Queen of the Baltic's last Kingdom... sounds like some Bollywood movie.


Anyway, we're living interesting times. Also HS article mentions that Finnjet is currently stopped outside Jeddah until this week waiting for possible sale.

2 more articles about the boat:

http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-05-27,104:2:...
http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-05-27,104:2:...

Unfortunately didn't find anything in English

I quess Espoo option is out. Sorry, only in finnish -> http://www.iltalehti.fi/espoo/200805277710519_eo.shtml

Turku is anyway a better option as the ship can be parked in a very central location where combined ho(s)tel/exhibition/event/restaurant/museum facilities can be successfully offered!

FINNJETweb has now recruited already 15 voluntary crew members for the crossing, among these are also engineers, officers, masters and also other professionals including cooking crew.... We would be theoretically soon ready to man the ship and set sail whoever is ready to bring her back to Finland!

I would prefer usage for Jetti as a sailing wessel with temporary steady usage in several harbours in Baltic Sea. And with GTS status =)

Edit: I also wish to win few million euros in lottery, I already know how to use them =)

I started talking to the Europe-on-Tour project group again today http://www.europe-on-tour.com), they might be interested in helping to save Finnjet by operating her for some months per year as exhibition/trade fair ship. They said if the Finns interested in saving her have serious efforts and are also aware of all costs and possible incomes, they will reanimate their project. However, there must be someone still buying the ship and political contacts would be also necessary.

Apart from that I have heard of a possible active use of the ship in the Baltic Sea. The ship was surveyed in Genoa in mid april by the potential buyers and the inspection report clearly underlines in what perfect condition the ship is. I have no idea if the project is still seriously considered or if it was abandoned.

I'd presume the interested potential Baltic Sea operators were Stella Group, who bought Color Lines' Christian IV instead, as previously noted by Ilja. I somewhat doubt there would have been two fairly serious candidates for buying her this spring from the same area.

Apart from that, it would be great if the Europe-on-Tour people could be roped into participating saving the ship. Having her used as a ho(s)tel ship for most of the year (preferrably the summer months, obviously) and sailing as an exhibition ship for a few (winter) months per year would be pretty ideal. Apart from the returning her to the Finland-Germany service that is.

Deadline for bids is today -> http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjetin+tarjousten+takaraja+t%C3%A4n%C3%...

Finnjet waits still in Red Sea for byers -> http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjet+odottaa+yh%C3%A4+ostajia+Punaisell...

The later article says that Jetti was re-fuelled in Jeddah today and lays in anchor front of Jeddah at the moment. Article also tells that city councillor Kurt Byman from Espoo believes that the vessel won't get wrecked anymore. He also tells that he have get informed that claims about wrecking was US brokers way to fasten up business.

There also seems to be some obscurity about current ownership of the wessel and earlier mentioned business group from Turku doesn't have needed funds yet.

And there seems to be new bid from the States.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

The evening crowns the day! So we still can hope to see her back in any service.

I'll definitely keep my fingers crossed.

Let's all hope for Jetti.

http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-05-31,104:2:...

Investor group in Turku seems to have problems about where to locate the vessel in Turku. It also seems that financing isn't as clear as it should be :/

There's also mentioned that six membered investor group plans to get vessel for Turku-Tallinn lline.

Specialist (captain Teemu Laine) announcement is that the vessel needs complete overhaul, after impassive care of former/current owners. In other board was a unconfirmed rumor that theres a serious crack in the hull. this seems to be only rumor, hope so.

http://www.postimees.ee/030608/esileht/valisuudised/334760.php
Estonian newspaper Postimees writes, that Finnjet is again on the way to India, because investors from Turku didn't find the suitable place for her and the negotiations were not sucessful

Hello, a new poster reporting. As Ilja's link says as well, unfortunately the latest news in not great:

http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-06-03,104:2:...

The consortium led my Johnny Sid failed to raise enough funds to bring Finnjet in Turku. The main problem, according to the article, was that the investors were not ready to invest in the ship without a guaranteed mooring dock. The city of Turku was not able to offer one at such a short notice.

Apparently Finnjet has again left the harbour on it's way to India where scrapping her will proceed in a week's time.

The article again reiterates that the condition of her is very good with some bits of interior in "as new" condition. The only slightly grubby part apparently are slightly soiled tiles in the men's sauna.

PS. I have got hooked on the story of the old lady in the past two weeks. Having read many articles and viewed countless photos and videos I share everybody's view that it's such a waste if Finnjet is scrapped. I really really hope somebody will agree to buy her this week before she's driven aground in scrapyard in India in a few days time.

Edit: typo fixed

Sad news :/

I heard today that Finnjet is not going to be scrapped after all but to be sunk outside Durban in South Africa as artificial reef in 2 weeks... Not sure if this rumour can be taken serious

What sad news!
But we should keep on hoping.

Anything new about the possible bid from the States mentioned by Rokker on 24th of May?

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Todays newspaper "Satakunnan Kansa" from Pori, Finland tells us that Finnjet has actually a new owner(s) and the ship is most probably heading back to Baltic sea.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/5bd2v6

Local businessman Mauri Murotie says that they have made a deal on the Finnjet on Tuesday 3.6.2008 and the price of the ship was "a bit over that 7 million". The newspaper says that a "Save the FINNJET" -campaign from Germany (the FINNJETweb.com??) is involved in the deal and that the ship is going to be used as a cruiseferry on some line on the Baltic.

According to Satakunnan Kansa's article, businessman Mauri Murotie has a very controversial reputation in his hometown Pori. The newspaper says that he's previosuly been declared moneyless and in bankcrupty and has been convicted earlier because financial crimes.

Edit: Also Iltalehti refers to the Satakunnan Kansa's article: http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/200806037745494_uu.shtml

Edit2: Also Ilta-Sanomat notifies the article but adds that the Murotie's plan to save the ship relies much on the 100.000 euros from the "Save the FINNJET" -campaign. They also notice the controversial background of the businessman.
http://www.iltasanomat.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/uutinen.asp?id=1539748

The very first news about the Pori-plan at the Satakunnan Kansa was titled "FINNJET-operation revealed an old skeleton from the closet" which referred to the suspicisous past of the businessman Murotie.

source: http://tinyurl.com/6xm47t

It says on the article that: "Businessman's past doesn't stand the daylight. He's been convicted because of a business crime in 1990's and he has big claims in the foreclosure-process. Creditors have been left empty-handed because the businessman have been declared moneyless"

So I think we should not cheer before the Finnjet sails actually on the baltic...

Seriously guys, don't believe anything about Mr. Murotie. He has not been in proper contact with me and FINNJETweb.com isn't included in any closed deal, also I heard that negotiations with Murotie were not successful either. IS removed their article meanwhile so there you go..

Satakunnan Kansa has updated their article on Finnjet. The new title is "Finnjet IS NOT coming to Finland afterall" and on the article Mr. Murotie explains that rival buers from India (?!)have raised their offer on the ship and the price is now 8,3 million euros according to Mr. Murotie.

http://tinyurl.com/5bd2v6

In the article Mr. Murotie also explains that the Indian buyer is going to use ship as a cruiseferry and it is not going to be scrapped afterall - but who knows if this is true or not. Maybe Mr. Murotie just wanted to get some attention with this plot and nothing he tells is true.

Now Finnish economics webzine Taloussanomat corfirms the news that Finnjet is not going to be scrapped. According to Taloussanomat sources (different than Mr. Murotie?) the ship has been sold to a investor group from India which is going to use the ship for cruises. The webzine tells that the final price of the ship was 8,2 million euros. No further details about the future plans though. Taloussanomat is usually quite reliable source.

source: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/kotimaa/2008/06/04/finnjetia-ei-romuteta/20081520...

I'm extremely sceptical of any India-based company using any ship for cruising. And if they do it'll probably end up being a short-lived experiment which will result in the ship being scrapped anyway.

K, I had exactly the same thoughts about this latest development... It's so frustrating to see all this happening.

This organisation could save Finnjet.
http://www.peaceboat.org
They need a newer and a strong (ice class) ship for their humanitarian peace cruises. They could give their old SS Topaz (1964) to the scrappers and take Finnjet. Old SS topaz has also been for sale for scrap prise. Do they know that Finnjet is for sale?

I think the story of the Indian company was again invented by Maurotie in order to explain why he failed to bring her to Finland..... I'm frustrated to see that all newspapers take him serious, he can't be! Finnjet will not make any cruises and neither will she sail anywhere else but Alang.

I would ask the finnish businessman,why don´t they use our Finnjet for Turku-St.Petersburg or Helsinki-St.Petersburg route? There she can sail also "Duty Free". It´s an idea when there is no place for her in Turku. Can somebody ask them? ................... I hope my english is ok?

I guess this is old video for someones, I just founded it from Yle Arkisto (Finnish broadcasting companys archive) -> http://www.yle.fi/player/player.jsp?actionpage=3&id=221115&locale=

That's the Jetti era I most hunger.

For Finni: It seems that this is also kind of political game in Finland to promise voters what the want. And as usual in politics, commitments are lesser than actions :/

Sad but true: If some of the Baltic sea cruise companies would see some business with Finnjet, the would fight for the vessel. The didn't. Sad but true.

Let's still have our fingers crossed, and let's hope that the time isn't running out for Jetti.

@ Finni.... Stella has considered Finnjet but they took Christian IV instead for cost reasons, Finnjet would definately need an additional investment in engines or whatever...

Secondly Finnjets cardeck is a major problem for active service, its just too small for todays needs.. Anyway lets not stop hoping that something can be done, negotiations are going on

Negotiations by whom and for what?

We need the info =)

that was more or less generally spoken

D'oh, I assumed that you had something new by yourself. My mistake.

I read Peace Boat have purchased Clipper Pearl (1970 22,945 grt, former Song of Norway) last November in order to replace the 1956 Topaz. She is in Malta being converted, however the article says they have a large sum of money to invest in cruise ships and ferries, So theres hope yet!

It's now all over the Finnish press that a India-based company has purchased Finnjet and it is going to use it as a cruise ship.

Sadly all this information and news coverage is based on a story from Satakunnan Kansa and the one and only source for the news is Mr. Murotie and I guess all this is false. I think Mathias has a point when he says that Indian cruiseline is a cover-up for Mr. Murotie who has to find some explanation why he lied about the closed deal.

I guess Finnjet may have been sailing all this time towards Alang because it is possible that Mr. Murotie hasn't had any kind of contact to the owners - or do you have better knowledge? On some Finnish bulletin boards there are rumours that this "twist" was only a try to get some money from credulous investors and "Save the Finnjet" campaign but these are just rumours. Sad if this was the case and Finnjet was used as a bait.

Im not convinced that the Indians are using Finnjet as a pawn in negotiations, I mean would they even know of or care about a Baltic ferry?

I have read in an article about the breakers yard in Alang that some ships are at anchor for a year or more awiting for a rise in the price of scrap metals? not sure how true this is.

Qoute : K "while using only the diesels would mean a fairly slow service speed and having to use tugs to assist the ship into harbour. Which again cost money."
Why would Finnjet need tug boats if only diesels are in use? She still has additional + 8300 kw auxiliary engine power which can be used for the bow and aft trusters .

Does anyone know whether the peace-boat organization is interested in buying Jetti? Would be a good deal for them and her, I think. The could operate her only by diesel.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Captain Slotte said that 1 turbine was required for additional generating power for bow thrusters, I think, and correct me if im wrong, Finnjets generators are on the main shafts and therefore power being required by bow thrusters saps energy required by the main propellers. again I could be wrong but I dont think electrical power can be taken directly off the diesels for any other purpose than the motors on the main gearboxes?

Seems like hope is out, groups in Finland seems to lack the cash needed to buy her back to Finland. She cost a fraction of the price of similar vessels.

"Efforts to buy vessel..." (US Shipbrokers, 6.6.08)

Just in case someone is interested: If Finnjet left 4.6.2008 from Jeddah to Mumbai and use the normal route with a average speed of 10.5 knots she will be in a cyclon storm to night 22.00 cet. The waves are already 7-8 meters high.

Finnjet is expected to arrive in India on Monday already...

They left Jeddah on either 31.5/1.6./2.6. already

I was told that she is going to be beached tomorrow, as this is only possible at certain dates in a month and right now is a possible date for that....

I cannot believe it!

I still hope that somebody buys her in the end and preserves her from beeing scrapped. I mean she's in a perfect condition!

Let's go on hoping. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

however I can't guarantee this is true, according to other information she should be still at least 5 days away from India.... However from a third source I heard on Friday that it's still 3 days to go so that seems to be more realistic.... Bit difficult to estimate whats true and whats not in these days.

Yesterday I wrote an email to the peace-boat organization:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

as a big backer of the work of your organization and a big fan of the legendary Finnish vessel "Finnjet" as well, I want you to inform that this ship is for sale at the moment:

Information can be found here: http://usshipbrokers.com/

I think that this vessel would be great and adequate successor for your "TTS Topaz". As a nice side-effect the "Finnjet" (which is a perfect condition) could be preserved from beeing scrapped in India.

Besides the gas-turbines for high-speed cruising the ship can also be operated more economically by using its diesel-engines.

