FERRY firm Wightlink has vowed to solve the engine issues that have dogged the service over the past 16 months.

The problems on the Lymington to Yarmouth fleet culminated on Friday when a suspected fire broke out in the engine on board the Wight Sky ferry.

That resulted in the ferry being taken out of service pending investigations by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and Wightlink’s engineers.

It was the third failure of an engine resulting in a fire on Wight Sky over the last 16 months.

The fire was extinguished instantly by the ship’s fire suppression system and no-one was hurt.

Ferry services were suspended and were not resumed until Sunday afternoon.

The Volvo Penta engine at the centre of the incident was new and had been installed by the manufacturer’s agent at the ship’s 2018 autumn refit.

It had only been operational for 390 hours when it failed.

Volvo Penta will carry out technical investigations this week on Wight Sky.

Wightlink chief executive Keith Greenfield said: “I apologise that Islanders have yet again had to put up with major disruption on our Lymington to Yarmouth route this weekend.

"We are working incredibly hard to restore full service and working with MAIB and Volvo Penta engineers to find the root cause and a permanent solution to this series of engine failures.

“Most of the recent disruption on this route has in some way been linked to poor engine reliability and associated wind restrictions.

"The last two major failures have involved engines still under warranty. We do not experience any significant engine issues on our other routes and our customers should not have to put up with this on the Lymington-Yarmouth service.

“Every effort is being made to find a root cause and permanent solution so that we can provide our customers with the reliable service they deserve and that Wightlink colleagues work so hard to deliver. There will be a solution and it will be found.”

As a result of the latest engine failure, a revised set of operating procedures have been approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and are now in place on the Lymington-Yarmouth route.

Engine speeds have been reduced and ships will not sail if winds are higher than 20 knots constant or gusting at 25 knots.