CalMac to test Isle of Man ferry on Arran route

Josh, our MP, won't be pleased.

He's been trying to get the Ben to reopen occasional West Cumbria to Isle of Man sailings. And the Steam Packet told him 'no'.

But the Ben is the island spare ship for the frequent times when the new Manxman can't sail as she is struggling to get into Heysham in more than a fresh breeze.
The Isle of Man residents are not at all happy at this prospect, at having to wait 96 hours for her to be recalled when needed.

At TT time the Steam Packet used to do special sailings from Ardrossan, and for two years Cal Mac once lent the Steam Packet a ship at TT time.

What goes around comes around.

Interesting, Stuart. I can see why the Isle of Man residents would be annoyed by this.

The Ben my Chree left Douglas at 2030 last night. She berthed at Troon from 0903 to 1018 this morning, and at Brodick from 1127 to 1315.

Earlier in the day she had been at Heysham on Pilotage Exemption training for the Master.

She is now returning to Douglas, Isle of Man.

The outcome is currently unknown but apparently the trials were successful. There is already You Tube footage of the two events.

From the Isle of Arran Ferry Committee Page-
MV Ben My Chree update:
‘This morning (31st) we carried out berthing trials at Troon and Brodick with MV Ben-My-Chree. Though we are awaiting the full report on those trials, we are keen to keep communities updated as quickly as possible. That’s why I’m getting in touch to confirm the trials were unsuccessful.
Whilst the vessel berthed successfully at Brodick, we were at the very edge of the limits it was safe to operate to, and we’d be relying on completely benign conditions to berth.
The vessel will head back to the Isle of Man. We will continue to explore any and all options to add resilience and capacity to the fleet. That includes looking for third-party charters, as we always do, though it is a very challenging market.
The intention behind looking at MV Ben-My-Chree was to add resilience to the fleet, and were the trials successful we would have had the ability to redeploy the fleet and add capacity to both the Arran service and other parts of the network.
However, there is no immediate negative impact on the network because of these trials not working out. The current deployment plan, which is in place until Friday 15 November, remains unchanged.’

Having seen the footage at Troon there were also clear issues where the ramp on the ship was too wide for the linkspan- presenting a significant health and safety hazard, particularly in poor weather conditions where the ship would be constantly moving while berthed. Given that Troon used to take the big ships to Larne in Northern Ireland that was rather surprising.

The normal route vessel for Arran, the Caledonian Isles, is now off service until March 2025.

CalMac are publishing a new SYSTEM WIDE timetable for November to March on 13 November to cover for this abscence as it will impact the whole network.