CalMac Ferry Loch Indaal Delayed Again by Engineer Shortage
The handover of the new CalMac ferry MV Loch Indaal has been put back again. Ferries agency CMAL blames a shortage of engineers at the Turkish shipyard building the vessel.
The ship was expected to be ready by the end of October. It has still not secured final approval from the regulator.
Mid-November now expected
CMAL set out the new timing in a letter to MSPs. Handover is now expected by mid-November. Up to 10 days of preparation for the voyage to Scotland would follow.
In its latest update to Holyrood's transport committee, CMAL said inspectors for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency had visited the shipyard during October. Some issues with the ship remain unresolved. The inspectors are due back in the week beginning 9 November.
The letter says the shipyard has struggled to secure specialist engineers from original equipment manufacturers. It calls this "disappointing" but "outside the shipyard's control".
The ship was already 20 months behind schedule. It will eventually enter service on CalMac's Islay route.
Second delay in 24 hours
This is the second delay announced within a day. It was confirmed earlier that handover of another new ferry, MV Loch Rosa, will be put back to February. The delay will allow re-designed propellers to be fitted before handover.
MV Loch Indaal is the second of four identical ferries ordered from the Cemre shipyard. In June, CMAL revealed it had paid in full for all four ships, thought to be about £200m in total. Only one of them, MV Isle of Islay, had been completed.
CMAL said the payment would help the Turkish firm cope with financial challenges and would secure its legal ownership of the ferries. Since then, the Scottish government has agreed to pay an extra £20m to cover additional project costs.
Work is also continuing at Cemre on MV Lochmor and MV Claymore. They are due to serve Little Minch routes from Skye to Harris and North Uist.
Source: BBC News