Sports teams charter travel amid ferry uncertainty

Director of Guernsey Netball Sally Carns says the lack of certainty about travel has been a "logistical nightmare"

A sports team in Guernsey said it has had to charter its own boat for inter-island matches because of uncertainty over ferry sailings.

It follows months of uncertainty over what schedules will be offered between Guernsey and Jersey by Danish firm DFDS and Brittany Ferries.

Sponsorship director of Guernsey Raiders RFC, Chris Gnapp, said they had taken the "financial risk" of chartering a boat for the rugby union team.

DFDS previously said it was still finalising its schedule and it had been delayed during a legal challenge over the tender process by rival firm Brittany Ferries. The BBC has contacted both DFDS and Brittany Ferries for comment.

Mr Gnapp added: "We have had to take the financial risk of chartering this boat over because there is simply no other way of getting our training teams over to Jersey to play rugby."

Meanwhile director of Guernsey Netball, Sally Carns, said the lack of certainty about travel had been a "logistical nightmare".

Ms Carns said: "We can't allow any supporters to travel because we booked out all the flights for that day.

"On the Sunday, we have had to charter a plane, which, again, the financial risk of not filling it sits with ourselves as a charity.

"Logistical nightmare is the phrase of the week."

She said questions were being asked and discussions were going to be had.

New daily service

During the coming summer months, there is expected to be a third ferry service provided by Islands Unlimited, which has said it will offer a daily foot-passenger service.

Chad Murray, managing director, said: "From what we found, there is a strong desire to have consistent, regular travel between the islands."

Mr Murray said teams had been working on the new ferry service for about 18 months.

He said there was demand for services "that allow long day trips to each of the islands, not only for tourists and visitors, but also for island communities".

Mr Murray added the current owners of the vessel it planned to use were still operating it, so they were negotiating an "exact date" of when it would be released.

He said it would be "unreasonable" to set the booking system live until they had confirmation on the date, adding he hoped it would be live in two to three weeks.