MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
After nine years “Almirante Irizar” is ready for sea tests but faces a “muddy” problem
Argentina's Antarctic exploration flagship icebreaker “Almirante Irizar” is ready for the sea tests after nine years under repairs in the government's defense shipyard and hundreds of millions of dollars, but an unexpected last minute “muddy” impediment has surfaced. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesDeja Vu all over again..... http://en.mercopress.com/2011/05/29/argentine-refurbished-ice-breaker-should-be-ready-for-2012-13-antarctic-season
Aug 11th, 2016 - 08:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0She is now 40 years old.....
Not enough water??? No dredgers in service????? You really could not make this stuff up....
Roll on the 2020/21 Antarctic season......
Once again it demonstrates the complete underfunding of anything but the Kirchner's pockets under their administration.
Aug 11th, 2016 - 09:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0The pride of Argentina, an icebreaker, fit for the seven seas and afraid a tug can pull it apart? Sounds like fun as that thing heads south....
Aug 11th, 2016 - 10:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0For all that money, they could probably have bought a new one.
Aug 11th, 2016 - 10:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0Snigger!
Choice of 2 words- Pathetic Shambles - Wasted Money.
Aug 11th, 2016 - 10:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0I think this mud problem is a setup!
Aug 11th, 2016 - 01:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We only have the word of the argies that this old tub is now 'ready'!
What better excuse than “it's stuck in the mud, don't blame us if we cant prove it works”.
Or am I giving the argies too much credit?
:o)
Bottoms up!
Aug 11th, 2016 - 03:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Soon, possibly....
Remember back in January this year, the government was saying that the “icebreaker” Irrisorio was ready then for sea-trials?
Aug 11th, 2016 - 03:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0During the reconstruction, the argies decided that they would install the equivalent of a “black box” so that the next time the ship burns up (or sinks) they should have some indications of why. And its chances of burning up again are pretty high, since among its principal “multipurpose” roles is the transport of cylinders of compressed flammable gas and other combustible materials. In fact, one of the many reasons that the reconstruction of this ship was delayed for so long was the total failure to meet international ship design and construction standards for carrying the type of hazardous cargo for which it was intended. Of course, Kirchnerism was so proud of being able to say that “only” US$47 million of the reconstruction funds were paid to non-Argentine (read “skilled and qualified”) companies, while the make-work component was given to semi-skilled, money-skimming Argentine companies. (Reekie has reminded us that Argentine companies only exist to keep people employed, rather than to produce useful goods and services, and that Argentines must be “employed” even when they are not doing anything productive).
And speaking of the impacts of Kirchnerism on this project, in February this year the new government began investigation into the suspicious cost overruns and bribery in the CFK regime's earlier supply of diesel to the “Argentine” bases in British Antarctic territory, while the Irrisorio was languishing. The amount of fraud was then estimated at about 15 million Argie pesos, and the fuel was to be delivered via a port operation that was not even qualified for that purpose, through a politically ordered acquisition.
So there is a lot more mud than what's in the bottom of that channel.
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