If you're interested and you need further information take a look at the following website:

http://www.finnjetweb.de

In appreciation of your work I'm looking forward to your answer.

Best regards from Germany"

Unfortunately I haven't received an answer yet.

I heard that a large Finnish company possible was working on purchase for use as a ferry in Finland. That would be fantastic. They are late though, I think the vessel will be at the beach in Alang shortly.

She has at least now been listed in the expected vessels list of Alang Port's website, no ETA was stated however:

http://www.gmbports.org/showship.php?shipid=18747

Yes, but who was the backers behind him? I was under the impression that a large Finnish company was going to buy her. Would be a shame if the deal fell through because of all the writing about Morotie, or that they thought they had time because of the misinformation about the Indian company that was going to use her as a ferry. The link above, clearly list her as a breaker ship, not as anything else. It would be nice to know, who was actually considering to buy her, and why they would not pay 8.2 mil Euros if that figure is correct. Other vessels on the market is much higher. Anybody that was in the position to save her but did nothing will have a sorry feeling when the vessel is planted on the beach.

US Shipbrokers, that by the way have done an excellent job in trying to sell her, just put on their website the information from this forum, that she is expected to Alang. It looks like they have given up on selling her now. It would be a miracle if the Finnish interests whether they are Murotie backers or other, now saves the vessel from the beach. I guess time will tell if there was a Finnish interest or not. US Shipbrokers would not disclose to me any information but confirmed that there had been real buyers interested in the vessel.

Satakunnan Kansa reports on Finnjet with a title "Finnjet is scrapped after all". They have interviewed US Shipbrokers' representative which confirms that there was no Indian investor group buying the ship. Also Finnjetweb.com is mentioned.

http://tinyurl.com/6hc6gr

I don't feel as comfotable as I would usually be having been right in not believing Murotie, but it seems like the steam is soon out and for the last time the ship will go "full power" (which isn't much really with ~1 working diesel and no turbines left).

However there is "hope" that she can't be beached right away with a long list of waiting ships that is also visible on gmbports.org... However they also list the SS BLUE LADY (ex Norway, ex France) as "waiting" although she has clearly not much to wait for anymore with one quarter of her already stripped off...

http://www.midshipcentury.com/images/bluelady51208.jpg

Now Aamulehti ( http://www.aamulehti.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/90292.shtml ) and Ilta-Sanomat ( http://www.iltasanomat.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/uutinen.asp?id=1542915 ) have also noticed the latest development in the Finnjet story, both refer the Satakunnan Kansa article and US Shipbrokers representative - Finnjetweb.com is also mentioned in both stories.

I guess and hope that the rest of the media will follow shortly. But I guess there's not much hope left - if someone with the resources needed would have wanted to save the Finnjet he would have done it already. A cruiseferry is not a impulse buy for anybody.

Even though it's not really any of my business, I'm slightly uncomfortable with all the newspapers referring to Finnjetweb as their source. There is nothing about this on the actual Finnjetweb site - unless Mathias has been inpersonal contact with them, the only source they have is us here on the forum, expressing our views as private individuals. Very good of them to report things as they actually are, of course, but it still isn't exactly good journalism.

Even though it's not really any of my business, I'm slightly uncomfortable with all the newspapers referring to Finnjetweb as their source. There is nothing about this on the actual Finnjetweb site - unless Mathias has been inpersonal contact with them, the only source they have is us here on the forum, expressing our views as private individuals. Very good of them to report things as they actually are, of course, but it still isn't exactly good journalism.


It´s now a days quite common that media uses all kind of internet forums as a source of information and I don´t see it as a problem . Now people just need more "media reading " skills than before" the internet time". But anyway I personally find it positive that the professional media has used this good and probably the best ship webpage on internet as a source of information / news idea.

I wonder how much current crew will steal and break places as they know the ship will be wrecked... :/

Hi there,

As an "old" crewmember I have seen Finnjet cut up once - during the refitting of the lounges, as the Paradise lounge was turned into a duty free shop and the cinema and conference area turned into the show lounge.

I spend my last days onboard supervising the building of the new showstage and spend hours saving hardware from the "old" Paradise.

At that time Finnjet had left Travemünde and all nonfinnish crewmembers were sacked (I got a very flattering offer to work as a dishwasher which I turned down)

In the minute the last passenger left the ship in Helsinki, two days before arriving at the shipyard of Göteborg; the shipyard workers started to break down the lounge and the cinema - it was a sad experience, the design mirrors and lamps were cut down with heavy hammers, I tried to save the artwork at the end of the lounge but was too late for that. at that time I only managed to save "my" equipment, the show electronics.

In the cinema I managed to salvage the two professional cinema projectors but was too late to save the screen - the special (and very expencive) 3-D cinema projection screen was cut down with a knife, it was like trying to stop an army of termites with a toothbrush :-)

As I left the ship the projectors was standing covered on deck - I guess they were scrapped.

That the ship is going to be cut up is sad, it is like loosing an old friend - and a bit of home.

To see what happens on Alang you can go to the following homepage http://www.midshipcentury.com klick the video section and klick "On the road to Alang" there you will find a lot of photos of the sad ships.

You might even find items from Finnjet here one day, I found Items from one of my former ships there, the old DFDS Winston Churchill.

Steen Burnaes
X-Cruisemanager
GTS Finnjet
steen.burnaes@teamwork-one.net

Steen

Thanks for your interesting comments, why do some people behave like wild animals with other peoples property? no respect!

I think us non former crew members but "fans" feel the same sadness at this sad state of affairs, I dont think I could bring myself to look at pictures of her any more.

Have you any interesting stories about your time onboard ie incidents or events?

Paul,

Crew parties on the winch deck, Finnjet hitting a Viking Ferry in the port of Helsinki, the Estonia rescue operation, gangway crashing down in Travemünde, russian artists dancing in all kind of weather, fights with passengers, radio and television transmissions, finnish x-mas cruises, Finnjet stuck in ice...... :-)

Lots of stories

Greeting

Steen

Haha nothing to report then!!!

actually would be interesting to hear more when you have time, epecially stuck in ice would be interesting as Captain Sviberg who i once meet said that he had never became stuck in ice! was this after his 1991 retirement?

Hi Paul,

The story how we got stuck is quite short, it was after the retirement of Sviberg but I dont recall which year, anyway we had plenty of ice and had no problems getting through, it was a smooth surface and we had several hours of noisy sailing behind us using the diesel - electric engines as we came to a place where wind or current had stacked the ice thicker, the officers on the bridge saw it and started the gasturbines up, but just a tick too late.
I didnt see it as I was in my bed trying to sleep, not an easy task as my cabin was in the lower front part of the ship, on level with the car deck; anyway I felt how we lost speed and came to full stop, the bow lifted a bit and Finnjet listed a few degrees to starboard - the best thing about it - it was suddenly nice and "soundless" - after a few minutes the gasturbines took over, we reversed a few meters and went through with full power - no problems - and no sleep :-)

Helsingin Sanomat tells that Finnjet is expected to arrive at Alang on Friday or Saturday. They have been in contact with the port authority of Alang who confirm that the Kingdom they are expecting is formerly known as Finnjet. They also confirm the fact that the actual scrapping of the ship will begin shortly after the arrival, they say Finnjet will be beached in five days, maybe even earlier. The whole breakage process of the ferry will take 3-4 months.

Helsingin Sanomat also tells that Finnish Maritime Museum at Kotka has preserved the original artwork from Finnjet by Kimmo Kaivanto and they have also acquired a fully equipped cabin from the ship which is already dismantled from the ship and will be displayed at the museum in its's orginal 1977 outfit as an example of Finnjets luxury.

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjetin+romuttaminen+voi+alkaa+jo+l%C3%A...

So.. there is no way back anymore. Goodbye Finnjet.

Thanks again steen.

Maakrapu, is the painting you refer to the one which formally hung in the main stairwell? the naked bodies is the best way i can describe it!

As I still cannot (and don't want to) believe that we're heading the end of an era I wish we all keep our fingers crossed and go on hoping for a happy end.

Is there any information about the possible interest of the peace-boat organisation? I still haven't received an answer to my email (my posting of June 9th).

@Mathias: Do you have any news considering this topic?

Does anyone know where to find high resultion pictures of "Jetti"?

The large paintings ("suomalainen kuvia") were in the main lobby from deck 4 up to the 7th deck, the drawings were formerly at deck 6 on the starboard side in the corridor beside the funnel shaft, then, as I remember, on deck 5 on the portside corridor.

Also, I don't think that this article from Helsingin Sanomat has been linked here yet (couldn't be arsed to look up an english version, if one exists): http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjet+matkalla+romutettavaksi+Intiaan/11...

Essentially it tells what we already know; that Jetti is heading for scrappers, Murotie's claim about a sale to an Indian cruise operator was false, the ship was expensive to operate and Suomalaisia kuvia will be on display in the Finnish Maritime Museum. However, what they also say is that a whole two-person cabin was removed from onboard at the same time with the paintings and the cabin will also be on display in original appearance in the Finnish Maritime Museum.

As it seems, at least Finnish media is scanning this site and this forum. And basically that's good because so Finnjet is kept in the topics.

Still I also wish to read something new that the press can get by itself, not from here.

I'm still waiting for some miracle to happend with Jetti. This can't be ended like this. I spend few late nights scrolling pictures and stories about Alang. Mainly scrapped ferries were from 40-60's, without any special features except history and none were fixed in few years. Can't understand what is going on here.

For vessel big as Finnjet, what is minimum mandatory crew to sail and who/what (titles) are in that crew?

I mean how to sail vessel big as Jetti, with minimum crew. And how easy it is to change crew?

I believe that if someone stepped up to the plate now, the vessel could still be saved. It seems like there as usual has been a lot of talk and not so much action. As usual it is always a higher selling points for Finnish media to point out the problems with plans and the people behind them, than to embrace someone that is trying to do a good deed. This seem to be symptomatic in todays scandal hungry press, and we as readers and viewers are eating it up and are fueling a negative approach where anyone trying to put his neck out would be very careful to do so. I have heard rumors that there actually was companies in Finland that considered her for a ferry line, but the media attention and negativity put a damper on their efforts. Any Finish company now is the time, contact the broker or seller and get the vessel back!

Quote: Kepa " Answer me Turku !"

The problem of the Finnjet "Turku Project" was mainly -> location.location and location. The possible locations for Finnjet in Turku was such of kind locations where the new owners would get only about 7 - 8 euros / m2 / month rent from the restaurant and other business suitable spaces. The market value estimate icl.tax of outside cabins for lodging operations was around 2- 2.35 euros / m2 / night and the realistic annual cabin occupancy % estimated being around 40-45 %.

If Finnjet could have been located in the river Aura close the city center ,it could have been a feasible project and it might have attracted also some commercial financiers. The Turku project was more a emmotional motivated project without a real business plan and that´why the City of Turku was passive.

The "Hands" picture was also in the Commodore lounge.

You're so right. I also can't understand what's going on. She's just too young and too meaningful to be scrapped.
And regarding her high running costs in service this wouldn't have been a problem for Club Cruise either?!

Still hoping for a miracle. What else can we do at the moment?!

Does anyone have the possibility to contact the decision-makers in Turku again?

Nothing is lost yet.

Other newspapers on the latest news coverage were using Satakunnan Kansa's article as their source and their source was this forum and an e-mail from the US Shipbrokers - but I got the impression that the Helsingin Sanomat had contacted the Gujarat Maritime Board and the breaking company and the timetable which Helsingin Sanomat told about the arrival, beaching and breakage was "official" information, not rumours.

They said on their article that Kingdom is expected to arrive on Friday 13th (...) or Saturday 14th because it is late due to a stormy weather on her route to Alang, but there's still not ETA (expected time of arrival) at the http://www.gmbports.org/showship.php?shipid=18747 where Kingdom is listed. Is it just so late or has something happened? Or do they update their website/database in late?

I guess at this moment the only hope is one emotional based investor who actually has that 8 million euros on his/hers bank account. Those bureaucrats at the City of Turku are far too slow to make decisions and investors with pure business in their minds can't take the risk.... sad....

One fatal "mistake" was those false news about the Indian cruiseline and the saving of the ship last week. Maybe there were plans among the investors but they halted them because they thought that the ship was saved this time... I recall it was on some newspaper that "Finnjet can be bought back to Finland later" or something like that... and now the truth came out too late?

It is very descriptive that she would arrive in Alang on Friday 13, makes a new dimension to the horror movie. Could be a sequel.

Even Youtube has videos re save Finnjet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8LZFQVBHQ

Ship breaking in Turkey -> http://users.tkk.fi/~tromu/forum/GPGemisokumuVideosu.mpg

The Turku project still didn't work out because investors were not ready to buy the ship with the risk of not having a permanent mooring place in Turku. (Official version)... There have been lots of alternative plans/ideas and I have been in contact with Johnny Sid from Turku several times... still the media reports in Finland and the problem of finding a proper mooring place was what actually killed the project. Someone really needs to buy the ship NOW and bring it somewhat closer to Finland, that would ease up a lot of doubts etc. from the potential investors and give more time to plan and decide and develop alternative plans, theres a lot of options what to do with the ship but making them up is more difficult than pure line traffic and thats what e.g. shipping companies are usually only thinking of.

