Under construction in Turkey, a ferry to serve Scottish west coast operator CalMac, it has emerged is on track to be delivered five years faster than the second of a pair involved in the fiasco at the nationalised shipyard Ferguson Marine.
Of the quartet of island serving ferries (including Skye) being built in Turkey is the MV Isle of Islay which is in the wake of Scotland's ferry fiasco, as the newbuild is due to be launched on 16 March.
The launch date at the overseas shipyard comes as a sign was put up at the Scottish shipyard on the Clyde in November, which gave a launch date of 12 March for MV Glen Rosa. This is the second of the duel-fuelled powered ferries for operator CalMac, to serve on the Firth of Clyde route of Ardrossan-Isle of Arran route, but the newbuild is considerably delayed – by over six years.
The first of the beleaguered Clyde-built ferries, MV Glen Sannox was launched in 2017 and along with sister Glen Rosa were due to be in service in the first half of 2018, the year when Ferguson Marine was under the control of tycoon Jim McColl.
Both of the ferries with reduced capacity, are now more than six years late. The last estimate, suggests the costs of delivery from the shipyard at Port Glasgow could more than quadruple that of the original £97m contract cost for the hybrid powered vessels, using liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine diesel fuel.
More on the Scottish shipyard saga as the Glen Rosa, is not now expected to be delivered to Scottish Government-owned CalMac until May 2025. As for the leadship, Glen Sannox, a delivery timeframe is for March this year, however there have been serious doubts over that schedule.
The Herald Scotland has more on the replacement tonnage to address the ageing CalMac fleet.
