news

HEBRIDEAN ISLES was out of service on the morning of Thursday 3^rd July. ISLE OF ARRAN departed from Islay on an unscheduled 04.15 sailing to Kennacraig where she departed with the 07.00 to Port Ellen. HEBRIDEAN ISLES was back in service in time to take up the 13.00 sailing. ISLE OF ARRAN sailed from Port Ellen with the 18.00 sailing to Kennacraig.

ISLE OF LEWIS was running late on Friday 11^th due to heavy traffic on the Ullapool-Stornoway route.

The next day HEBRIDES also ran late due to heavy traffic. She departed from Tarbert at 20.20 and arrived at Uig at 22.00.

The overnight freight service from Ullapool to Stornoway on Friday 25^th was disrupted when MUIRNEAG ran aground on rocks opposite her berth at the old Stornoway pier. On Saturday she departed from the Lewis port at 16.40 bound for Aberdeen where she was dry-docked for an inspection although damage was believed to be minimal. ISLE OF LEWIS took over on the freight run resulting in delays throughout the following days.

The highly successful "Gàidhlig air a’ Bhàta” (Gaelic on Board) project is back again this year and is working alongside The Gaelic Rings initiative. Information Officers will be on board the ferries making the Oban/Coll/Tiree, Tiree/Barra, Uig/Lochmaddy/Tarbert and the Ullapool/Stornoway crossings.

MV CLANSMAN was named by HRH The Princess Royal on Friday 27^th March 1998. She was built by Appledore Shipbuilders, Appledore, Devon and was floated out on Friday 24^th April, entering service on July 4^th.

CLANSMAN is the fifth ship to bear the name and the first of a new breed of ships to revert to traditional names. Her gross tonnage is 5499 and cruises at a speed of 16.5 knots. She carries 638 passengers and ninety cars with space for ten more on her mezzanine deck.

Traffic on the Islands routes from Oban had increased so much that, by the mid-nineties, a replacement for LORD OF THE ISLES had become a necessity. IONA (1970) did not conform to the new safety regulations so LORD OF THE ISLES was sent to Mallaig to cover the Armadale run.

The new CLANSMAN is an imposing vessel, dwarfing her predecessor. She has an open stern, enabling her to carry dangerous cargoes. Unlike LOTI she has no sleeping berths.

The deck space is somewhat limited although this was remedied by the extension of her upper deck at the stern during her 2004 re-fit.

With her service speed of over sixteen knots she is able to cope with a rigorous schedule. For her first four years in service CLANSMAN served Coll, Tiree, Barra and South Uist from Oban in summer while in winter she became CalMac’s main relief vessel.

She has seen service on many other routes during the winter period covering for CALEDONIAN ISLES, HEBRIDES and ISLE OF LEWIS.

In recent years The Clyde River Steamer Club (www.clyderiversteamerclub.org.uk) chartered CLANSMAN during her layover period at Brodick during the winter, although this is no longer possible as Caledonian MacBrayne now operate an additional round trip to Ardrossan.

The Club members have enjoyed trips round Arran, The Holy Isle, Great Cumbrae, Inchmarnock and into Lochranza Bay.

CLANSMAN is featured on the March page of the 2008 Club Calendar at Stornoway while on relief duties between Ullapool and the Lewis capital on 31^st March 2004.

Plans for the upgrade of the ferry terminals at Port Ellen on Islay and Kennacraig on the Kintyre mainland were unveiled at a public meeting in the Machrie Hotel, Islay.

Representatives from Caledonian MacBrayne Assets Ltd (CMAL) and Halcrow Group Ltd presented project proposals to around thirty members of the public.

Lorna Spencer of CMAL explained to the meeting that the project is under the responsibility and ownership of CMAL . This was the first of several public meetings to be held concerning this phase of the project, with further opportunities for public involvement planned.

The project started with a Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) in 2003, which was concerned with the design of a new Caledonian MacBrayne ferry for the Islay route. The new vessel is now under construction in Poland, with completion due in April 2011. In 2006-07, feasibility studies were carried out and in 2008 Halcrow were appointed as the project’s engineering consultants.

Joe Durkin, CMAL, s legal advisor for this project, told the meeting that a Harbour Revision Order would be required, as the proposed works will change public access to navigation. An application will be submitted to the Scottish Executive, with a forty-two day consultation period during which time objections may be raised or support expressed.

Mathew Ross, of Halcrow Group Ltd, presented proposed plans for port facilities at both Port Ellen and Kennacraig, while explaining the various aspects of land reclamation, new terminal buildings, passenger access, marshalling and parking areas for ferry traffic.

At Port Ellen, harbour land will be required to be reclaimed to the north of the existing pier, where a new linkspan and dolphin purpose-built to accommodate the new ferry will be built. The current pier will be retained and kept available for use as a back-up facility.

A new single storey terminal will be built in the reclaimed area and car parking spaces will be move closer to the new terminal building. Access to the new linkspan would be by covered walkway.

Upgrades to Kennacraig would include a new two-storey passenger terminal building with a raised passenger walkway similar to the Oban facility and changes to parking areas.

