Massive car transporter ships have been banned from Hamilton Harbour during the American’s Cup on safety grounds.

But car dealers on the island said the cancelled visits in May and June would have a minimal effect on supplies of vehicles on the island.

Marine and Ports said car transporter ships were too big to manoeuvre in the harbour, which will be packed with smaller vessels during races.

Harry Andrews, sales and operations manager at Auto Solutions in Pembroke, said: “The car transporter isn’t going to be coming in for two months.

“We’ve been trying to find alternative routes, like the Oleander, to bring cars in.

“We’ve been working with the Oleander to get cars here.”

Mr Andrews added: “It will have a slight effect, but not massive. We will be able to manage through it. It’s a challenge, but we can manage.”

Krishna King, general manager of Bermuda Motors in Hamilton, agreed that the effect will be minimal.

Mr King said: “It’s happened because of the number of vessels in Bermuda waters for America’s Cup. The harbour master feels it’s unsafe for the car transporter to come because it won’t be able to turn around.”

But he added: “We will have our cars shipped through New Jersey on the normal cargo ships.

“We all knew about this earlier in the year, so we had time to plan.”

Mr King added that car ships normally called around the third weekend of every month in Bermuda.

Huge car carriers transport vehicles direct from Japan to the Caribbean and Bermuda before heading home via the Panama Canal to restock with more vehicles.