Extra boats scheduled for busy Islay Show

CALMAC is increasing capacity on its Islay route for the Islay Show this week, with the MV Hebridean Isles returning for Tuesday’s 3.30pm sailing from Kennacraig. The withdrawal of the MV Hebridean Isles for urgent repairs left the island with a single vessel for a fortnight. To ease disruption this week around Thursday’s Islay Show, the MV Finlaggan is running an overnight freight service for large vehicles including caravans and camper vans between Islay and Kennacraig, as well as her normal daytime timetable.

The ferry operator also planned to move the Arran ferry to cope with extra demand but on Tuesday it announced that, subject to the MV Hebridean Isles arriving in time, the MV Isle of Arran would not be required.

CalMac’s director of operations Drew Collier apologised to customers and thanked staff for keeping Islay’s ferry service going during the busiest time of year, during repairs ‘ which regrettably took longer to resolve than hoped’. ‘We do not have the additional vessels available to provide cover without disrupting services elsewhere. Our ageing ships and ports mean that, despite our best endeavours, future breakdowns and the periodic loss of vessels from our services is unavoidable. Our options will improve as new ships join the fleet over the next few years.’

Minister for Transport and the Islands Humza Yousaf added: ‘The disruption to ferry services was deeply regrettable. I am keen to make sure lessons are learned so I will be holding further discussions with CalMac to highlight the inconvenience caused and ask them to consider contingency measures.’