If noone buys the ship NOW, we can buy her in form of shaving blades soon, to cite one of the guys that I was in contact with..

http://www.exim-india.com/newsletter/vesselmove/charts/alang-arrived.htm

She arrived on Friday 13th to Alang, I can't imagine of a more suitable date...

Oh my god, I feel very sad and helpless.

But still we shouldn't abandon hope. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Is there still nobody who wants to buy her to gain some more time?

She's still the fastet ferry. So maybe a Finnish F1-driver could buy her? Maybe Mika Häkkinen or Kimi Räikkönen?

I can't understand what's going on in these days.

What about the plans to bring her to Espoo?

What about a moorage in Helsinki?

Why not use her as a troupship?

Keep on hoping!

I remember that enviroment issues were raised when S/S ex-France/ex-Norway/Blue Lady was heading to Alang and it took years before the breakage process started. That was because her structure was full of asbestos ... I guess GTS Finnjet has a loads of asbestos too, because everybody thought asbestos was a great stuff back then...

Is there any way to stop the scrapping process before beaching by lifting the asbestos issue to the knowledge of enviromental organizations? Asbestos is harmfull until somebody starts to remove it so that would be a good reason not to break her...

@maakrapu:

Great idea, I think!

@Kepa:

Are you sure? When "Jetti" was built the use of asbestos was quite common.

If Jetti is build with asbestos who would then be interest about her anymore. So maybe it's no a good idea.

She is supposed to be asbestos free. Also remember she was renovated in 2004

Even if asbesthoswas used in construction of the Finnjet, to my understanding all of it would have had to be removed in the 2004 refit at latest to conform with the Finnish regulations concerning the material.

Can someone who knows the people in Finland who were interested in buying her please contact them again?

What about Espoo, Turku or maybe Helsinki?

It would just be to early to see her beeing scrapped!

The city of Espoo made an official decision not to buy the Finnjet, so that option is out. Although Martin Saarikangas said he was looking into other alternatives - but I'd believe that he would have made his move already if he was going to.

I can imagine her in service for Pullmantur Cruises.

I'd like to tell them about the current situation but I cannot find any contact such as email on their website. Can anybody help me please?

Does anyone have contact to Mr. Martin Saarikangas? We could write another email to him!?

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Well I guess Mr. Saarikangas has done everything he can to save GTS Finnjet because his strong relation with the ship.

If someone wants to contact him, the accurate e-mail address can be found with Google, just put "Martin Saarikangas Espoon Kokoomus valtuustoryhmä" on the search and voilá, there's the contact information.

But I guess he his well aware of the situation and latest development.

that tonnage is in LDT which means light displacement tons and that unit very close to her actual weight. Multiplying LDT with 1016 gives the metal weight in kg as I was told recently.

Has anyone heard anything more on this idea, bringing Finnjet back to Travemünde? -> http://www.hl-live.de/aktuell/textstart.php?id=44147

In case someone still interested in Finnjet but don´t have a business concept / idea for her .

FINNJET HONDA BUSTER EXPLORER CONCEPT

-Finnjet converted into a explorer cruises ship ( Sevastopol ,Ukraine) Budget 31 mil. euros icl. pre start and admin cost.

The new Finnjet after conversion:

- 231 outside guest cabins ( 462 -480 guests) + few inside cabins into kinds cabins and some into guest storage.
_- New reformed stern with explorer boat handling infrastructure and tech.
- 60 Buster explorer boats for guest and 6 for crew / guides.
- Cardeck from middle to stern into explorer boat deck.
-Cardeck from middle to bow into Telia Sonera & Interactivicum multi-media auditorium.
-Solar and wind power fresh water maker
- More diesel power 8000-8500 kw .new gear + catepilar power system.(Costs 285-290 euros // kw) inc. instalation and teck.crew basic education. Old diesel Wärtsilä 18 v 32 minor rebuil pack.
-3 deck outside cabins into new guest cabins ( enlarged) more length.

Own capital required 10 mil. euros the rest from commercial financer 12 years 6 % ( 2662 800 euros / year) + material and paid services investments by Metos Fiskars.Honda, Telia Sonera, widside: = 14-16 % of company shares:
" Piece of action " possibility for Finnjet fans 1450 euros investment / cabin which gives a commission 5 euros / sold ticket / cabin.

Ship / companys annual operating budget 20 - 21.5 mil. euros ( depeds on fuel prices and days at sea) 38 annual cruises.

Average price / person in oder to break even with 85 % annual cabin occupancy 1343-1443 euros / person. Note explorer cruises costs from 1800 - 6500 euros / person 7 - 14 day / night cruise .

The idea to bring her back to Travemünde is mine. I wrote to the mayor and to several newspapers. This is the result.

Here's another article.

Interesting, that would be a fitting place for her.

Where would you suggest mooring her? somewhere near Passat?

Yes, I think near "Passat" would be a great place to be retired.
We shouldn't give up and try to get more attention.

there is nowhere space close to Passat as far as I know, also I think the city of Lübeck cannot afford any investment of this amount, also Travemünde is dead-calm in the off season, Finnjet needs enough surroundings to make any profit as hotel ship... As much as I wish this can become true, I'm rather sure she is beached withing the next XX hours and it's too late to make any decisions unless someone buys the vessel just now. I can provide the mobile phone number of the breakers (Rishi Ship Breakers, plot 109, Alang) if someone needs it!

Status has been changed to "Waiting" @ http://www.gmbports.org/showship.php?shipid=18747

Still hoping for her being saved...

Well, like Mathias wrote earlier, SS France/Norway/Blue Lady is still on status "waiting" and she's all ready like 25% wrecked...

http://www.midshipcentury.com/images/bluelady51208.jpg

There was an article today on Finnish tabloid Iltalehti.

http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/200806167806080_uu.shtml

"Saarikangas confirms breakage of Finnjet"

He says that all plans to save her have been unsuccessfull and it's a big pity to loose her. She was full of great new solutions that now have become standard and are in use on cruise ships. He thinks she was at least ten years ahead of her time.

Iltalehti was preferin Satakunnan kansa, but I didn't find that article from Satakunnan Kansa's internet page. Is there any in internet?

I haven't checked my lottery ticket yet, there where about 4,5 million euros to get last saturday for one ticket. I hope there's few millions for Jetti, before beaching....

Anyway...all the millions in the world are late now, I guess. Unless...

http://www.ln-online.de/lokales/2409455

http://www.ostseezeitung.de/leserbriefe.phtml?Param=LB-Artikel&ID=0000004...

Highly interesting:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1171917

Most of the figures are wrong though, but the most interesting fact is that the newspaper mentions Finnjet's probable beaching date as 19th June.

Maybe we could even get the video of Her final arrival ever... That certainly is a remarkable end of era worldwide..

Still it is unclear to me, who and where and when removed all the 3 turbines out of the vessel? And where those engines are now?

I think SeaContainers sold those to Pratt and Whitney last year or something, according to my knowledge for 1,5 Million Dollars each... Not sure if true.

Gee, those were some valuable engines onboard. Could we get an confirmation for that?

Everybody must atlast now start to admit, time runs and show must go on... GTS FINNJET isn't the same with out Her marvelous turbines onboard. And also the problems in harbours with steering only on diesel power would have done the routeline cruising almost impossible.

She lives now and forever in our memories, scalemodels, souvenirs, pictures and videos.

R.I.P. GTS FINNJET.

Mathias

Is that for just the gas generators or togeather with the 2nd stage power turbine?

The spare turbine (gas generator) was sat between the main turbine on our engine room visit in August 2005 and i have no doubt they remained there till very recently, most probably until Genoa.

Once again: let's keep our fingers crossed!

Don't give up "Jetti" as nobody knows whether the beaching-date is correct.

You never know...

My lottery ticket was dead end so no hope from there.

It seems that Jetti is Finnish till the bitter end:
- Arrived to Alang in Friday 13th (every finns are like that)
- Beached in 19th of June, which is the Midsummer eve in Finland (this year), which is the most biggest summer event in Finland

With those dates, it would to be odd if wrecking will start on 15.9. and would be done by 27.4.[any year]. Those are the dates for Lapland war (Lapplandkrieg) in WW2. And when Finland was enforced to push German troops away from Finland.

History is funny thing. Even closer it is, it isn't history. 31 year old vessel without harbor isn't history, even if the vessel is one the kind.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20080619020102&Page=H&...

I was in contact with the breakers earlier on, the ship will be beached at 4 PM local time today, which is 12:30 central european summer time or 11:30 for our island monkeys and 13:30 for our Finnish friends, in any way it is in 45 minutes!

The breakage will take 8-9 months and they will do it from bow to stern.

Hats off, gentlemen...

Goodbye Finnjet.

Goodbye Finnjet, long may your memory last.

Considering the historical dates, it was also Friday the 13th when Finnjet made it's first voyage.
Also I was on Finnjet's last abiturient party-cruise and it was Friday the 13th in 2004


This is a way too early end of an era, but I won't close the case before visiting Alang...

Goodbye...

Goodbye :/

Bye, Bye Finnjet

Oh my god! Has the beaching been confirmed yet?

Sad!
Goodbye, Jetti

I'm moved to tears.

Dear GTS Finnjet - the Legend!

Very sad feelings, because You have sailed away. I miss You and Your unique atmosphere. Luckily I had fortune to cruise many times to Travemünde, Muuga, Rostock and Tallinn with you. Those were the days...

Other ferries are nothing compared to you. The Legend lives in our memories! (Unfortunately that doesn't cheer me up a bit at this moment).

Yours sincerely,
Timo Toivonen
Finland

It's so sad...

Peter S.
(First time onboard august 1977, last time august 2002)

Dear GTS Finnjet!

thank you for 12 very wonderful Cruises since 1994.
Travemünde-Helsinki
Rostock-Tallin-Helsinki and the last cruise
Rostock-Tallin-St.Petersburg.
We all miss you very much.
I´ve lost many tears today.

Goodbye Finnjet!

It was a beautiful time with you!

You live on in our hearts.

Greetings from Travemünde

I know that it will be a sad view but are there any pics from india?

not yet..

Hello friends,
the news were so sad that I tried to switch off any thoughts about our baltic lady until I decided yesterday to get a small view on finnjet-web..."she´s beached now" " it is so hard to believe that.I couldn´t get an eye close for sleep last night...
Sad but true, I will carry her in my heart until my last breath... Miss u!!!

Greetz

Hi Finnjet Community

It is sad to know that her last bust of power ended on a sandy beach in India, Finnjet my home and working place for a few years.

Nevertheless it is and was a special ship where thousand of guest and crewmembers collected memories over the years; she might be gone physically in a few months but she will stay in our memory.

I have many happy, funny, interesting, difficult and terrible memories which I will not forget, fantastic artists, dreadful artists, nice colleagues and sympatric guests, terrible guests, Christmas, Pikko Joulu, New-year parties, crew parties, funny experiences throughout the years, small accidents like my broken neck trying to stop a stampede (fight) in the Stardust during a Pikko Joulu cruise and big accidents like the Estonia rescue.

I have plenty of memories and its good – Finnjet was great and Finnjet will stay.

Steen Burnaes
X-Cruise Manager
GTS Finnjet

From Helsingin Sanomat web page -> http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjet+odottaa+purkua+laivaromuttamon+edu...

It says that Jetti will be beached at 4.7. So, I guess she is still waiting anchored in free water.



So, we can still buy her? Till 4th of July?

She doesn't look so bad, same rust as we saw in pictures after second turnee over Atlantic Ocean. What a waist of vessel :/

if you ask me she looks like already beached in the photo, also I don't know why the breakers would tell me wrong information... The photo seems to be taken in a high tide situation when you probably wouldn't get much further onto the beach. I'd say you see that her bow is way more out of water than it would be in normal conditions, you would never see Finnjet's bulb bow out of water usually, there you can

actually now I'm seriously confused, I might have actually missunderstood V.P. Jain from Rishi Ship Breakers, I'm not very good in understanding Indian accent english .... I guess he actually said "the day is 4th of July" and I understood "today at 4 local time"....... This would at least give a reason for the date there... still she looks like partly beached in the photo...

Maybe we can see her bow because she is lightened up (for fuel, water etc.)...for the last run.

There is still little bit of hope...



Jetti isn't beached yet if you compare it to the ship in pictures upper right corner...
NOW every single second is valuable if someone with enough money wants to rescue her!!
Maybe those images are a trick to speed up of reselling her, I cannot imagine that anyone would want to slice up a ship in that great condition!

I wonder in which shape is the interior?

the second picture could be of an older date than the first one...

The interiors are in very good condition according to RSB but thats nothing new.... every second is valuable, of course, but who should seriously buy her now if it failed for basically 2 years, I think it's time to be realistic, it doesn't matter if she is beached on 19th june or 4th July, she will be scrapped and thats it... I lost my final hope already, sorry

If it is true that she won't be beached until 4th July I think we should take the chance and increase our efforts to save her. I'm going to get back in contact with Mr. Saarikangas in Finland.

