New £48.5m ferry hit by further shipyard delays
The new £48.5 million Arran ferry is seriously behind schedule, the Banner can reveal.
It means that the new MV Glen Sannox is highly unlikely to be in service for the start of the main summer season next year.
And the Ferguson shipyard on the Clyde where she is being built has come in for some sharp criticism from Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) which has accused the yard of slow progress and has admitted the revised delivery date of winter 2018/2019 cannot now be met.
There have been months of speculation that all was not going well with the new ferry, the first dual fuel vessel to be built in the UK, which can use liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine gas oil (MGO).
The MV Glen Sannox is currently undergoing internal outfitting at the Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow where she was launched last November.
The Banner contacted Arran MSP Kenneth Gibson with our concerns and he admitted: ‘This is the first I have heard of this.’
Mr Gibson has since been pressing CMAL for answers and the company’s CEO Kevin Hobbs told him, as we went to press: ‘I can report that resources at the shipyard have been significantly below our expectations and as a result progress has been less than we would anticipate.
‘It is our assessment that the date (winter 2018/2019) cannot be achieved as we are some seven months after launch.
‘CMAL keeps pressing the shipyard for a cardinal date programme but this has not been provided despite repeated requests. This is very frustrating for all concerned.
‘We continue to seek additional tonnage but this has not yielded any results despite our best efforts. The decisions regarding vessel deployment lies with CalMac.’
Now Mr Gibson intends
to raise the matter with transport minister Humza Yousaf when he chairs the next meeting of the Ardrossan Habour Taskforce at Holyrood next Thursday.
The Arran Ferry Committee believes the vessel could be complete by February or March next year, but even that is now thought to be optimistic. Even then, the ferry will still need to undertake two months of rigorous sea trials as the first dual fuel ferry, meaning it could be at least May, if not later, before she is handed over to the Caledonian MacBrayne for deployment.
Before the latest setbacks, the 102-metre roll on-roll off ferry was already six months late and spent several months in dry dock as the bulbous bow had to be refabricated, following a design flaw. A second similar vessel is also being built at Ferguson’s.
A spokeswoman for CMAL this week confirmed: ‘MV Glen Sannox is currently berthed at the shipyard in Port Glasgow and internal outfitting is taking place, which includes installation of cabling, piping, generators, control modules and other components.
‘The MV Glen Sannox, and the second LNG ferry, will require around two months of full familiarisation, as agreed with the operator and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), because the vessels are the first in the UK to use LNG.’
In another development, the Banner believes that the taskforce will next week confirm that Ardrossan will remain open while the harbour is being upgraded, ruling out even a temporary switch to Troon or another port, as has been suggested.