The Pelorus affair

Too much has been said already! However, I feel that the article below written by Tork Buckley, technical editor of the Yacht Report, one of the most reputable magazines in the industry and also a contributor to the weekly The Sea, would be of great interest to your readers.

The article is being reproduced by kind permission of The Sea and the author.

"Petrol in Pelorus

"The tabloids had great fun with Pelorus this week: wild, woolly, ludicrous, inaccurate drivel abounded. The broadsheets got into fuel frenzy too.

"The Times: 'incompatible fuel'; The Telegraph: 'repairs £1 to 7 Mill'; World News Australia: 'filled with diesel but it needed petrol' ... Bless!

"On Tuesday, the Maltese Government, concerned for the island's reputation, demanded an investigation in The Times of Malta. They have a point too, inaccurate reporting always has victims, here it's their island.

"Though it must be said the government might have minimised their exposure by just having, not publicly demanding, that investigation.

"We believe we've discovered what probably happened: Pelorus was in a marina and took fuel from a barge. A generator failed during bunkering, cause unknown.

"The cautious reaction was to stop the bunkering, reject the fuel and demand it be pumped back to the barge; it may have appeared discoloured.

"The next day Pelorus took fuel from the same source as the barge does. Pelorus is now in Antibes. She presumably steamed there without incident.

"We presume the fuel samples are or were being checked for contamination. But on balance it seems to be an issue of potentially dirty fuel blown out of proportion by the press because of the owner's high profile and to sell papers.

"However, it risked generally an unfairly discrediting bunkering in Malta. We all get dirty fuel sometimes, somewhere. That's what filters pre, mid and end samples, lab analysis and centrifuges are for."