We shouldn't give up yet.

Let's go on hoping!

No I think it does matter!!!It´s always too late until it is too late!!!What we can do is to make a myspace save the Finnjet site...The community is so big there,maybe its a stone we can bring to roll...DO IT!!!Send a blog to me and I will blog all my friends and so on...
Then we can appeal to the finnish government for the last time to do anything!
I know that there´s much done,but lets remove the last reserves to do anything!
My personal time where I hit the rock bottom is over...Come on!!!

I guess making noise on the web such as on MySpace or Facebook won't save her, neither will cities or Finnish government help because making of decisions is very slow in these bureaucratic organizations and it is holiday season in Finland.

On my opinion the one and only hope we have saving her from final beaching is finding an individual who has the money and is willing to use it. I guess that means somebody should know this kind of people and contact them directly. But I Guess Mr. Saarikangas has already done this kind of work and have not found any...

Also organizations are quite slow in decision making... you have tried peaceboat, but has anyone informed Greenpeace on Finnjet issue? They have ships and they have money to buy more if they want to...

A lot of things only happend because of the hopes and the power of people!
It doesn´t cost anything and we could (as you said)hope that an private investor will keep Finnjet save.Maybe its in our hands...
To put our heads in the sand can´t be any solution...
So I did the first blog a few minutes ago...
For example,I´m a musician and know a lot of Suomi´s fave bands...they always have big influence to the people (of course,young people) and that is something what Finnjet needs...
An open debate not only the opinion of some freaks and nostalgically people...
WE HAVEN`T GOT ANYTHING TO LOOSE,but her!!!

Finnjet seems to be floating in the Alang photos .Note the black lines and their angle from the bow (anchor chain ?) if it is an anchor chain with anchor the anchor is much more closer the beach than Finnjets bow. Or maybe she has started to float again after beached .

On the Helsingin Sanomat article, someone commented that it would not be a big money for Kimi Räikkönen to buy the ship and give it to the Finland (maybe national maritime museum or some other organization). That would make other F1-drivers look silly in their 30 meter long yachts

On the other hand Mr. Räikkönen just bought a 21 meter yacht with 2.000.000 euros...

Could someone contact him with this idea? Or contact some Finnish newspaper to be active on this and try to sell the idea to him ..that would make nice headlines for Ilta-Sanomat or Iltalehti... maybe ...?

Sounds funny but I´d the same idea on Sunday...

Hi,

I guess that the Finnjet is lost, I saw a report on Youtube yesterday (60 Minutes) and the ship beached there (a big Russian trawler/fish factory) didn't go higher as the Finnjet on the photos.
The Indian Captain responsible for the beaching is titled: "The Executioner" and has beached over 700 ships.

I have the feeling as would uninvited guests walk through my home in my absence - but in reality I feel sorry for Finnjet and the thousands of Indian workers who have to pull her apart with their bare hands - the conditions on the ship breaking yard is pretty close to hell.

Im confused too, hopefuly Mathias misunderstood the dates and beaching is not until 4th July.

I guess in the picture she is ballasted to the stern to help her ride further up the beach.

Turun Sanomat told on their article that there has been four different groups active trying to buy Finnjet:

1. Espoo city councellors with Martin Saarikangas
2. Turku based investor group led by Johnny Sid
3. Pori based investor group led by Mauri Murotie (maybe...)
4. Lillbacka Oy led investor group - a part of that coalition is also the PowerPark -amusement park ( http://www.lillbacka.com/ )

Turun Sanomat refers to finnjetweb.com on their article 20.6.2008 and told that Finnjet was beached on 19.6. and there should not be any hope to rescue her.
http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-06-20,104:2:...

This fourth group with the PowerPark-connections was a new information for me. Wonder why the rescue was so impossible even when there was so many investors interested. Why didn't they co-operate...

I don't want to be a pessimist but Finnjet has only lines towards the beach as far as I can see on the pictures, should she be floating there would have to be lines towards the open sea

Mathias, You have this guys email, have you mailed for confirmation of the position? i am happy to do so or could even ask an Indian friend to do so in Indian? i just dont want to overcrowed him with people seeking information.

Heres a scan from Helsingin Sanomat with a detail of Finnjet on the beach.... if you ask me, she is clearly beached there. You can't get her this far up, no way... also you can't sail that close to the shore with a ship of 6,5m draft especially if the waters are as shallow as they are in alang...


Thanks to Tom Heino for the scan

I'm afraid that picture confirms it - all is lost.

I hope we all (and many more) keep up the memory by continuing our work: resin models, plastic models, virtual models, fan cruises, etc.

I've ordered a custom T-shirt that you can see in my avatar. Now I'll begin planning an 80 cm long LEGO Finnjet

Yep, that confirms it for me.

yep, that looks beached to me also

The Helsingin Sanomat got their information about the delayed beaching date from the photobank, who got their information from the photographer who got his information from the breakers - so misunderstanding could have happened. Maybe the breakers ment that the actual scrapping begins on 4th of July and when a journalist not familiar with Alang scenery sees a ship surrouded by water he may think it still floats ..but as said, looks beached to me.

Yeah, the picture in the in-print version of HS quite clearly shows she's beached - I would have pointed that out earlier, but still can't post from work... Anyway, 4th July might still hold true in a way, as ships are usually dragged "up" the beach gradually, thanks to tides and the hull getting lighter as interior fittings etc. are removed.

Also a point from the pic on internet HS article - you can just see the rear of the 1966 Finnhansa, one of the ships the Finnjet originally replaced on the Finland-Germany route, near the left-hand border of the pic.

yes thats possible, they might tow her further up on 4th of July but thats without own power. The photo could show how far Finnjet got with own power.... On 4th of July tide will be at least about 1m higher still than on 19th June.

Sure its Finnhansa?

Heres my theory for the photo:

O M G.

The printed HS image shows it all. An era has ended. You can clearly see how close She really is to the "dock" and cabels connected like like handcuffs... She may try to escape but faith decided othervise.

Rest In Peace old Lady. Pass away with dignity, alongside your older brother...

We'll miss you. Forever.

Actually Finnhansa arrived at Alang few weeks before Finnjet and the ship sure looks like it ...kind of a strange coincidence that those ships meet there

Hello everybody, although it looks to me also as she's already been beached, I ask myself whether it would be possible to pull her back into the sea when the tide is high.

I still won't believe that everything is lost!

What about the idea of Kimi Räikkönen buying her? Did anybody inform the Finnish press? What about a cooperation of the four (!) investor groups?

people with ideas should transform them into action

so, to clear up once again, on 4th of July 2008 the tide at Alang will be even higher than on the beaching date 19.6., so its well possible she could be towed back to the sea. But as one of you noticed, the price for her won't be anything close to 9 Millions anymore, the ship breaker has probably spend much time in planning the scrapping, workers needed, getting beaching permissions and all that stuff and selling the ship again will make him short of income from scrap metal in a moment he would need money in normal procedures.... So I'd only guess that the price for Finnjet could easily be +50% compared to the last known prices and also I don't think that beaching a hip of that size has no influence on the hull, remember that Finnjets propellers range up to 20cm under the superstructure of the hull and they would probably encounter serious damage when beaching... Also the gearboxes could be smashed if they ran her aground without cutting power and "taking out the gear" before touching the plot, no idea if they do that. According to someone they have even hooked the hull to the ground with a kind of "stick" drilled through the hull, not sure if that is true. That would at least mean parts of her engine room must be flooded, if that hasn't already happened while floating... anyway theres lots of doubts and problems to be considered and I know everybody will hate me for pointing out all this but it is simply very hard to imagine Finnjet could be brought back to profitable service for any small money. Renewing the certificates etc. is also very difficult and expensive if they are once expired.

No, you are just pointing out the facts as they stand, I think it is definately over.

Same picture as before, but differently cropped. The adjacent ship is more visible. I doubt it is the old Finnhansa.

http://www.hbl.fi/ekonomi/bildvisning.php?artikel=f1320

Unfortunately I didn't notice this before the previous posting, but according to the article (a Swedish newspaper in Finland) in which the previous picture was shown, Finnjet was inspected (katsastettu / besichtiget) in April.

http://www.hbl.fi/text/ekonomi/2008/6/24/w14825.php

Hi,

It would be an incredible coincidence that the two ships would meet there but as far as I can see it is not the Finnhansa.

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/Louis/PrinMarissa02.jpg

The bull eyes are not identical and the upper structure not completlly identical.

[url= http://www.faktaomfartyg.se/finnhansa_1966.htm]Link toFinnhansa[/url]

It seems that the Indian Shipyard likes royal names, the old Finnhansa was called Prince for her last voyage towards Alang

I think as long as we're not completely sure that she's finally beached and has suffered serious damage any efforts to save her are still worthwhile!

Yesterday I wrote another email to Mr. Saarikangas and some people of the Lillbacka Oy led investor group. However, I'm not sure whether I've got the correct contacts at Lillbacka. Furthermore I don't know any contact of the Turku based investor group led by Johnny Sid either - maybe someone can help me?! I want to try to reactivate their efforts to save "Jetti" maybe cooperating with each other.

Can someone from Finland please try to start another appeal on the news(papers). Maybe any Finish celebrity can help us. I think their are enough people to support her rescue if there's a promising project what to do with her. And I'm sure there can be one.

Don't give up until we're sure that everything is lost. Kepa's theory sounds logical to me: as she's drained and a quite stern heavy ship what we see on the pictures could exactly be the way she looks still floating!

We need more supporters not only posting into this fabulous forum but starting own efforts to save her as we're definitely running out of time! As Mathias already said earlier: Everybody who has an idea should try to transform it!

Go on! Keep on trying!

I'll keep my fingers crossed and won't give until we receive the final confirmation...

I would think Finnjet isn't really damaged by beaching. Sailing a ship into soft sand doesn't really cause much damage, in some places it can be even used as a way of mooring, although on a much smaller speed. Also propeller shafts shouldn't recieve such a strong stress that they would go out of line or damage gearboxes. Anyway Finnjet's stern is probably also still floating free. Also filling engine rooms with water sounds really strange as there's lots of valuable parts inside.

So most probably currently needed reparations could be done with anti-fouling paint, although I agree that there's no-one who would do it anymore.

Painting would be needed anyway after Atlantic Ocean and after four years since last maintenance.

Anyhow, I guess that after arrival to Alang waters the vessel will need something else than just painting.

I wonder how strong tools they have in Alang to chop vessels like Finnjet. She is in 1A Super class in breaking ice, and I assume that it means stronger hull. I also hope that they blunt lot of blades while cutting her down =)

probably a malaria jab

The sister ship of the Finnhansa was cut up at the Alang beach as well





She probably ended up as construction steel as most of the old ships in Alang

It was by the way the old Prinz Hamlet once doing the Hamburg - Harwich run

Has anyone profile on LinkedIn? It seems that the Polaris Images photographer who has visited the beach and shot photos of Finnjet has a profile there ..maybe we could ask first hand information from him rather than believe what Helsingin Sanomat says they heard from the Polaris images who heard it from the photographer who heard it from the breakers...

Hello everybody!

Once again: can anybody help me with the contacts of the Turku based investor group led by Johnny Sid and the other one led by Lillbacka Oy?

Any other ideas who could be interested in "our" Finnjet?

Please tell me! I won't give up until we have the confirmation that she was finally beached! I need more ideas to continue my efforts. I think we shouldn't give her up yet! She's definitely worth to be kept alive!

It is done,but already not finished yet...

http://www.myspace.com/finnjet

I won´t give up until the first funnel is broken down...

Hello girls and guys,
I feel with you. I´ll miss our Queen Mum of the baltic sea also. But has anyone here contacts to the techical university of helsinki ???
My idea is to ask them how about to lay up FINNJET in helsinki as museum ship of the university, ´cause she is the first one of the fast ferries ever was built, so it could be interesting for them to get her. I think many things cuold be tought on her, and for many students it would be possible to find a home on her for their time of study.

Greetz Mika

Welcome to the forum, mikael!

I'm sure you can find any contact on the university's website:

http://www.helsinki.fi/university/contact.html

Please, just try on your own as I'm too busy writing to some other people regarding her rescue at the moment.

Tell us when you've written your email, just to know we've made another attempt.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Here's what you're probably looking for:
Helsinki University of Technology, Ship Laboratory

Or maybe this:
Maritime Institute

But unfortunately they don't have the money. Universities are very poor in Finland with extremely low budgets.

I will mail all three ones.
Finnjet is a vessel were Finland could show what great maritim engineers they have and had, Finnjet was 30 years ago the most modern, longest, fastest and only vessel in this class so it is very poor for Finland to let be scraped one of the most or the most important ship in their maritim history

@Kepa: You're so right! We should try to work together! Maybe you can try to get back in contact with any huge Finish newspaper to start an appeal?!

I think it's easier for you as a native speaker.

Of course, I agree to do anything what could increase the chance to save her as well...

