Government is renting out a slipway in Dockyard to private vessel owners, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Marine and Ports workers complained last week after being asked to bring a private vessel onto a Government slip during regular working hours, with one worker telling this newspaper: “It stinks.”

The former Somerset ferry, now owned by Crisson Construction, was hauled out of the water last Friday morning by M&P workers, ahead of the recently salvaged Silent Thunder, which sunk two weeks ago, claiming the life of skipper Steve Cummings.

Government said yesterday it was now renting the slip out to “half a dozen” other private vessels, as it is “the only boat cradle in Bermuda capable of accommodating various local tour boats and private vessels since Meyers Slip in St George’s was closed.”

A Ministry of Transport spokesman said: “Such vessels would otherwise have to sail to North America for haul-out at great cost and as such the Department is working with private owners of a half dozen such boats about future slipping opportunities on a paying basis.”

He did not answer questions about how much money Government was making from the scheme — or how the funds would be used.

Charles Crisson, director of Crisson Construction, said: “I’m renting the slipway and I know there are other people who are going to be renting it in the near future.”

Crisson Construction, along with Sunrise Construction Ltd and Onsite Engineering, was awarded the $22.4 million Heritage Wharf contract early this year, taking over from Correia Construction in repairing the wharf’s damaged thruster wall.