The Manxman has returned to service after a fraught few days for Isle of Man Steam Packet.

The flagship vessel was taken out of service on Tuesday after smoke was seen coming out of the engine room which the Steam Packet due to a ‘technical issue’. Technical staff and new parts had to be brought over to deal with the issue.

The Ben-my-Chree was brought in as cover but fire drencher pipework was damaged during a freight run which severely delayed services on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Manannan, which had been covering passenger services after an overnight run to Heysham on Tuesday, also saw knock-on disruption to its Dublin–Douglas timetable.

However, there is better news today after the Steam Packet confirmed the Manxman was back in action.

A spokesman said: ‘Following repairs, Manxman’s sea trials have been completed successfully.

‘Manxman has resumed service with today’s 8.30am departure to Heysham.’

Earlier the Steam Packet said: ‘Ben-my-Chree was brought into passenger service in order to provide cover for flagship Manxman after it was sidelined by an electrical component failure in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

‘The component failure emitted smoke in an engineering space that triggered emergency procedures.

‘Spare parts to replace the failed components on Manxman arrived on island via specially chartered courier service. The service engineer arrived on the vessel in order to complete the repairs.

‘Ben-my-Chree will resume a freight-only service to and from Heysham, in support of Manxman during the busy Grand Prix and Classic TT period.’

There will remain some disruption on Thursday as the timetable begins to return to normal with the Ben-my-Chree – which should have arrived on Thursday morning – not retuning until lunchtime.

The latest issues follow problems with the Manannan earlier this month which suffered a generator fault which led to cancelled services.