I agree too!!! It´s the second day I´m working on the myspace Jetti Site and of course the whole night...now its completely in english...add some stuff from finnjetweb a. s. o.

check it out on : http://www.myspace.com/finnjet

Although it seems impossible to save Finnjet, it´s nice that some Finnjet fans haven´t given up their hope jet. Maybe for a start it would be easier to come up with enough money/cash to pay the owners to postpone the scrapping / next beaching process on 4th of July. If That would happen I would love to re-start selling my "Finnjet explorer" plan to capital risk investors .

If there would be any possibility to save her, one business plan to sell would be artic cruises to Arctis and Antarctis which seem to be quite popular these days - GTS or should we say M/S Finnjet would be perfect for those thanks to A1 Super ice breaking class.

For example..
http://www.antarcticabound.com/
http://www.cruisingholidays.co.uk/polar-cruises.aspx?hid=N402
http://www.arcticantarcticcollection.com/
http://www.expeditiontrips.com/

... and many many more

Keep in mind that 1A SUPER ice class requires also a certain amount of power that Finnjet doesn't have anymore since removal of the turbines. They could be replaced of course but once again there are too many obstacles left to be taken to get her in service again, therefore I still think the fight is lost.

I agree with Mathias - there are too many "if"s in this speculation at the moment ...she is beached, without turbines, lack of maintenance and all the rescue attemps before beaching were unsuccesfull so there is only 1:1000000 chance to success now ... sad but true.

Anyway it's nice to see that some fans still have hope and they are trying, let's help them because it is always good that people have hope even if the situation seems hopeless.

Is there anybody who noticed this???:

yep, a similar version of the article was also available online and linked in one of the earlier postings of this thread. At least even Indian press realized that shes not just any ship...

I think we will never see her back in the baltic but here is another idea perhabs.Whats about the idea for Finnjet to take a Rostock-Stockholm turn with rebuilded diesel engines with maybe 20 or a little bit more knots and a timetable like ColorLines Kiel-Oslo turn about 19 hours or a little bit more? When Superfastferries close this route there were enough passengers but not so much freight and they were going faster. What do you think about this way to save her?

The problem is that there won't be enough passengers/cargo on that route, you can't operate a ferry solely with passengers nowadays anymore, it might work between Finland and Sweden but here we have the huge amount of Drink and Taxfree cruisers, sailing to Rostock from Stockholm would cause higher losses than simply re-starting Finland traffic I guess...

Finnjets size would not be a problem for North / South pole cruises. The reason why large cruises ship doesn´t sail there is that the most of guest would like to go shore and that would be a huge logistic task if 1000 +to 2000 + guests should be transported shore and back from a large cruise ship which is not design for that kind of operations.

Come on everybody - there's stil the chance to save her!
Mazel and me, we need every single Finnjet-fan to support our efforts. Write to newspapers or anybody who could be interested in preserving the fastest ferry in the world.
Please help us! It's not too late until 4th July when she will be pulled completely onto the beach.

Finnjet ist still on usshipbroker.com
Does this mean that there is still alittle hope that a buyer might come up or is just the homepage not up to date?

Has anybody some more ideas whom I could write to. I still haven't given up yet. But I'm running out of ideas (and out of time)...

Finnjet and Norway...


No more lights, no more smoke...


Final crew disembarking after beaching on 19th June.

I still assume that she's anchored, not beached. In those pictures.

They were taken by a crew member and he says he took them after they beached the vessel. In high tide (and it is obviously very high tide in that moment) beaching might look exactly like that...

Mathias, thank for the focusing info.

With that, I'll stand up and salute. She's beached.

:/

Come on everybody!

I received an email of Mr. Johnny Sid from Turku right now. He wrote that he hasn't given up yet. The only problem ist the mooring place in Turku - he proposes the old factory of Wärtsilä.

Please, we all have to try everything to convince the city officials of Turku. Still I'm sure that she can be pulled back hardly damaged.

Please, now is the time to act!

@Mathias: Please help us again with your contacts!
@Mazel: Maybe you can add the info the Jetti's MySpace-site?

I hope that Mr. Sid is earnest with his ambition and it is't just politics.

Running Jetti back from Alang will take few moment and in that time there's good time to get the place. IF there's the will and IF there's the money.

Quote: bigbuddy 30-6-2006/ 0802. The only problem ist the mooring place in Turku - he proposes the old factory of Wärtsilä.

Please, we all have to try everything to convince the city officials of Turku. Still I'm sure that she can be pulled back hardly damaged.

Have anyone contacted The City Manager of Turku Mr Mikko Pukkinen ? mikko.pukkinen@turku.fi

@yamsi: Please, can you contact the City Manager of Turku?

Currently I'm at work. But tonight I'll write to him as well. Everybody should try to write him as this might be our very last chance!

I've been in contact with Mr. Johnny Sid today again. He told me that the missing cooperation concerning the moorage in Turku is the main problem. Now he's got another idea: http://www.forum-marinum.fi
Please write to the contacts to be found on this websites:
http://www.forum-marinum.fi/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&a...
The email-links don't work but I think they are firstname.lastname@forum-marinum.fi respectively firstname.lastname@abo.fi (the last four ones).
Here you can find the email adresses of two Turku officials:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=392191139...
http://www.turku.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=50&culture=en-US&conte...
Please support our efforts.

We have to achieve a delay of the final beaching as the problems of this project do not seem to be insolvable. We need to gain some time.

@Mathias: Please check your mail.

Hi.
Somebody might know me from before from other websites, the reson the ship is not beached properly is that its very big and it takes time to pull it in. I do know the present owner, shipbreaker, so if your campaign dont bring succes you might start thinking about saving some of the fittings.
In this matter i can help you for this purpose, if some museum or other want to take care of anything when the breaking starts.
Regards
Andrew Shaw

Hello,

i think that will be a large missing, if this ship goes to little pieces. I have travelled with this ship only once, but i have lots of feelings for this ship. That would be a large cultural thing if there is a possibility to save this ship, and somebody or some instance is doing that. I give my all support and i hope that she will survive. Is there anything what one people can do now for help? Sorry about my bad english,

Best regards,


Tony,

Turku, Finland

I am worked at Wärtsilä in Turku for years. But now i think this company has sold nearly everything in Turku so Forum Marinum should be only hope. Can anybody estimate the price of Finnjet, i mean how much money is needed to save her?

Welcome to the forum toni:

Yes, there is something you can do: write to email-adresses given in my post of 1-7-2008 at 21:19. Tell those people that "Finnjet" is worth to be kept alive.

Please support our efforts.

The time is running out ! The mooring place is kind of a promlem which sooner or later would be solved if Finnjet would return to north Europe.

The main focus should be on stoping the next beaching process. If someene still wants Finnjet they should ask how much would the owners of Finnjet charge of a postpone of the next beaching process.

The capital needed might be easily raised if for example Tallink Silja would arrange a "Delay the scrapping of the Finnjet" campaign on their ships and port terminals by asking their passengers to donate 2 - 4 euros into the campaign. If more than needed money is raised they could sponsor the return voyage to Finland. In case Finnjet is not sold during the delay, the rest of the money they could donated to the International Red Cross ,which would also be good for the Tallink Silja image although Finnjet would be scrapped.

Lots of e-mail sended. Lets hope best...

I guess that's the latest Jetti "video" in YouTube -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOSBR0Pmeec

Nice touch with Sibelius's Finlandia.

But why almost everybody uses/remembers Jetti as Silja Line vessel? For me it still is the original Finnlines vessel with blue color =)

BTW, status is still "waiting" @ http://www.gmbports.org/showship.php?shipid=18747 . Anyway, as Mathias wrote it's still the same for MS France/Norway/Blue Lady...

As far as you can call it a video to rip every possible picture of the ship in Alang and make a dia show...

And most or maybe at least many of us haven't been old enough yet to remember too much of the Finnlines times, I for an instance wasn't even alive yet when the ship change dto Silja

Turun Sanomat has interviewed Mr. Johnny Sid. He tells he has had lots of e-mail from all over the world and believes that Rishi Ship Breakers have kept Finnjet untouched because they think it's in too good condition to be scrapped and have hoped that there would be a last minute buyer.

On the article it is said that it seems that there's no hope left because all the rescue attempts have failed and Finnjet will be permanently beached tomorrow and the actual breakage will start on saturday.

http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2008-07-03,104:2:...

I´m sorry,but I have to agree.I´ve called the indian shipbroker a few minutes ago and they told me that its really a shame to broke up this unique and of course well preserved ship,but if there´s no good bid until tomorrow,Finnjet will be beached on tomorrow...unfortunately...
They also told me that the ship is until now in very good condition and it would be no problem to push her back in deeper water...
So if´there´s anybody out there who wants to preserve her...this might be the last 24 h to do something...
I´m absolutely sure,that this is possible...


e-mail add of Mr.Sid who told a lot people how he thinks to preserve Jetti... johnny.sid@gmail.com



Greetz

I've also been in contact to the Indian shipbreakers today: the fact is if there's no good bid until tomorrow she'll finally be beached. From the position she's now in it wouldn't be a problem to pull her back I was told!
It's definitely a shame due to the great shape she's in!
Please! Everybody! You have to call the shipbreakers to achieve a last delay! And we all have to write to Johnny Sid - normally he checks his mail quite late in the evening. Maybe he can talk to the shipbreakers a very last time and ask for a delay.
This is the last chance!

emailed to Mr. Sid. too

I don't know if that would be of any help, or if he really has any plans for saving the ship, but he might be the last change left.
Anyone contacted Mr. Saarikangas lately? This project would need him as well. What about those oriental contacts? And what is wrong with the Finnish press that has been very very pessimistic all the way?

I have been following this forum for a long time, but had no new ideas or contacts to help with. But I would like to thank all of you actives for keeping up the hope and doing your best to save the ship!

Please don't give up Jetti and call the Indian shipbreakers again to achieve a delay of the final beaching! And write to Johnny Sid! He's still interested as far as I know.

Mr. Saarikangas didn't answer my last mails but he told me before that he has given up as there as was too little time to save her. But everybody should write to him again. His email-adress can be found here: http://www.espoonkokoomus.fi/index/valtuustoryhma

It's up to all of us!

@Mathias: Please try everything for the delay of the final beaching!!!

@ Mazel, @ bigbuddy: I have done all I can do already, don't overestimate my abilities...

I'm not very comfortable with Johnnys email and the breakers phone numbers above actually, they are most probably not informed about this either

Mathias, you are right. Individual emails and phonecalls are not the right way to run a project like this. BUT since this will be the final last try, you should probably keep the contacts here until the ship is either finally beached or saved. This forum is still widely followed.

I think the biggest problem has been the lack of coordination - collecting investors, giving out information and press releases, and coordinating the ship rescue, maintenace, and mooring place projects, is a huge task that would need a person with a lot of influence and contacts.

Maybe Martin Saarikangas would have been able to do that, as he is very respected person with a lot of contacts and knowledge about ships. He saved Wärtsilä shipyards and rebuilt the whole maritime industry in Finland in 90's, so one ship should have been easy I really don't understand why they did the Espoo city initiative, because no-one believed it would ever happen, it only took time and effort from the real options.

Too bad that this is all going too fast and the right information about the situation is so hard to get. There is a lot of will but not enough power. But we need to try...

very true words, I was thinking more or less the same in all points mentioned

@Mathias
I´m sure you did what was in your authority,but to represent the e-mail and phonenumbers was just maybe a last chance to achieve the unpossible...
And I got a mail today that the shipbreakers are intent to give Jetti a chance and a further delay if there would be anyone who indicate interest in the ship...
This might be a chance...

so far...

Greetz

Mazel,
keep on pushing! Have you heard anything from mr Sid so far?

No,I try really hard to acquire anything,but neither Mr. Sid nor Mr.Saarikangas have gave me any comment until now.
I absolutely agree with your last post..."time,money and a common way" are the magic words who will might save Jetti...

So far...I try keep on pushing until all is lost...

Greetz

Helsingin Sanomat article on today's "advanced" beaching: http://www.hs.fi/teksti/tuoreet/artikkeli/1135237666938

Abridged version in English: they managed to pull her only about ten meters further, breaking the winch chains in the progress. A man on the scene stated it'll be at least another week before she can be properly beached.

I guess the lady is trying to tell us she isn't ready to go just yet.

Quite unbelievable what happened during this process,especially because of the prayers of a couple of "misguided" guys here...

But of course they had managed a lot of other "heavy beachings" like Oiltankers,SS Norway,some Aircraftcarrier etc...
But Jetti isn´t already done...she´s rather fighting like a shark...


Nighty night everyone...!

teppo:" I really don't understand why they did the Espoo city initiative, because no-one believed it would ever happen, it only took time and effort from the real options."

We made the intiative in Espoo on a high level to awake inverstors, cities, newspapers and TV to tell there is a support we can offer on the political level. Martin Saarikangas made a big effort to collect people with money and power with his contacts. He really already got speaks of 7 millions but he told the realistic amount wuold be 10-12 millions that we should need. There had to be a realistic plan what to do with the vessel. The Baltic sea is already overloaded with ferries, so we had to look at other purposes lodging, budjet hotel, museum, attraction, special trips etc.

