CalMac bid to reclaim costs for fault-prone Arran ferry

Ferry operator CalMac is trying to recover millions of pounds of repair costs for a ship that has been out of action for 18 months - and is still not fixed.

The repair bill for MV Caledonian Isles, which has been sidelined from the Arran route since January 2024, has already risen to nearly £11m.

CalMac is now seeking compensation from Cammell Laird over problems discovered when the ship returned to Scotland last September, after the Merseyside firm carried out the first phase of work.

The claim relates to deformation of the ship's hull, which has required months of remedial work. Cammell Laird has declined to comment.

The £10.8m repair bill for the vessel is equivalent to a quarter of last year's maintenance budget for the entire CalMac fleet.

The publicly-owned ferry operator confirmed to BBC Scotland News that action was under way to recover some of those repair costs following an investigation into the cause of the hull deformity.

"As this is commercially sensitive and subject to legal proceedings, we cannot comment further," it said in a statement.

Problems with "Caley Isles", as the ship is known, began in January 2024 when annual maintenance inspections in Scotland revealed extensive steel corrosion.

The 32-year-old ship was moved to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead for a "highly complex" repair operation which required removal of the ship's engines.

That meant the ferry had to spend months in a dry dock, a narrow basin which is drained, leaving the ship out of the water and supported by blocks.

The work, said at the time to cost around £5m, was completed last September but when the ship sailed back to Scotland the crew noticed a gearbox problem and metal shards were discovered in a filter.

Further investigation revealed that eight frames, the ribs of the ship's structural skeleton, were deformed and that more steel replacement was required.

CalMac engaged a naval architect to report on the root cause of the deformation, while more repairs were carried out in Greenock, by a different ship repair firm.

The ferry was due to resume sailing from Ardrossan last month, but a new fault affecting its variable pitch propellers, essential for manoeuvring in harbour, was identified during sea trials, and the ship is still out of service.

The prolonged absence of MV Caledonian Isles has added to pressures on the west coast ferry network, and had a major impact on Ardrossan where the new Arran ferry MV Glen Sannox is too big to berth safely.

Glen Sannox operates instead from Troon, 15 miles down the Ayrshire coast, which involves a longer crossing to Arran and fewer daily sailings.

Meanwhile, Ardrossan, normally the main gateway to Arran, has been left without ferry sailings for six months, with campaigners claiming the economy has suffered.

Sailing from the port finally resumed later on Monday with the 41-year-old ferry MV Isle of Arran drafted to provide temporary cover during July while Caledonian Isles remains out of action.

The particular issues facing MV Caledonian Isles are part of a wider problem as CalMac tries to maintain services with an increasingly ageing and unreliable fleet.

CalMac does not own its ships - instead it leases them from another government-owned company CMAL which is responsible for harbours and ferry procurement.

But CalMac does have to pay for maintenance, which has proven costly due to delays in the provision of new vessels.

The annual repair bill has nearly trebled over the past 10 years.

When MV Glen Sannox entered service in January, it was the first new large ship provided to the ferry operator by CMAL in nearly a decade.

Half of CalMac's 10 major vessels have now reached or are beyond their 30-year expected service life.

Aside from rust issues, there are difficulties replacing equipment which is often so old that spares have to be specially manufactured.

To make up for a shortage of vessels CalMac has chartered a catamaran, MV Alfred, from Pentland Ferries at a cost of £1m per month since May 2023.

By the time the charter ends in October, it will have paid out around double the £14.5m it cost Pentland Ferries to build the vessel.

The pressures should begin to ease from next winter onwards as the first of five new major vessels currently under construction for CMAL start to arrive.

The first of four ships being built in Turkey, MV Isle of Islay, is on track for delivery by the end of September, about a year later than originally planned.

The second Turkish ship, MV Loch Indaal, should arrive in the spring of 2026, with the other two following on at six monthly intervals.

The long- delayed MV Glen Rosa is expected to be ready by the end of June next year, and is earmarked to join its sister ship MV Glen Sannox on the Arran route.