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Displaying items by tag: Arran, Scotland

At a Scottish shioyard is where a massively delayed new Isle of Arran ferry has taken a huge stride towards completion.

The MV Glen Sannox, reports the Herald, is the first of two dual fuel vessels being built at Ferguson Marine Ltd., is currently four years behind schedule, being at the heart of the £230 million ferries fiasco.

Now the boat has been moved to dry dock in Greenock to undergo remedial works including replacement of the bulbous bow, paint repair and removal of marine growth from the vessel hull.

The ferry has been sitting in the water at Ferguson Marine's Port Glasgow facility since 2017.

Work had been called off due to coronavirus, but crews began returning in June. It is not yet clear how much of a delay the pandemic has had on the Glen Sannox or the as-yet unamed second vessel - Hull 802.

For more on this development click here.

Published in Ferry

On the Isle of Arran in Scotland, business owners have vented their fury over the loss of revenue and disruption to trade they say has been caused by the increasing unreliability of the island’s lifeline ferry service.

Islanders have told The Herald that a project which repositioned the harbour at Brodick, part of a £31 million investment to accommodate a new ferry for the Arran to Ardrossan route, has led to a spike in cancellations.

For more on this story on the Firth of Clyde route in south-west Scotland click here.

A second route albeit seasonal is based out of Ardrossan to Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre which Afloat featured in recent years.

Published in Ferry

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.