Vessels may be to blame for latest ferry building delay

Share Recent reports have suggested a surge in whale and dolphin sightings around the coast, which is being attributed mainly to the weather, which is fairly apt for a country obsessed by it. According to the National Trust for Scotland's Arran ranger service, Kilbrannan Sound and the Firth of Clyde have seen a surge in numbers of humpback and minke whales as well as common dolphins. Further afield, in May, more than 30 orcas were spotted swimming past Caithness while in April, a walrus hauled itself ashore in Orkney before embarking on a wee coastal tour. This means that statistically you have more chance of seeing a walrus in the seas than an on-time and in budget CalMac ferry given the state of the network. I, of course, made that last bit up for comic effect, but the current state of the ferry network is no laughing matter for hard-pressed island communities. Even less funny is that it is facing even longer disruption as three ferries being built in Turkey are delayed again amid spiralling costs and even the threat of bankruptcy. CMAL placed two contracts totalling about £200m with the Cemre shipyard in Turkey in 2022 and 2023 for four large ferries for the CalMac fleet. The first, MV Isle of Islay, was delivered in January this year, around 15 months late, and is now operating on the Kennacraig to Islay route. The remaining three are still at the shipyard at Yalova in north-west Turkey. MV Loch Indaal was originally due in October 2024 but is now not expected until October 2026, a two-year delay. MV Lochmor, originally due in early 2025, is now expected in the first quarter of 2027, while MV Claymore is not expected until the second quarter of 2027. Read more: Ministers have now approved around £20 million in additional project costs to complete three of the four vessels, while the ships are running years behind the timetable originally set for them. Ironically, the programme was intended to provide new capacity and greater resilience for the CalMac fleet and went overseas mainly due to the ongoing issues with ferry building at the Ferguson Marine yard in Port Glasgow. It is, therefore, a major embarrassment, that the latest construction has also become embroiled in late delivery and cost over-runs. Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn has confirmed to Holyrood that ministers had approved an additional £20million towards the construction costs. He wrote: "CMAL continue robust monitoring through their on-site staff, as well as regular visits by senior management teams." Mr Flynn said commercial sensitivities meant he was unable to reveal what extra costs had been incurred. The original contract prices for the four ships was about £200m in total. Payments for shipbuilding contracts are usually made in instalments, with the final payment due upon delivery, but in June CMAL paid the outstanding £23m for the other three ships in full. The move was aimed at easing Cemre's cash flow pressures and meant CMAL had secured ownership of the incomplete vessels, avoiding potential complications should the shipyard go out of business. But in a worst case scenario it could now have to tow them to another shipyard to be completed. How ironic that would be if Ferguson Marine ended up completing the job, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Cemre is a shipbuilder based at Yalova in Turkey, but it has struggled in recent years with various challenges including falling exchange rates, supply chain difficulties, and labour shortages. MV Isle of Islay has also faced a number of technical problems since entering service, including faulty bow doors and issues with its mezzanine deck, though CalMac has said it is satisfied with the vessel. MV Loch Indaal is expected to join it on the Islay route, while MV Lochmor and MV Claymore are due to serve Little Minch routes from Skye to Harris and North Uist. Inevitably, the situation is being dubbed by critics as 'ferry fiasco 2' but this is a sequel that hard-pressed islanders can do without watching again and again. But while it is easy to criticise the two shipyards for the delays to the six ferries, is it not now the time to consider whether it might be the vessels themselves which are to blame. The board at CMAL has long faced criticism for insisting on larger vessels to accommodate living quarters for the crews and for failing to adapt vessel procurement to suit modern needs. As a state-owned body, it is sometimes said there is a reluctance to 'rock the boat' when it comes to change and is content to maintain the status quo. Also, due to the desire for more environmentally-friendly ferries, the designs are said to be more complex than before which is helping to worsen delays and send costs soaring. But there has been much debate about what type of vessels Scotland's ferry network really needs with some experts arguing that building larger ones with extensive staff accommodation is not the way to go. They argue that the network would be best served with more smaller vessels instead which would allow more sailings while not losing any capacity on the routes. Read more: For example, the argument goes, four smaller vessels could be used between Oban and Mull which would provide greater efficiency and need less crew, therefore cutting costs. Rather than have the crew living on board overnight for two weeks, they could all live in and around the ports instead, which would in turn boost local economies. Roy Pedersen, a member of the Scottish Government's Ferry Industry Advisory Group and ferry expert, has said the current ferry policy is 'manifestly dysfunctional' and must be overhauled. In a submission to a Transport Scotland consultation on its Island Connectivity plan, Mr Pedersen criticised the current process of 'the state procuring large, inefficient ships, manned by large live-aboard crew complements, operating on longer routes than necessary, running to overly complex labour-intensive terminals'. He said that increased investment would be required to improve road links to ports while islands would benefit from increased population if crews can be encouraged to live on the islands they serve. Now while this great on paper, in reality it is much harder to achieve, mainly on the grounds of cost. Building new ports in remote parts of Scotland and ensuring suitable road access would be a multi-million-pound project, and that's before replacing an entire fleet of ships. There must also be consideration to the wider socio-economic impact that increased traffic would have in some areas, while removing ferry services from some towns would be a devastating blow. Also, there is the important matter of where crew members are going to live in the remote communities, given the chronic shortage of affordable housing that already exists. Recruitment would also be a major problem as, under the current arrangements, crew members can live quite far away from the ports as they are guaranteed accommodation for the two weeks they are on shift. Remove that and the possible pool of staff to recruit from shrinks considerably or the cost of putting them up in hotels would probably send the costs of running the network soaring. Regardless of the pros and cons of it all, it has become clear that major changes in ferry procurement and the way the network itself operates is long overdue. Islanders deserve so much better and have suffered for long enough due to repeated mistakes being made. Share Get involved with the news