232 passengers (mostly Norwegians and Germans) were stranded in Port Bergen (Norway) after boarding the Havila Capella cruiseferry for a 12-day voyage that was meant to depart Tuesday night, April 12th.
According to Lasse Vangstein, head of communications at Havila Voyages, they had spent 2 nights on the ship at the quay, so they had been "treated as they would have been during the sailing with food and service.”
The voyage was initially delayed “due to an uncertainty related to insurance coverage,” the ferry company said, as a “result of sanctions against the leasing company that has financed Havila Capella.”
“Havila Capella is financed via a leasing agreement with GTLK Asia, which was put on the EU sanction list last Friday,” Vangstein said.
GTLK Asia is a Hong Kong-based/Russian-owned leasing company. Most travelers stayed onboard while the firm tried to work out how it would be affected by sanctions as it was running a Norwegian flag, with a Norwegian operating company and Norwegian crew.
According to Havila Voyages, it had originally been told that the vessel should not be affected by the adopted sanctions since the company was “responsible for the operation and financing of the ship”.
However, it said on Thursday it was the “Norwegian authorities’ assessment that the ship’s insurance is affected by sanctions against the leasing company,” meaning the sailing would be canceled.
Havila announced it would “now look at solutions to get Havila Capella back into operation as soon as possible.”
Norway is not a member of the EU and has adopted almost all the sanctions imposed by the union.