Winds delay work of cable ship

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 6

Winds delay work of cable ship

PA Wellington High winds in Cook Strait are impeding cable-lifting preparation work by the crew of the cable-laying ship Luminence.

The ship's master, Captain Lou Bain, took advantage of Saturday’s unusually fine weather to position the Luminence in her moorings between Cape Turawhiti and Karori Rock at Oteranga Bay. The shore co-ordinating engineer for Balfour-Kilpa-trick, Mr Dennis Woolmer, said yesterday that the ship had to make eight day trips to Oteranga Bay before weather conditions enabled her to be moored.

Balfour-Kilpatrick is the New Zealand Electricity Division’s London-based contractor for Cook Strait cable repair work. Mr Woolmer yesterday supervised the helicopter flights of about 20 cable hands and seamen out to the Luminence from Wellington

Airport. A pilot for Nelson-based Helicopters (N.Z.), Ltd, Mr Philip Melzer, lowered his high performance Squirrel on to the ship's specially constructed pad in winds gusting to 50 knots many times yesterday.

Mr Woolmer said the industrially troubled Luminence would remain at her moorings for at least two days until 2000 metres of the No. 1 Cook Strait cable was loaded on board the ship. The emphasis yesterday was on securing the ship to the moorings. Captain Bain was assisted in this work by the Auckland tug Herenui. The high winds prevented seamen from working near the bow of the Luminence over which the old cable, laid in 1964, will be lifted. Mr Woolmer took issue yesterday with a statement made by the assistant secretary of the Cooks and Stewards’ Union, Mr Peter Cook. Before he left for London last week on a flight paid for

by Balfour-Kilpatrick, Mr Cook said that an informal agreement had been reached between the British National Union of Seamen and the Cooks and Stewards’ Union.

Mr Cook said the agreement provided for New Zealanders working in the Luminence’s galley.

Mr Woolmer said his understanding of the agreement between the two unions was that British N.U.S. members, as three of them are at present doing, should work in the galley. In the event of an N.U.S. member becoming sick or otherwise incapacitated, a member of the New Zealand union would take his place, he said. Mr Cook and the union’s vice-president, Mr Patrick Montgomery, flew to London on Friday for discussions with N.U.S. officials in an endeavour to resolve the demarcation dispute. The pair are expected back in New Zealand by the end of the week.