New Calmac boats will need to be wider to take bigger cars, says ferries chief
Major plans to replace more than half the ageing Calmac fleet over the next ten years include wider vessels because cars have got bigger.
A total of 19 new ships are due to be ordered in a project which vessels owner Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ( Cmal) described as a "mountain to climb”.
The Scottish Government company said the £ 550 million order book comprised six major ferries, ten smaller vessels and three replacements for chartered ferries on Clyde routes from Gourock.
However, chief executive Kevin Hobbs told The Scotsman the much- needed programme had been set back by t wo years because of major delays and cost over- runs to two other Calmac ferries being built at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow.
He said the problems, which are the subject of a Holyrood inquir y, also had an "enormous and crushing" impact on Cmal.
Mr Hobbs said the first of the 19 vessels would be for Islay, costing £ 45- 50 million, and was due to go out to tender by the middle of next year.
Meanwhile, the process to replace seven smaller ferries, which will be the next generation of Calmac’s world- first diesel- electric hybrids and will cost £ 15m each, will start in January.
These will operate fully or for a greater proportion of their day under electric pow
er thanks to improved battery technology.
Concept designs are also being drawn up for the three new Clyde ferries for Gourock to Dunoon and Kilcreggan, costing some £ 6m each.
Three other ferries for the Harris- North Uist, Barra- Eriskay and Mull- Iona routes are also on the list.
Mr Hobbs said some of the ferries could be 1m wider than
their predecessors because of the growing size of cars.
H e s a i d : "T h e a v e r a g e width and weight of cars has increased, such as SUVS.
"It certainly has had an effect. "A vessel may have been designed to take 60 cars. You are now depleting t hat by 10- 15 per cent because the lane widths on board are inadequate for some of the cars.
"The lane widths on new vessels are wider than the old lane widths. That means the overall beam – the width of the ship – will increase a bit.
"But that increased beam helps the hydrodynamics of a ship, which then reduces the fuel. A wider ship certainly uses a little bit more steel, but in terms of cost it’s almost inconsequential.”
Mr Hobbs said t he f err ybui l di ng pr ogr a mme was vital after two decades of being starved of spending.
He said: "There has been significant under- investment in ferries and ports for the past 20 years. In no way is it party political, it’s just a fact of life there hasn’t been the prerequisite money.”
He said an average of £ 2324m a year had been spent over that period – but it needed to be doubled.
He said: “That’s obviously quite a large amount of money over 20 years that hasn’t been spent.”
It had resulted in Calmac’s fleet averaging 23 years old when it should be 16 years.
Mr Hobbs said: "There i s a lot of work to be done and there’s a lot of replacement t hat needs t o t ake pl ace.”