SANBLAS FERRY

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Grounded ferry likely to remain on rocks

The "Sanblas Ferry", the former Canadian Bay of Fundy ferry "Grand Manan", will likely stay where she ran aground off Panama on July 16, 2016, because owner Fritz Brecker, an Austrian native who has lived in the Panama for many years, has no insurance. Breckner was well-known for carrying foot passengers and motorcycle trekkers by catamaran around the Darien Gap, a large break in the Pan-American Highway between South and Central America, where the land route for travellers peters out. He purchased the vessel from Coastal Transport for $200,000 in hopes of offering an expanded car and passenger service between Panama and Colombia. He invested roughly $800,000 in the business venture, but the Panamanian government refused him the necessary permits for the ship. The vessel met its end on July 17, two days after Breckner lost his longtime breadwinner, the 16-metre catamaran yacht "Jaqueline" which also ran aground and suffered severe damage. In fact, Breckner was using the "Sanblas Ferry" to try to tow the "Jaqueline" off the rocks when the port side engine stalled. Before he got the engine started again, the seas were pushing the ferry on the rocks too. Since then, the ferry was sitting slightly listed on rocks hundreds of metres off Panama's Atlantic coast. The engines and generator were almost entirely underwater and the hull is seriously damaged. Breckner is now refurbishing a catamaran and plans to resume ferrying foot and motorcycle passengers on the Panama-Colombia route. Report with photos: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/grand-manan-ferry-panama-fritz-breckner-1.3897918