Displaying items by tag: soaring costs

3rd October 2023

Newbuilds Ferry Fiasco in Scotland As Soaring Costs Could Reach £400m

As the shipyard ferry fiasco in Scotland continues, ministers in Edinburgh have come under fire as new estimates suggest the cost of the dual-fuel powered newbuilds could reach £400m.

The figure for the CalMac ferries, does not include the millions pumped into the nationalised shipyard Ferguson Marine to keep it operating, amounts to over four times the £97m contract cost for the two lifeline ferries to serve on Arran on the Forth of Clyde.

Both newbuilds, Glen Sannox and the recently named twin, Glen Rosa following a public vote, still await delivery at the Inverclyde shipyard, downriver of Glasgow.

Chief executive of Ferguson Marine, David Tydeman indicated that it will cost an extra £240 million to build the ferries on top of what was previously spent before the nationalisation of the shipyard took place in 2019.

As The Herald, which more on the story, reports that £83.25 million was spent on the ferries prior to the Scottish Government taking control of the shipyard firm with an additional £45 million on loan.

Published in Shipyards

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Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.