But no one could tell the price of upkeeping, service, rising oilprices. The inverstors just lost their belief. Maybe the world has changed so there was no plase for Finnjet anymore? I think every cruise company in the Baltic will face economic problems soon this year and for example nobody can tell the destiny of Tallink-Silja with the enormous dept.

I still believe that Finnjet was worth its price and we had got it really for a cheap price if you think of what you got. It is still difficult to understand how it goes this way. Already made good work and a lot of materia will be destoyed just to get some steel for new purposes. How does all this correspond with the battle against the climate change and pollution?

She still can be preserved. Mr. Johnny Sid is still fighting for her!

We have to use the time we gained due to the missed final beaching on last Friday.

Even the ship-breakers hold that it is a shame to scrap her already!

Finnjet is fighting back. It is struggling against the beaching so the wires was bursting! The beaching was not successful.

Thanks for pointing out the MTv3 video Risto! It must be quite hard for Mr. Sviberg as well, Finnjet was really his baby as he said in the interview.

A newspeper from southern Germany (!!, almost nobody knows any ship here actually ) has published an article on Finnjets fate:

http://www.suedwest-aktiv.de/landundwelt/im_brennpunkt/3690164/artikel.php

For the non german speakers: It doesn't mention anything new.

I'd assume bigbuddy was in contact with them?

Thanks Kurre for your reply, and very nice to meet you here!

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate very much the initiative and effort you and your colleagues made to save the ship. But the information we got about the project in the media really left the impression that it wouldn't be realistic. And the city council didn't even take the initiative in concern.

The current condition and maintenance costs are indeed a big question that nobody hasn't evaluated in public so far. As you said the investors would need a realistic cost estimate and business plan. If it really turns out to be impossible to save and maintain the ship, then we could leave the speculations as well.

Otherwise I think too that the ship has a huge potential, and if it could be saved now, her history would be even more extraordinary. We would need some objective and positive publicity, and some expert that could tell in public that the rust in the bow means the ship needs some paint, not that it is a wreck. Ships do rust and I think we all have travelled in ships that had the paintwork in similar or worse condition!

I wish you guys all the best and I still hope and believe that the ship can be saved! Please keep up the good work!

Hello all,

why is it not possible to "park" this beautiful and reliable ship at the West harbour in Helsinki? I really don`t know, if the Espoo project could perhaps be mentioned as the same as the West Harbour?

As I know, at the end of the year most of the West Harbour and North Harbour traffic in Helsinki will move to the new Vuosaari Harbour project, which will start operating in end 2008. There will perhaps become free space, which could be planned with buildings. I asked the building department in Helsinki, if there would not be a possibility to integrate the ship in the planning as a hotel or museum. My contact person passed on my question and ideas to someone other, but I haven`t heard anything about it, yet.

As I have heard, there will be planned a West Harbour Project. I really don`t know, if there would be any capacity to "park" her, but there will be "water" and why not saving her by this way.

I still hope, that Finnjet could be saved at the last moment, and it would be very sad, to loose such a fantastic ship on such a way.

Naturally it would be nicer, if she could cut the baltic waves with one power, but in todays rising fuel costs, I think it would be too expensive to operate in a economic way. I always keep my fingers crossed, that she really could be saved. The hope should even not move until the last chance has been tried to save her.

@ baltic dolphin:

Can you tell us about the contact so we can write to the responsible persons as well?

Would be really great!

There is still one Gentleman in Finland i think could help. Mr Bjorn Wahlroos. He has money and he is very interested in boats and hope ships also. This guy is worth of try.
http://tinyurl.com/63zc3o
Björn is CEO of Sampo Group. http://www.sampo.com/index.html

@bigbuddy:

I wrote to the Helsinki City Planning Department
e-mail: kaupunkisuunittelu@hel.fi

I really don`t know, if it would be the right place, but I wrote, that they should pass on to the right place, if possible and they did it, I think. They said that they have passed it on. I didn`t have contact with a special person unfortunaly. Perhaps somebody in Helsinki could try to get more information. Unfortunaly I couldn`t speak Finnish language, yet and time it running out.

It would be so nice, if there would be rise a last rescue plan.
I keep my fingers crossed for it.

p.s.: In my last statement there was a little mistake: I ment that it would be nicer that she could cut the waves with her OWN power

Once again I spent the whole evening writing further emails concerning "Jetti's" rescue.

I think that everybody who has got the time should do so.

I believe that there's still a chance!

Please, don't give up! It's Finnjet!

Does anybody know how to get in contact with Martin Saarikangas whilst he's on holiday?

I am doing like buddy,
may one of you german guys could write also to the museum of bremerhaven
Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum
Hans-Scharoun-Platz 1 • D-27568 Bremerhaven
Tel. +49 (0)471 48207-0 • Fax +49 (0)471 48207-55
E-Mail: info@dsm.museum

may they have interest in this unicate of maritim engineering, also they could use her as hotel ship and the car deck for more space to show anything, especially stuff they have only temporaryly. I don´t speak german so I wrote them in english may be that a mail in german will be understood better.

keep fighting guys
I asked mika häkkinen we will see what he thinks
and see what the guys from rishi think of paint her and chater her to anyone

A new marinarymuseum was opened yesterday in Kotka, Finland big enough to have Finnjet in its pier outside. The chef remembered tha she was cleaning Finnjetcabins in her youth and they have one orginal Finnjetcabin stored in the museum. Helsingin Sanomat told about it today.

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Kotkan+uusi+merimuseo+Vellamo+on+hy%C3%B6k...

The Länsisatama in Helsinki could be a suitable place for Finnjet too. The city counsil members in Espoo were divided in their opinions. One part understand and were really ready to have Finnjet. Others were scared for everything old, problems and need of money. They just dont understand the the meaning, the chance for Espoo to have something as an attraction that no other city newer has. The initiative will be handled in the autumn and I am afraid it is too late. You can still try to reach Martin Saarikangas where ever his is +358-400403290. It is a common public number, but do not tell where you got it.

Anyway, I think he has given up, but Finnjet is ever in his heart, as he has been planning, building and driving it. Even the smallest cabins are dimentioned by his own physical measures. He is 197 tall and the cabins are at least 207 wide to have 5 cm free space in the both ends. Finnjet was the first ferry based cabins for everyone. The others had moustly only sleep-in chairs.

Hello from Hellsinki!
I have read this Forum about 1,5 month. The Jet is in Alang but what is the situation, has the demolition started? Anybody knows?

@Crystal grower:

As far as we know the demolition has not started yet due to the failed final beaching on last Saturday. We all are still trying to preserve her!

@K:

Another great idea! I wonder whether you can try to contact the city of Helsinki and tell them about your idea. I simply do not have the time as I currently try to wake up some other people in terms of "Jetti's" current situation and the possibility to save her.

Kepa, I agree.

We would still need some bigger players, with the initial capital needed, to start the project. After that there would no problems getting a lot of small investors along. I hope there is someone still working on this, and that it is not too late.

Anyone, any news?

There was up-to-date information on Suomi24.fi forum that breakage of Finnjet has already started. According to user "Originaali_mikko" a local eyewitness has told that the ship seems to be quite high up on the beach and yesterday there was workers carrying out carpets, furniture, equipment and other stuff that can be sold.

http://keskustelu.suomi24.fi/show.fcgi?category=111&conference=4500000000...

Ps. I found this on Flickr, maybe someone from here? http://www.flickr.com/groups/finnjet/

I heard that the interiors are still untouched and there are actually still negotiations in progess which prevent the breakers from starting too quickly...

I have been following this here for a while, and I must admit, it's a pity. Would have booked immediatelly, if the ship had started business as a cruiseliner.

So, all what stays are good memories ? I don't know.

I travelled by Finnlines Hansa-Class and as well Star-Class to Helsinki in February, and I must say, these ships have surprised me, comfy, good food and very stylish. Met a few people onboard, who were previously working onboard Finnjet, and everyone thought back with good memories.

Unfortunatelly I have never been onboard the Finnjet after it had it's great renovation.

Don't know, what else to say, so it is best to say thank you for all who keep us updated here !

With greetings from Switzerland,

Cornelia

http://www.ferriesofeurope.fotopic.net/

Still fighting for her!

Hope that everybody does so!

Hello everybody!

We need few more investors more for the Turku-project!

Any idea is welcome!

Jetti can still be refloated and the scrapping process hasn't started yet.

Nevertheless we shouldn't lose sight of the other ideas such as the Helsinki-project.

Please contact Mr Björn Wahlroos. CEO of Sampo Group. He is living in Halikko, 50km south from Turku

I have had a dream that Finnjet would be a floating (budget) hotel in Riga, Latvia (many alternatives from cheap inside cabins to spacious commodore).

Maybe summer times some cruises to Stockholm and Helsinki from there. In the car deck there would be enormous night club (reasonable price standard), which would be suitable, because Riga’s proper clubs are sooo expensive.

Well, I am not sure whether you are familiar with Hamburg, Landungsbrücken and the Elbe River. At Landungsbrücken there is only place for one museumship, the one and only Cap San Diego http://www.capsandiego.de - of course a well-known landmark there, not just an museum-ship but as well hotel, exhibition center, it can be rented out for parties and even has a small original pool (believe it or not, cargoships had, and still have - small pools usually filled with seawater).

Anyways, not any mooring spaces on River Elbe for this type of bigger ships, if you are familiar with Museumshafen Övelgönne you know what sizes of ships there are, and that it's crowded already.

Unless you have a bit better contacts than I do have, in Hamburg and know something that none of us who are just a bit familiar with this city, know :-) Then, please share, of course !

Hehe, you do have good humour saying that the Elbe River is wide enough. There is more discussion about making it wider, as well deeper - increase of size of the ships is of course, the reason and the sizes of Euro and TEU rule all of course. The ship you have pictured does not really say anything, as it's about one of the smallest containerships around there, one of Team-Lines' containerfeederships, which trade Scandinavia and the Baltic - including Finland of course. These ships are never the reason for the below, but the big traders from China and the likes are. An example, here two of these beauties:
http://i33.tinypic.com/24mermr.jpg

Here a part of an article, which explains probably better than I can do:

"Nun ist eine erneute Elbvertiefung geplant, die siebte seit 1850: Für Containerschiffe mit einem Konstruktionstiefgang von 14,50 m muss die Unterelbe nach Einschätzung der Stadt Hamburg an vielen Stellen verbreitert und vertieft werden. Dies bedeutet an einigen Stellen nochmals einen Abtrag von über 2,20 m. Insgesamt fallen bei diesem Projekt 38 Millionen m³ Baggergut an: Also fast die dreifache Menge wie bei der letzten Elbvertiefung vor 6 Jahren. Die umfangreichste Verbreiterung (um hier eine Begegnung der großen Schiffe zu ermöglichen) wird es zwischen Tinsdal und Blankenese geben. Hier wird die Fahrrinne von 250 m auf 385 m erweitert."
Link from: http://vorort.bund.net/hamburg/Baumassnahmen.122.0.html

Well, you simply won't have the superbig ships meeting in the River Elbe because if there arrive too many they will be told to anchor at a specific area outside of the Elbe River. Same goes for, when all terminals are occupied.

Things aren't anymore as they used to be in the 80ies, of course ! More and more shipping, if you look the schedules and terminals too. Though, the workers there have good trade-unions, no matter how much there is, and unless the shipping company is willing to pay extra-much, they don't work on Sundays.

So, if you wait for big ships - don't choose a Sunday for that

I'll be in Hamburg next weekend and can report, on demand.

http://www.delphis.be/schedules/upload/teamlines/schedule.pdf?id=6bdqgr64zrnf...
And, look your blue/green supercontainership "Annaland" is also scheduled for HH !

Meanwhile, this here has gone a bit off course and ok, I'm also waiting for news.

What's up? She hasn't been touched by the breaker yet and she can still be refloated!

We have to go on fighting! Now!

I tried to get in contact with Hamburg today...

Buddy I agree with you 100 % I do all my best but without any sensefull result it makes no sense to post any thing.

I hope my friend of the SIMT in shanghai has an idea what we could do

or every german guy could go on the road and ask everybody for one euro to save jetti in germany you are over 80 million people that would be enough to get her back to europe.

Just came across this:

http://luxurysealiving.com/ships.aspx

Does anyone know anything more on this?

Quote: "At Cruise Condo Communities, we convert recently retired ships to Private Luxury Yacht Condos, adding all the latest amenities. You step into a world of the refinement you deserve, an exclusive community with peers of similar interest."

Page seems to be from 2006, has anyone ever come across this before?

Edit: As this is technically not news, can someone move it to a more appropriate thread maybe?

Does anyone know what is the status now? Any success?
I think many of us are still holding our breath.

I don't think the empty or partly dismantled ship would be worth saving. The price of the refit would be too high because work is expensive. In the last refit, they spent about 100 man labor years, multiply that by 50.000 eur... and that doesn't even include any materials. Any customisation would make the price even higher.

Let's hope for the best, but …

It's a shame that media haven't reported anything about Finnjet since last week in June, when Finnjet arrived at the beach in Alang. I think that there would have been a greater interest to save her, if the media wouldn’t have started the rumours about her condition "A worthless peace of crap” and that this was Finnjets final destination. If we would have got media behind us we could have collected more money from the public.

