Scotland’s ferries saga ship to finally set sail
The ship at the center of Scotland’s long-running ferry saga has begun ferrying passengers between mainland Scotland and the Isle of Arran.
MV Glen Sannox was originally scheduled to be delivered seven years ago and is the first new large ship to join the UK’s largest ferry fleet in almost a decade.
It made its first scheduled voyage before dawn between Troon in South Ayrshire and Brodick in Arran, dealing with poor conditions in which other ships were stranded in port.
The ship will make three return sailings per day, with voyages lasting 75 minutes, helping to end years of uncertainty on one of Caledonia’s busiest routes, MacBrayne.
The Glen Sannox, which can accommodate 127 cars and 852 passengers, brings much-needed extra capacity to the state-owned ferry operator, which has struggled in recent years to maintain services with aging and increasingly unreliable vessels.
The order for the dual-fuel vessel Glen Sannox and its sister ship Glen Rosa was placed with Port Glasgow’s Ferguson Shipyard nearly a decade ago.
But acrimonious disputes over design challenges and claims for extra costs led to the shipyard falling into administration and being nationalized in 2019.
The ships ended up costing more than four times the £97m contract price and sparked what is arguably the longest-running political row of the devolution era.
CalMac chief executive Duncan Mackison told BBC News Scotland the success of the first voyage was a “relief” and “good news for a lot of people”.
“We’re delighted with how she’s doing,” he added.
The first pre-dawn voyage from Troon was conducted in challenging conditions, with wind gusts of 40mph.
Passengers clung to the armrests as they moved around the ship, with some feeling a little nauseous – and for those with bigger appetites, breakfast trays were sliding precariously off the table.
Despite the precarious situation, passenger reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.
“It has a cruise ship feel,” Kenny Brown said over a champagne breakfast with his wife Nikki.
“Everyone has been waiting for this ship for so long, so we just wanted to come here and celebrate.”
Elsewhere, a group of construction workers en route to Arran celebrated the ship’s arrival with cans of beer and sang as the ship docked at Brodick.
Mr McKeithen said Glen Sannox would have a significant impact on islanders as it would be able to navigate in more challenging conditions.
“The new generation of ships is more powerful and has more advanced thrusters, allowing them to survive in more challenging conditions and stronger winds,” he explained.
The ship is named after the Arran scenic spot and is the fourth island passenger ship to bear the name Glen Sannox.
An identical ship, the Glen Rosa, is still under construction at Ferguson Shipyard in Port Glasgow and is expected to join the route by the end of the year, despite reports over the weekend that New delays will be announced soon.
The Glen Sonnox actually carried its first passengers on Sunday afternoon when it unexpectedly swapped onto its scheduled ship for a return voyage as a trial run.
For island residents, Monday’s comprehensive sailing schedule should bring relief after years of traffic uncertainty.
Mike Dobson, chairman of Arran Cancer Support, said it had been a particularly difficult few years for those requiring hospital treatment on the mainland.
“There are a number of technical or weather-related issues with the aging ferry fleet that make it harder for people to feel they can get there,” he told BBC News.
“This means more appointments are being cancelled, which can cause a certain amount of stress for people and impact their mental health.”
Sheila Gilmore from Visit Arran said businesses had also been severely affected but she was optimistic visitor numbers would now start to recover.
“We are hopeful and have fought a long battle to get here, but we must move forward and put the past behind us,” she said.
Scotland’s entire west coast ferry network should also benefit as the average age of the fleet begins to fall and other vessels can be redeployed.
For SNP politicians, the arrival of the Glen Sonnox is expected to herald the end of Scotland’s long-running ferry dispute, although reports of fresh delays on the Glen Rosa mean this may be too soon morning.
The contract to build the two ships was awarded to Ferguson in 2015, a year after the company went bankrupt shortly before the independence referendum.
It was rescued by an investment firm led by Jim McColl, economic adviser to then First Minister Alex Salmond.
While Clyde’s last commercial shipyard suffered a decade of decline when it went into administration, with just 76 employees remaining, the businessman made multi-million pound investments and achieved rapid expansion.
But construction of the dual-fuel ships quickly stalled as the company faced complex design challenges while working to meet production milestones and modernize dilapidated facilities.
Claims for additional costs have led to a bitter standoff between the shipyard’s management and state-owned ferry procurement agency Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL).
Glen Sannox was launched by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon on a blustery day in November 2017, but behind the scenes a bigger political storm was brewing .
It later emerged that the ship was far from finished – the windows had been painted over, a temporary chimney was made from plywood and, more importantly, the interior still needed extensive engineering and electrical work.
The shipyard’s managers blamed CMAL, saying poor conceptual design, slow decision-making and interference led to unforeseen complications.
CMAL said the company simply underestimated the complexity of the tasks entrusted to it and made poor management decisions.
The impasse eventually led to Ferguson running out of money and returning to government in 2019, with the shipyard nationalized, saving 350 jobs.
Under new “turnaround director” Tim Hair, problems persist. His pay package is close to £2 million before a permanent chief executive is appointed in 2022.
Meanwhile, the opposition claims the crisis is rooted in the incompetence of Scottish ministers, which they deny.
Under new boss David Tiedemann, shipbuilding finally progressed, but costs increased significantly and there were repeated delays.
He was fired by Ferguson’s board of directors in March last year and, after several brief delays, the vessel was finally delivered to CMAL in November.
public mediaGlen Sannox is the first dual-fuel ferry built in the UK, capable of running on Marine Gas Oil (MGO), a type of diesel fuel, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
When running on natural gas, a ship’s engines are quieter and emit much lower levels of exhaust pollutants (nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides).
However, LNG’s climate change evidence is questionable because the engines also release methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.
LNG fuel must also be imported from Qatar and trucked to Scotland from a terminal in Kent.
The ship’s size means it is currently unable to berth at Ardrossan, the closest mainland port to Arran, unless a multi-million dollar port redevelopment is agreed.
In addition to the Glen Rosa, four other large CalMac ships are under construction at a major Turkish shipyard, although these have also been delayed by about six months.
The first of these vessels, MV Islay, will be delivered in the spring, with the others to be delivered in approximately four months.
