CONDOR Ferries has issued a lengthy apology for the failings at the start of its new daily service from Poole on its state-of-the-art fast ferry.

The company has issued an open letter to every customer who was inconvenienced by the “disappointing start” of Condor Liberation.

Signed by executive chairman Russell Kew, the letter said: “The most important thing I can say is sorry; sorry to those customers who were delayed, diverted and had journeys disrupted, and sorry to their families, friends and colleagues who also experienced inconvenience and disappointment; sorry that many of you felt you didn’t get the right information at the right time, and of course, sorry to all our customers who were so looking forward to sailing on Condor Liberation, and haven’t yet had the opportunity to do so. "

The letter goes on to explain how when the new £50million ship was berthing in strong winds in St Peter Port the day after its maiden voyage, she landed heavily against the fendering, causing minor damage to her protective belting.

As well as investigating the cause, “We are also reviewing what went wrong with our customer service in Guernsey that day; we know that we let many customers down with long waits, poor and conflicting information, and a great deal of inconvenience.”

The fast ferry sailings for the following day had to be cancelled because of forecast bad weather as did the Monday and Tuesday sailings.

Strong winds and heavy rain slowed down repairs and it was not until Easter Sunday that the fast ferry returned to service.

“It was unimaginable bad fortune that Condor Liberation then developed an electrical fault the next day,” he said. Having been repaired this re-occurred two days later.

“No-one is more disappointed than us that the first two weeks of Condor Liberation’s time with us has been affected by the combination of the berthing incident, bad weather and the electrical fault,” he said.

“I know that the inconvenience which many of our customers have suffered has been compounded by frustration at a lack of timely information from us at some critical times. I hope you have seen us improve, even in the last few days, but it is clear that we can do better; and we will.”