Swansea Cork Ferries had to cancel its service last night following the detention of the vessel City of Cork for failing checks under the International Safety Management Code.
The Madeira-registered ferry which travels between Cork and Swansea in Wales failed a mandatory inspection by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
The MCA said it found "a lack of preparedness as demonstrated by fire drills, full muster, abandon ship and damage control drills".
A Swansea Cork Ferries spokesperson said it was important to note that the ship was not detained due to any faults in the vessel. The MCA was scheduled to reinspect the crew exercises this morning. If the crew passed the test the vessel would go back into operation immediately.
"All of the exercises and tests were done to the complete satisfaction of the international certification authority Lloyds Register today. We are disappointed that we had to cancel our service this evening but are confident that the service will be up and running tomorrow night," the spokesperson said.
The new City of Cork has got off to an unfortunate start and has only had one commercial voyage since its arrival in Cork last week. The first sailing of the ferry was scheduled to coincide with the start of the Cheltenham race meeting which was postponed because of the foot-and-mouth scare. This led to a number of cancellations among passengers.
Meanwhile, the managing director of Swansea Cork Ferries, Mr Thomas Hunter McGowan, has called on the Minister for Tourism to undertake a massive promotion of Irish tourism next month and in May to try to salvage the tourism season.
He said some tourism business would be irreparably damaged by the travel restrictions to combat foot-and-mouth.