Apparently, the not quite delivered Glen Sannox is already suffering from old age. There's even a fear that the Glen Rosa will never be finished. I don't know the political leanings of the Express, so forgive me if I'm re-tweeting a crank story.
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/one-snps-new-200million-ferries-33930852
This article is the first story of a fire on board. It is known there was a system blackout during sea trials, when the ship was being pushed beyond service conditions. But then the Loch Seaforth has had those several times on passenger service, on the Ullapool run.
But this is genuinely new that the blackout was caused by a fire.
I don't think the political leanings of any newspaper come into it. Speculation is so fervent, and so little hard news that any story could be true, or a load of rubbish, or more likely somewhere in the middle. I've even heard that she did berthing trials at Ardrossan- the port she supposedly doesn't fit! No pictures of that alleged event of course. Lots of pics of the Brodick berthing.
No-one, not even the Isle of Arran Ferry Committee, seems to know what on earth is happening any longer.
My suspicion is that it is inherently true, but for the reasons stated- it is the fastest way to get the ship into service, 7 years late.
Everyone will breathe a hearty sigh of relief when she is handed over, still allegedly at the end of this month as far as anyone knows. That is when the 2 to 3 month countdown to passenger service really starts.
For a route now on it's 4th vessel in a month, the situation has gone from comedy to farce to desperate to utterly surreal. And now the lift on the poor old LOTI is out of service, she doesn't fit the gangways at either port so can't take those unable to walk up the stairs to the passenger decks. So such passengers have to use Troon.
This week's briefing from the CEO of Cal Mac also showed that the new Islay ferries (at one stage running early) are now also delayed due to various events in Turkey.
For those not aware, the Express is a right wing paper and very sensationalist. It makes the Daily Mail look moderate, and sometimes makes the Sun look like like a hippy.
In terms of its politics an SNP or Labour minister could cure cancer, their take would be how it puts hospices out of work.
There was an old joke years ago about the type of paper.
"Keir Starmer is wondering what had happened to his popularity and asks his advisors how to get it back.
'Easy, prime minister, walk across the Thames'
'On a bridge?'
'No, prime minister. On the water.;
They agree and the day comes that he walks on the water from Westminster to the south bank.
The press are lined up to watch.
He takes one step, and another, and in time walks across the river.
The following day most of the headlines are excellent. 'Keir Walks On Water!' 'Miracle Keir' but the Express, Mail, and Telegraph are united in their headline 'STARMER FAILS TO SWIM THAMES'"
Thanks for the reality check. Where is the National? I try to read the news occasionally, and I find The Scotsman to be almost as bad as Fox News in the US, although I also read it used to be more lefty under previous ownership.
BTW I've been trawling the press. The 'fire' was the false activation of an alarm, apparently in the engine room when the ship was running on marine gas oil, rather than LPG.
It seems the alarm shut down the engines, as it was meant to do- to prevent the spread of a fire (had there been one) and allow for efficient fire fighting.
Except the shutdown seemingly blacked out the ship as well.
Tugs were summoned to return her to port, but the engines had been re-started when the lack of a fire was confirmed, so the tugs became a safety escort.
So all in all a total non-event which in normal circumstances would barely have merited reporting.
No service to or from Ardrossan so far today because the LOTI now has a bilge pump failure!! Last week there were no night time sailings for 2 days when the Peel Ports owned navigation lights at Ardrossan failed.
This story just keeps on giving, with endless new twists and turns!!
The Scotsman is right wing. And sometimes called 'The Hootsmon' due to an old fashioned Scottish right wing image.
The National is still pro SNP, but has gone down market and more sensationalist in a chase for money.
My choice in the old 'quality' side was The Herald which was small c Scottish conservative.
We had a statement from the Shipyard yesterday in response to the mis reporting of so called facts- by all sectors of the press (including the BBC)- none of whom I would trust to play with a rubber duck in the bath, let alone run a shipyard or a ferry company.
The swapping of parts happened months ago (not recently). Also the Glen Sannox is due to go on new sea trials having had remedial work to her anchoring systems after issues emerged during the original sea trials.
That is exactly the purpose of sea trials.
Further news, directly from the shipyard-
A Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) spokesperson said: “Trials on Wednesday, October 23 for MV Glen Sannox were successful. The temporary replacement anchor windlass gypsies were tested and performed well. Other tests consisted of working through the vessel’s modes of operation, both at sea and quayside at Inchgreen.
Of course in passenger service the anchors will not be used. If they were then on a modern ship they probably drop and raise automatically, but a manual back up method is also needed, hence the test on the gypsies.
It is good to finally get a direct quote from a shipyard press release in the Press (the Greenock Telegraph, to quote my references).
Ship Tracking also shows the truth of the sea trials on that date (between 0742 and 1636) and that the ship is currently berthed back at Greenock.
It is also interesting that the two new ferries for the New Zealand Inter Islander service are currently projected to cost 10x as much as the Glen Rosa and the Glen Sannox.
UPDATED-The Glen Sannox received it's passenger certification on 19 November from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Lloyd's Registry. She was handed over to CMAL (Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited) on 21 November.
CMAL own (currently) 37 vessels of which 32 are leased to CalMac, and 5 to Northlink ferries (3 passenger and 2 freight ships).
There is now a 9 week period of handover, crew training and annual overhaul.
The vessel should therefore be in passenger service by the end of January/start of February 2025.
I will re-iterate that at that stage passenger sailings from Ardrossan are expected to cease, and be relocated to the port of Troon.
Her sister vessel, the Glen Rosa is now due for handover in September 2025.
Apparently, the Glen Sannox has a problem with her "gypsy". That's a lugged pulley, typically below a smooth rope-compatible pulley on an anchor windlass, designed to mesh with the anchor chain. It's a big piece of cast iron or steel, so a "problem" means it doesn't match the chain being used and it either slips when coming aboard or sticks when going out. The temporary fix might have been to change the anchor chain, although I'm guessing Stuart will supply the exact problem and fix description. Not supposed to affect the schedule, although changing the chain would probably require a visit to Ferguson.
If it makes anyone feel any better, the Washington State Ferries are similar sized to CalMac (much larger ferries but not for high seas), and years ago, they asked the legislature to buy three identical ferries at a price about $300M for all three. In their wisdom, the pols said "just buy one" and worry about more later. The single ferry cost $200M. They eventually bought two more, for $250M and $300M each. I may have the numbers wrong but the ratios are close.
I've refrained from mentioning WSF, but I am aware that they are in the situation Cal Mac was in maybe just even one year ago, before the scales over balanced.
In broad terms I do follow the WSF news, if not to a fine degree of detail.
I should have been flying out in 2 days time on a short notice trip to ride most of the WSF saltwater network- finally, finally after far too many false starts. Also to travel on the Argosy Christmas Ship, and at least step aboard the V5 with luck.
Well there was a different reason why it was such very short notice, but that is by the by.
Also to take advantage of a great winter deal on the Seattle Pass.
Unfortunately I lost coms with my Seattle friend in the cyclone. By the time contact was restored air fare had gone over what I'm comfortable paying.
Now I feel guilty, living just 500 miles from the ferry system and I always ride the same few. We did ride the Elwha on her penultimate trip - everyone knows the story of the captain trying to impress a lady friend by passing close by a friend's house, and going on the reef. Since then, every bar serves an "Elwha on the rocks"
