Troubled waters for Campbeltown ferry
A TECHNICAL fault has left the Campbeltown to Ardrossan ferry high and dry and unable to sail until the middle of the coming week, at least.
As she departed from Brodick at 3.23pm on Wednesday of last week, the MV Isle of Arran developed a technical fault which resulted in significant damage to her bow thruster engine.
The engine failure resulted in large quantities of black smoke, a video of which was shared on social media, although there was no sign of fire.
After all passengers and vehicles were disembarked back at Brodick, the vessel was moved to the Garvel dock in Greenock, where an engineering team worked throughout the night to assess the damage.
With substantial repairs required, and with the parts for the rebuild being sourced from across the UK and Europe, it may take some time to fix.
A spokesperson from Cal|Mac, which operates the service, said: ‘Unfortunately, given the scale of the damage and the time required to bring the spares to the Clyde, it is unlikely the vessel will be able to return to service before the middle of next week.
‘Services to Campbeltown have therefore been cancelled for this week.’
Passenger Heather Wallace said: ‘I was going to take my mum home on the ferry, took Friday off work and had the weekend organised.
‘We had our plans upturned and in the end I bought my mum a flight for the Friday, which is quite costly, but it was the upheaval more than the cost.
‘When will the people of Campbeltown have a ferry they can rely on, as it is CalMacs contract with us?’
South Kintyre Councillor John Armour said: ‘It highlights the need for extra ferries. They are being built but at the moment CalMac tells us there is no spare capacity.’
See page six, letters, for more on this story.