Currently under way are bathymetric seabed surveys being carried out by Aspect Land and Hydrographic Surveys. Detailed designs are expected to be completed in September, with work put out to tender in late 2008/09.

Construction is expected to start in summer 2009, with completion due in mid 2011, in time for the arrival of the new Islay ferry.

Argyll islanders have launched an e-petition calling for a fairer deal on ferry fares when the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme starts.

Islanders and councillors on Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Mull are lodging the petition at the Scottish Parliament calling for ferry fare discounts for all the routes not included in the RET pilot scheme.

The pilot is due to start in October and run for three years. However there are fears in Argyll that tourists will vote with their feet and use the routes with the cheaper fares.

A group of councillors and islanders, together with Argyll and Bute MP Alan Reid, met to decide whether or not to back a petition on the Internet launched by Highlands and Islands MSP David Stewart for a discount scheme.

They decide that his petition did not go far enough, as it only included residents on the islands, not had it gained much support with only eighty signatures in ten days.

It was pointed out that many islanders already received discounts through multi tickets and pensioners’ rates. What are really required are discounts for people travelling in both directions.

The pilot is to run for three years because the seasonal nature of travel means that one year is not long enough to assess the benefits.

The threat to the ferry was a hot topic at the island’s community council meeting despite CalMac playing down suggestions that the ferry could be linked to Kennacraig.

The islanders were anxious to make their point before the following summer timetable was finalised. Kennacraig offers no facilities or shops while Oban has everything.

Oban has a Clansman again. The famous name returned, this time on the hull of a £15 million ferry for Caledonian MacBrayne.

As she entered the bay ISLE OF MULL was leaving for Craignure. As the two vessels passed each other, there was much blasting of ship’s horns as CLANSMAN entered the fleet.

Council officials have come under attack for failing to admit mistakes were made with Jura’s ferry berth at Port Askaig.

Islanders are outraged that their ferry can’t always use the new berth at Port Askaig at certain states of the tide and their anger boiled over at a public meeting in the island’s community hall. Despite a £13 million redevelopment of Port Askaig by Argyll and Bute Council, residents of Jura claim that they have a worse service since the completion of the work.

Andy Law, the council’s operational services director and principal engineer Peter Ward faced a barrage of criticism at the meeting but although they said they would try to solve islander’s concerns, neither admitted Argyll and Bute council or engineering company Arch Henderson were at fault for the design of the berth.

If the council required proof of the problems that exist, the island lost eight morning sailings on the day of the meeting because bad weather caused the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry to remain berthed at the linkspan resulting in the Jura ferry being unable to use the linkspan or its own berth.

Mr Ward told the meeting it was the council’s intention that the Jura ferry would use the new linkspan, which is also used by the larger CalMac ferry and that the Jura ferry berth was maintained as a courtesy. However islanders claimed they had never heard of this proposal and had believed that their slipway at Port Askaig would be maintained as the main berth for their ferry.

Around sixty islanders (from a population of 190), Fay Harris of CalMac Ferries Ltd and Alan Cunningham of ASP SeaScot, which runs the service for Argyll and Bute Council, attended the meeting. The engineering company Arch Henderson were not represented because they were not prepared to come for free and Mr Law was not prepared to pay them.

Forty-nine passengers on board the cruise vessel HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS had an unexpected detour to their cruise on Monday 30^th June when she answered a mayday call.

HEBRIDEAN PRINCES was only twenty minutes from CARROL OF BARRANO, which had run aground at the entrance to Loch Sween.

Another vessel, MOLLY JAMES, reached CARROL OF BARRANO first and towed her from the rocks while HEBIRDEAN PRINCESS acted as on-scene communications co-ordinator.

Twenty motorists in Lochaline had trouble finding accommodation and some had to sleep in their cars after the crew on board CANNA worked strictly to timetable leaving the drivers with their cars queuing on the slipway as the ferry closed down for the night.

Caledonian MacBrayne area manager, John MacKenzie said the decision to adhere to the timetable had been taken by the crew, not the management.

Changed timetables, more frequent services, better co-ordination with buses and trains, improved access for disabled people and better customer services, are some of the immediate measures that the Scottish Executive is being called upon to improve ferry services.

After an extensive consultation programme and gathering of evidence, the Scottish Executive’s transport, infrastructure and climate change committee has published its report on a long-term strategy for the country’s ferry network.

As well as the short term goals, the report recommends that the Scottish Executive makes use of faster and more fuel efficient vessels, improves timetables, introduces new routes or builds fixed links, improves port infrastructures and makes it easier for ferry operators to make changes to services within their contracts.

The committee hopes that these recommendations will help to shape the minister’s own ferry review, which is due to start soon. The report also recommends transferring responsibility for the strategic planning of ferry services to Transport Scotland and full public consultation as part of the review. The committee, itself, carried out a programme of evidence gathering, including taking a special session of the committee to Oban to hear evidence, video conferences and informal fact finding visits.

The report acknowledges the on-going EC investigation into complaints about subsidies paid to Caledonian MacBrayne and Northlink.