My conclusion is that politicians and the newspaper Turun Sanomat weren’t interested to get Finnjet to Turku because it would have had a negative effect on the price of the planned houses on the former Wärtsilä shipyard (none would pay enormous sums of money to for a view over an old scrappy ship).

My newest information say: She's not finally beached yet and the fight still goes on!

Well, as I said, I have contacted the breakers, and I have got their answer today:
I do not think that they'd have any reason to tell a lie, they are the shipowners, and they could have either scrapped it, or sold it at a good price. I guess for them, their business and money counts.
This is the newest info I have, from today morning, and comes straight from Rishi shipbreakers.

MR. KLIER / RISHI,

THE VESSEL HAS BEEN BEACHED FOR SCRAPPING.
REGARDS!!

RISHI SHIP BREAKERS
45-ARCADIA,
NARIMAN POINT,
MUMBAI-400020.
MOB-0091-9867221451
FAX (OFF)- 0091-22-2-2821489
TEL- 91-22-2821197

@ Cornelia:

No one here ever did contradict the fact that she was beached by her own power on 19th June in order to scrap her soon.

The thing is that the final beaching (which is usually done with the help of winches) has not been done until now. From her current position she can still be refloated.

The next thing I want to correct is the claim that Finnjet is completely owned by Rishi Ship Breakers. As far as I know by now there are several owners.

Just for the sake of completeness.

yeah well I think also the ship is not a property now of RSB.
Probably it belongs to a bank, or a financial or capital-holder.

RSB cuts the steel (as far is know a job of 8+ months approx. until the last keelplate is reached) and sells to the big steel corporations, and with that money RSB will pay the owners in parts for instance, with a margin/profit for RSB self ofcourse.

But this e-mail message reply above as posted by cornelia looks like a kind of short 'autoreply' message.

"It's beached for scraping..." and that's it. Well I had could tell you that to..

Well, I am not sure whether it was auto-reply or not, I asked them first, whether the ship is beached already and got back as an answer, that the ship is beached. I wanted to know a bit more, whether it is in a condition that it could be refloated or whether the ship is going surely to be scrapped. Now, the answers have been a bit short, apart from that they mistook me with a "mister" which i am not, the short replies did answer my questions.

I just was very puzzled here, that there are so many plans made, about the ship here and there, and Turku and elsewhere, while nobody seemed to stay in close contact with the breakers company !! I found this really odd, and strange so I simply looked their addresss up and asked about the ship "Kingdom" in plot nr. 109. I was not sure that I do get ANY answer after all, as of course for them it is a waste of time to answer such questions, if you don't have anything to buy or sell from them.

As far as I remember the contacts I had with Mr. Saarikangas he told me that bringing her to Espoo - not Turku - wouldn't be feasible.
The problem with the Pansio-moorage is that it is located next to an oil refinery which is really to a nice place to be. To use the vessel as an accommodation with restaurants and events taking place it needs to be located very close to the town centre.

Guys, a new member here. I have been on Jetti just once, and it was great. Travemünde-HEL, summer schedule, full 33 knots and a pitiful, overpriced inside cabin.

But we all need a reality check, please! She's at least halfway beached at <b>Alang, India</b> as we speak.

Operating her on turbines woule be like operating a fleet of B737-200 on Finnair domestic instead of Embraer 170/190 jets. A suicide in other words for those who have no idea of aviation.

Diesel engines are economical... sure. Gives 18 knots speed to Jetti. And not enough power to some propellors. MV Prince/Princess of Scandinavia are MV Moby Drea/Otta these days. They do 27 knots on diesel. and eat 550 cars if Moby is to be believed... they claim Tommy takes 1000...

Finnjet on GTS is a suicide with current fuel prices. With current diesels, it's obsolete in speed and performance.

Guys, wake up. Martin Saarikangas himself apparently said it all above....

@ ox266:

First of all: welcome to the forum.

We all are aware of the fact that operating Jetti with gas-turbines is no more economical.

But no one here tries to get her back in service.

I think Rotterdam showed today we can call ourselves lucky.

After almost 50 years, she passes in R'dam port for the last time, back homewards to her final berth, the yard and slipway where she was launched, as named Rotterdam, with homeport Rotterdam.

It must at least be inspiration, and shows it's not impossible, to the involved Finish partys who can have the benefits of a similar set up. I hope & pray for that !!

grtz. Jeroen.

Kepa, did you get any reasons why the price tag is higher?

Has the scrap metal value rised suddenly or has there been too much interest on the ship?


Ps. I have not been lazy here. I'm quite busy with my own business but I have been sending e-mails and trying to inform media the get interested in this. I even talked about Pro Finnjet plan to a few investor friends of mine but they both were negative about this... not everyone understand the value of GTS Finnjet.

The reply I got about the ship was this here:

THE VESSEL HAS BEEN BEACHED AS EXPLAINED EARLIER.

SHE CAN BE REFLOATED WITHOUT ANY MAJOR ISSUES, SUBJECT TO WE GETTING ABOUT 23 MILLION AS IS WHERE IS.
REGARDS!!

RISHI SHIP BREAKERS
45-ARCADIA,
NARIMAN POINT,
MUMBAI-400020.
MOB-0091-9867221451
FAX (OFF)- 0091-22-2-2821489
TEL- 91-22-2821197

I actually do assume, that I am - of course, not the first one who asked this question as I read, the same thing got explained to others before me. Later I asked, whether the ship is still "as is" or whether they have already started scrapping and then I got that other short answer - beached for scrapping. I did tell them, that my interest in the ship is not anything associated with business but that I would just like to know, as a former frequent traveller onboard.

Why the price goes up ? Speculations, speculations ! Someone has contacted them, and promisede alot of money, and what the good business peopole do ? Make the price high ! If they want to sell the ship, then only for as high as possible. Just my idea.

Now, we do have a number here. 23 Million - of what ? I assume $. The serious folks who have contacted know better than me for sure.

The business-folks do hopefully also know, that this is not all of the bill. I do wonder, on Mr. Sid's website, there are no clear numbers, as well I hope the folks know, about the cost of inspections - and after that, the ship can not sail without insurance and registration ! That costs, as well !
As well, what are the mooring-costs ? Hm.. or is it still a case of a ship, that might be getting bought, but has nowhere to go, like a flying Dutchman ? If it would become like that, it does for sure have good potential to become a real legend !! No, ok I take my scarcasm back here ! Just some thoughts, and here we do have a number, and I think, why not post it, and let people know some facts ?

I just put an email to Björn Wahlroos secretary. Hope Björn can help us!

Finally somethings real happens! ProFinnjet is sending a three person inspection team to Alang to take a look at the condition of Finnjet.

http://www.profinnjet.fi/

Could this be something to get the media interested in jetti again?

Here you can find an new article about the current situation from HL-Live from Lübeck (german language):

http://www.hl-live.de/aktuell/textstart.php?id=45853

The inspection team consits of 3 old crew members led by Veikko Haapanen. Feel free to contact Johnny Sid for more information.

Here is also some new in press in German

http://www.bahn-aktuell.net/BA2/wordpress/?p=1642re

http://www.yigg.de/wirtschaft/-finnjet-soll-studentenwohnheim-werden

http://www.travemuende-aktuell.de/aktuell/nachrichten_11992-Retten_Finnen_die_Finnjet.htm

Has anybody found any article or even a short news about ProFinnjet in the Finnish media? The last time Finnjet made it througt to the headlines was in early July and that was the beaching coverage.

Since then I have not found anything new and it makes me wonder why the media doesn't react in any way to this Pro Finnjet plan.

It's not that they do not know because I have been sending "tips" to the various medias and I know I'm not the only one trying to get Finnish media to notice this. But no Finnish media has told nothing on this issue. Not even Turun Sanomat which is quite strange.

Just wondering what's wrong with the Finnish media...

I'm afraid they feel that the topic of Finnjet is kind of worn out and old and people would get tired about a news that is no real news but rather a "we are still trying"... I guess as soon as the inspection team has come up with any results of their survey, also finnish media might be on the topic again

Helsingin Sanomat has awoken:

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Finnjeti%C3%A4+yritet%C3%A4%C3%A4n+yh%C3%A...

Now, also in English for us here who do not speak Finnish:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Attempts+to+get+iGTS+Finnjeti+back+to+Finlan...

I really hope HS is not correct about those "oil to the fire" parts of their airticle :S I was in contact with Johnny today and he said they don't need any permission as they have personal invitations from the breaker who should be in charge of organizing everything so that they can go an check her out.

Its nice to see, there is still hope and people will not give up trying. I have given my support to Finnjet.

Any news on the inspection team? Does Pro Finnjet have enough money to send them to Alang tomorrow?

yeah they left at 8PM finnish time

what a wonderful news that we could after all send the team!! I certainly hope that the outcome will be positive. Thanks you all great folks making this happen!

If you mean by the second expedition our private trip to see Finnjet; Mathias, Martin, Paul and Kai are on their way to India and I just returned from Helsinki airport as the Mumbai-flight is delayed by several hours

Considering our schedules we could be meeting the official inspection team at Bhavnagar airport when arriving there, so if we don't get any information from them before mid-next week we are trying to get online with latest "on-scene" information of Finnjet.

Mr.Sid was interwiewed in radio today and he said that news
from inspection team concerning Jetti´s condition was positive !!!!
He said also that tomorrow when he had seen full report from the
team,he will give new interwiew with full details...

That's good news!

Renowned German Newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau has quite a long article today. In German, of course, sorry.

http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/magazin/1398334_Gnadenfrist-fuer-die-Koenigin-der-Ostsee.html

Oops, I looked at the date in the top right corner of the Frankfurter Rundschau page but that seems to bee the current. Well, so the article is not that up to date, but it still shows that there is some public interest and not only in baltic papers.

Sorry about the real name issue, I overlooked that fine print.

But back to the topic: According to the article Sid still needs at least 6 million euros. Sorry to say that, but it beats me where the money will come from. Has that figure changed during the last weeks?

Sebastian

Hello all and thanks Kepa to tell about the real name thing,sorry about that.
Now my real name is visible and i hope it is o.k now?
Anyway i had really busy day today at work and i haven´t got no time to listen the news from the radio...
Has anybody heard any news????

let`s hope, that the mission will end positively. Have the "inspectors" arrived home, yet? What is the result? I hope fervently that we all together can rescue this magnificent technical masterpiece, so that we could show it our children and grandchildren. Sometimes it hurts, that I could not do more. So let`s wait, what news we will get in the next days or weeks

On the ProFinnjet:

"The inspection team has returned to Finland. Conclusion: SHE CAN BE SAVED!! Update will be available soon."

We're waiting like a 100m runner just before the startpistol explodes...

Fotos from Alang now pusblished:

http://www.profinnjet.fi/condition.html

I hope indian boys know how to do waterproof welding, after doing extra entrance.

She seems to be OK, beached more than presumed (in earlier pictures she was still float). Few chair was missing in bar's, so what. The main thing for us is the vessel.

Is it possible to get her back to open waters, is it possible to get her back to Baltic Sea/Finland?

@Kepa: There's no night without any dream regarding Jetti =)

What about the mold then ? As far as I have heard from the ones that been onboard, there's so much of it, that this is a reason that all interior anyways would have to be put out and replaced by new, and a good disinfection afterwards ?

Well if financial issues not considered the refurbishing of the interior is only a possibility to bring back those 1970's interiors

Well.. yeah.. that's just a positive point of view, not at all realistic

Finnish business newspaper Taloussanomat has a lead story of this morning:
http://www.taloussanomat.fi/liikenne/2008/09/03/romuttaja-haluaa-myyda-finnje...

Titles as "Breaker would like to sell Finnjet back to Finland"

There's a interview of Johnny Sid and the newspaper says that at the moment money is not the issue but City of Turku is. If Turku allows Finnjet to be moored in a proper place, then the investors will handle the money.

So lets put a bit of pressure to Turku...

So have I understood right that if Turku could have a place for Finnjet, she would be saved? Wow! Now Turku should understand how important tourist spot they could get!

I just found a list of contacts to work on in order to save our beloved Jetti:

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/verotiedot/2005/rikkaat1000.asp

It's not too late yet. Everyone who has some time can help to find out email-addresses and write to the persons mentioned in the list above.

Please - it's still up to us!!!

Helping, well - what kind of helping ?
I just wonder, what is that with the city of Turku, which can not provide a berth for the ship ? Or can they finally ?
As well, I think it is all far much more complex than collecting e-mail addresses and write to people.

And, all stands and as well falls - with an available berth !! If there is no guaranteed berth for the ship, nobody will find a reason to donate just even 10 Euros, because where then with the ship ? Or, do you think it could then become a REAL legend, a modern Flying Dutchman - flying Finn ? A ship with no port to go ?

Now, what's the news ? I can't read Finnish, but is there a berth for the ship, or is there no berth ? Which would mean - no berth almost no chance. Which city could provide something ? Well, and what with the mould ? Why is there not yet a report by the group sent off by Mr. Sid ?
The folks from this forum here, who done this all in their freetime came back, and provided this report here http://www.finnjetweb.com/alang1.pdf Very detailed and informative.

