did see this earlier and didn't think much had changed. Here's both letters for reference.

https://www.scilly.gov.uk/news/response-secretary-state-levelling-housing-and-communities-regarding-sea-link

Nice set of pics. Re-bar for groundworks/foundations, Songa Crystal in the BDD, MAS Islander at the SRQ and keel blocks in the BBD ready for the SeaRose. :)

You obviously didn't beat the boss at the end of level 2 that revealed these chunky trades.

Maybe they will show up after hours. ;)

Back on topic of the thread for a sec.

"Of course they meet early Feb, you need to line them up with the JR appeal "

No, you can't purposely line them up with anything just to suit yourself. No more than you can go back and change the peaks and troughs of the sp, as shown on a chart. They will never change. They are a graphical representation of the history of sentiment on any given time frame. All you can do is draw a best fit trend line hitting as many of the highs or lows over a given period. I can choose to ignore intra day spikes as they are outliers, as they are significantly askew from other observations. The longer the period and the more repeated hits you get on those trend lines the better its veracity. A trend is only a trend until something comes along that is a better fit. Like flares. :) The shorter the time frame the more likely it is change. But confirmed trends over months and years give you a fair indication of how things have panned out. And to a degree, an indication of how they "might" continue. It's not an exact science, after all. Just a tool.

This is the long term chart that Lottie refers.

https://invst.ly/131p3b

Nobody can go back and change it. The upper and lower trends just happen to converge around the third week in February. I don't honestly know the date of the JR without checking. I have an idea it's February march time. Gawd only knows when and if they get the finance deal sorted. I can't aim the trend line for anything I think might happen in the future. They cross where they cross. If you move them to suit something, then they don't fit with the given data. You might get away with that sort of manipulation over a short period. Many try that and constantly change their POV. Don't think you can get away with that for longer time frames. imo

Compare that chart to one that shows significant news activity over the same period.

https://invst.ly/131pez

We have had more and more contracts of increasing value and indications of better and better prospects in the future. Yet over that time, it's done what? Has it bucked that trend? Besides obvious spikes, that is. And how did things go after those much hyped up spikes. More of the same, I would say. More importantly, and I think the most important thing, how did you percieve it was going at the time and what was your reaction to any given news item, contract, warm words from JW.

I know what I did. And was happy to rely on the chart for guidance rather than listen to the overwhelming noise of others.

And, I will continue to do so. :)

Thanks, K. Hope it all works out for him and his crew.

Yes, the 3,800km Xlinks Morocco to UK project coming ashore a stones throw from Appledore.

https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/

Can you stick to H&W related topics please. Tenuous links via defence or politics are not either, imo.

I'm sure there are places you can go to vent your spleen about such issues with people that might GAF.

HF, you should hire yourself out with your obvious skill set. Raining on parades, bubble bursting, party pooping... etc.

Or maybe even a squib dampening service.

Cheer up you old bugger. Come on, give us a grin. ;)

Oop, sent in haste.

Answer to the question of H&W's role.

I took the 40 vendors bit to mean 40 different trades/specialists each doing their own part.

K, "We know the vendor supporting redesign of corridors ....."

This from a few weeks ago from the main man.

"Incredibly honored to have my company, Terramare, participate in the renovation of the hashtag#MargaritavilleIslander, alongside a team of exceptionally talented individuals who share Terramare’s vision: to be a trusted leader in project management construction consultancy in the marine industry. This dream has been in the works for the past 5 years, and I am beyond grateful for this opportunity. Excited to be a part of this journey."

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7147916458440679424/

Lets see if Jim D gets an answer