I hope, I missed some of the news here, and that someone can fill in the missing parts of which there seem to be alot of, or question marks, however you like to put this.

So, who is right? We can save her or is the game over?

Johnny Sid's inspection team: "She can be saved" -> http://www.profinnjet.fi/condition.html

Or/Vs.

Mathias's team: "It's all over" -> http://www.finnjetweb.com/alang1.pdf

Who do we believe? I want to believe that the vessel will be back to the Baltic Sea, for cruising.

Salesman said that my steam vacuum cleaner can fix those mouldings also. I believe also so, it is how much you are ready to work or how much you are ready to pay for the work.

Sorry Mathias, but you have had kind of negative approach in here for couple months. And it's kind confusion because you have created this site. For salute the great vessel. Are you building martyr here?

If we can believe Johnny Sid's comments on Taloussanomat, collecting e-mail adresses and randomly e-mail them asking for money (just like Nigerians do) is not helping at this moment.

In Taloussanomat Sid gives us the impression that the money can be easily raised IF the vessel has a good berth in Turku.

So if only Turku gives the berth place that investors want, then there is money. The berth is the issue, Turku has not given it.

One question - Why not other cities???

According to my information the current situation is:

1) There are enough investors to bring her to the harbour of Turku. The problem is that those investors are only willing to pay if the city of Turku will offer a suitable moorage. NOT the one in Pansio.

2) It should be the aim to find another investor to buy her now in order to have her safe. The Pansio-moorage could be a temporary place for her to be. There would be much more time to negatiate and finally convince the officials. After that the money of the original investor could be paid back and the new ones would be available.

Therefore the seek for further investors should go on!

Someone on some forum threw an idea of Finnjet in Helsinki. Someone had information that the yard where Finnjet was originally built is going to be closed soon and would there be chance to place Finnjet there? I guess the location in downtown Helsinki would attract investors more than the one in Turku.

That would be real "back to the roots"-thing... but I guess if the yard actually closes, then they fill up the place and build luxus offices and flats there...

Rokker

In Mathias defence, I too was with him in India I dont think he is being negative, I think we were all shocked once onboard, whilst stucturally the ship is in fine condition albeit for the need of painting, the inside would need new carpets, walls, and some roof panels, the mould and smell hit you hard.

Anyway all this is not particuarly relivant should the boat be turned into accomodation, as im sure there would be a substantial alteration of the interior which in any event will require re carpeting.

I' m new to this forum.

Due to the fact, that at one time I was employed by Enso, Finnjet´s path crossed with mine. It truly is, in many respects the Concord of Finland.

It needs to be parked as an extension to the former Enso - headquarters in Katajanokka, Helsinki. And operated as a joint Hotel and Conference center.

There already exists a plan to erect some kind of a glass-cross-shaped hotel of VOUW-arcitectual quality on the spot, which by all indication is the no. 1 spot of Finland. This must be stopped.

To this effect I have written some blog-article contributions in Kauppalehti.fi. The latest today.
Link: http://hakki47.blogit.kauppalehti.fi/2008/09/04/finnjet-suomeen/

The article also includes the links to my previous articles on the matter. The articles are in finnish, of course.

The best place in town is "placing her at Kanavaterminaali (Nordic Jet Line terminal) in Katajanokka instead of building a hotel in place of the terminal", more or less the same spot from where it stood in Helsinki. But Hietalahden telakka, AKER Yarss, Helsinki has it´s merits as well.

So what to do next?

Kepa

No, the former Finnjet terminal is not going to be destroyed. Not as far as I know, anyway. The plan however, is to erect an X - designed Glassmonster Hotel on the other end of the same pier. That is the Kanavaterminaali (Nordic Jet Line terminal), the place which is nearest to the former Enso - headquarters.

As you probably know that building was designed by Alvar Aalto as a hotel. Now that StoraEnso is, by all accounts, getting ready to leave the building Finnjet and that building should be united once again. This time as a hotel - conference center. Also as a monument of finnish creativity, engineering, industry and commerce.

Hello people, sorry when I disturb you all, but to find a place for Jetti is not so important as to save her first. The pictures from Alang shows that the breakers are now pulling her nearer to the beach, and I´m sure they will start the breaking in one or two days! So there is no time left! The question must be: save or not save her. When we want to save her, we have to buy her NOW! It will be a long time to bring her back to water and to take her home, there will be time to find a solution for mooring. What about TRAVEMÜNDE for the first few weeks?

Best regards

Frank

Well, the simple fact is - that you would not buy a ship, if you do not know where to put it !!!
That's not so hard isn't it ? Who would buy a ship, if it's not sure where you can put it first ? And buy it - to mention that as well, if there isn't a good business-plan. The business plan that is to be seen on the http://www.profinnjet.fi website does still leave alot of question-marks.

So, actually - what is the matter ? The ones involved in this - did they contact Helsinki officials, Kotka, as well Tallinn, Riga, Stockholm ? I hope, but don't know the background of course.

The hope is, that there are works in the background going on, of which we do not know anything.

Negative feelings here, no I didn't read that here, to the defense of Mathias and the group who went to Alang, I must say that these folks have actually been there, came back - wrote a report immediatelly and that one NOT negative at all but in a neutral, fact-based way describe for us what they did see, without trying to influence with whatever opiniom. That's very good and respectable work.
Let me add, while Mr. Sid's inspection group has not yet came up with a detailed report. Makes me wonder ? Makes others wonder perhaps, too.

This is not only a place here for yippeeeh all good and lucky happy conversations, but we should be also able to view the whole thing with critical eyes, with care, and hope the right people read, and react, or even ask for help directly !

Exactly, Cornelia! It is of course "dangerous" to buy a ship and then try to find a good place for it. But before Pro Finnjet`s inspection team left for Alang, many, many people got a message from Mathias/Pro Finnjet, which didn`t only give lots of information, but also asked people to donate for Finnjet`s saving. And in fact there WAS mentioned a "temporary place for the ship". And I belive that now they are trying to find a better place for Jetti, maybe in Aurajoki.

Ok, and then about the speculation of Finnjet`s condition: I would just like to remind you, that Pro Finnjet`s inspection has already came back and Sid probably knows much of Jetti`s condition. If Finnjet would be in terrible condition, Sid wouldn`t continue saving her, but informed, that Jetti cannot be refoated. Becouse why would he raise money for saving a half-disturbed ship?

Just to add some additional facts:

YES, there is a temporary moorage in Turku-Pansio. The problem is that this moorage doesn't convince the investors at all. As long as there is no progress in the negotiations with the city of Turku considering where to place her elsewhere they simply won't pay.

Considering another moorage we need to know that most of the current investors want to see the vessel only in Turku.

Nevertheless we should try to find another moorage...and write to the city officials of Turku in order to build up some pressure.

Has anybody contacted mayor of Turku or mayor of Helsinki,Jussi Pajunen?
I heard that Mr.Pajunen is really openminded gentleman on what comes to make Helsinki interesting place.(e.g Helsinki night of art with
over 40000 spectators watching free concert in senaatintori...etc..)
Maybe we oughta raise address with many signatures in it ,print it out and gather small representation,few peoples who will show the address to the mayors and why not higher,the minister of culture or minister of education...anyway the highest person who is in charge about this kind of things.
If someone raises an address i will happily give my signature and i know lots of people that will sign too.
Public,in this case eu-wide,hopefully worldwide signatured address is so big thing that all medias are interested and our "big guys" in Finland´s lead places have to react.

So how about that????can we do it?

I have read Rokker´s earlier post and i think he is right about that
we should not give up never,it is against Finnish nature!!
When Jetti is bought back,i believe that here from Finland,will be enough professional non-mold and trash scary crew to transfer Jetti back to homewaters.
I am already signed up as a volunteer to take care things as a mechanic,and i guarantee that with few friends,we can start up and keep few Wärtsilä diesel engines running even if we have to do it without computers,only with "bare hands".

Waiting opinions...Meanwhile i will keep my notorious,mold eating steam vacuum cleaner ready to travel to india,i have to inform Rokker that he will too,so we can clean the carpets first before the captain enters the ship again,maybe we can open few windows to circulate air and i think,use few of those small indians to clean toilets that they used...by their colour i think that they have been going through those sewer pipes many times before

Hmmm

A public address...Hmm...In fact there is already an address at http://www.adressit.com/finnjet, even if it wants the state of Finland to buy Finnjet it tells, how much people would like to see her again and save her. At the moment there is already 334 signatures and the amount of them is growing up all the time. But I really belive that if someone saves Finnjet it`s going to be Johnny Sid. And it would be a huge mistage if a good place for Finnjet cannot be found. Like I mentioned above, people are really interested of saving Finnjet, which of course means that Finnjet would probably be an interesting tourist spot for every single town.

Well... as it seems now, that saving the entire ship is practically impossible at this point... and before someone starts shouting - I don´t see myself being negative, but just realistic

But I was wondering - has there been any toughts about saving at least few parts - for example the bridge or engine control room? It shoudn´t be impossible to unscrew at least all panels, gauges and all other _visible_ equipment... of course those would cost some amount of money (no idea how much, not even roughly), and so would shipping them to Finland.

Storing maybe one or two containers, and maybe building a replica some day should not be impossible. But I think this would require immediate action - scrapping process is started from interiors...

Yes, I know that there is already that cabin in Kotka´s new Vellamo-museum. But my personal opinion is, that saving some "key" parts from tech. areas would be even more importat.

I just fear that time is running out... and no money, no funny...

I think, it does not depend on friends, or our friends. It does depend on much more really: A mooring place, permanent - in a place, which is attractive for people to visit. Every businessman seriously interested in saving the ship and turning it into a good business, has - I suggest so - already tried to contact the key people at the ports of Helsinki, Turku, if not even Stockholm, Riga, Tallinn and the likes !!!
Now, no mooring place, it seems nobody has interest then ? Which answers did Mr. Sid get ?
Then, after a suitable place to be found, there are needed people who know how to run a ship, and as well a hotel/conference-center, wherever that might be.
It's not as simply as contacing friends, who might have friends. I guess, the ones who are actually involved into the whole task, have tried everything already, perhaps are still at it, or have given up ? We don't know - Mr. Sid keeps very silent. We will see, what happens but actionism without a real plan does not help at all.

As much as I will still like to see the ship safe in Finland, and as much I'd like to see the unlikely to happen... but we have to consider the possibility that we'll never see our ship again, and definately make a proper plan for that. We have skilled businessmen working on the plans with hopefull succeedings, but as always, nothing is guaranteed.

So in addition of the endless plans for returning Finnjet back to Europe, I wish that someone has a back-up plan for the case that everything fails and we should only try to save as many parts of the ship as we can. There is also lots of stuff in addition to the 25kg of paper we brought from Alang that our audience would like to see, and after this project there should be resources to get it back here.

Anyway after visiting Alang I still hope that somebody saves her as it's very much possible, but as well I'm prepared for the harder option as that's the cheapest way for anyone in the business although a really expensive case on the historical view....

Here's yet another article about Jetti:

http://www.travemuende-aktuell.de/aktuell/nachrichten_12083-Die_Finnjet_ist_n...

here a nice idea in ebay

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=360085458285&a...

Turun sanomat published a short article today. Becouse this is an English-speaking forum, I`ll write the most important facts of the article below:

So, Finnjet`s allotment is going to clear during this Wednesday or Thursday. Johnny Sid of Pro Finnjet Turku tells that if the policy-makers of Turku cannot decide the ships future, they will give up the saving of the ship. And Pro Finnjet`s wants a fast decision becouse Finnjet has been laying at the Alang`s ship broker for a long time.

So let`s hope the best! The ship`s "come back" to Finland has never been as close as now!

As we Finns know, the municipal elections are in next month and all the politicians would like to stand out and get votes to be elected again. The Finnjet issue is quite a hot potatoe for them as I guess most of the politicians are wondering whether to have an opinion on Finnjet or not... as the elections are coming I guess the city councellors would listen to the public opinion.. if they see that they will get more votes by saving the ship they would fight for the mooring place for Finnjet, but if they think that it's a risk or insignificant issue, they will not do any decisions.

"it's better to do nothing than do mistakes" etc..

I'm afraid that Finnjet has got too little publicity in Finnish media lately and most of the publicity have been quite suspicious so also politicians may think it's not a big deal and just forget it. As they won't do any big decisions just under the elections if they're not 100% sure that the decision will have a huge positive effect on voters.

As far as In know Finnish municipal politics I guess the chances to get a decision at this point from Turku are something like 1:1000000 (very little)...

MTV3 (7pm news) reports that scrapping of the hull has begun.

Yes, I also noticed that. Actually, it informs us that the scrapping of Finnjet has finally begun.

I feel quite sick.

^thanks for sharing those videos. I'll watch them later to learn more about Finnjet. Anyway, great news on the first post. I'm informed late but i'm glad they could make use of it.



Regards,
Czarny
Placement financier

A good location for it in town is placing her at Kanavaterminaali (Nordic Jet Line terminal) in Katajanokka rather than building a hotel in place of the terminal.



foxdrg
Simulation prêt