Independent evaluation of catamaran ferry for Mull

Aim

We want to persuade government to purchase a catamaran ferry that could transform our ferry service, by commissioning independent studies.

The people of Mull and Iona rely on their lifeline ferry service, and currently it is woefully inadequate.

• The MV Isle of Mull is one of the oldest ferries in the CalMac fleet (33 years old), and overdue for replacement. 
• Craignure Pier is neglected and ageing. Argyll & Bute Council are planning to replace it, but this will not be completed for approximately 10 years. 
• The Craignure-Oban service is the most congested in the entire CalMac network making it difficult for islanders to travel when they need to, and difficult for tourists (on which the island economy depends) to get here. 
• Weather-related cancellations are growing year-on-year, and ferry design choices seem to be exacerbating this trend, rather than fixing it. 
• We are the only major Hebridean island that cannot base our ferry on the island - this severely compromises the timetable. 

CalMac's fleet is the oldest it has ever been due to chronic under investment, and the debacle of overspend and delay with two new ferries (hulls 801 and 802) has made the situation even worse. Scottish Government have recognised the dire state of the fleet however, and have undertaken to purchase second-hand vessels whenever they can. To date however, the agency responsible (Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, CMAL) have been unable to find a suitable ferry to purchase.

Mull and Iona Ferry Committee have identified a catamaran ferry that is suitable for the route and is for sale. It is currently in the late stages of completion in a ship yard in Indonesia. 

The ferry is small and light enough to berth at the existing Craignure Pier year-round without waiting for the Council to replace the pier. It has double the vehicle capacity of the ferry it replaces (MV Coruisk), and after some minor modification (things like ramp-realignment and addition of live-aboard crew cabins), it will be a a very good match for our piers and service.

If purchased, this vessel would:

• Immediately alleviate our summer ferry congestion
• Enable a year-round island-based ferry service, with earlier departures and later returns that would vastly improve connectivity
• Allow the MV Coruisk to return to the Armadale-Mallaig service for which she was built. The ferry to Armadale on Skye is similarly congested, and currently served 'temporarily' by a collection of ill-matched and tide-restricted ferries. 
• Introduce a new ferry design that is more manoeuvrable and is less affected by high winds, that should provide a more weather-resilient service. 

There are a host of other potential benefits for the user and the taxpayer, primarily achieved thanks to this ferry being much cheaper to build and operate than a typical CalMac ferry. This style of ferry has been adopted world-wide, with great commercial and operational success - as demonstrated close to home by Pentland Ferries' service to Orkney (as pictured in our header image). For a full exploration of the issues and benefits, see our website here. 

Despite the strong case and obvious benefits of the ferry, we have been unable to persuade CMAL and Transport Scotland (the government department that oversees the ferry service) to undertake a conclusive investigation of it. The impasse concerns the ability of this vessel to meet the safety and regulatory requirements of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). Transport Scotland say that they do not have sufficient confidence that should they invest the time and money needed to pass the MCA, that it will be successful. On the other hand, the designers of the ferry (The Australian company Sea Transport Solutions) insist that it will pass the MCA, and point to Pentland Ferries' Pentalina, which they also designed and was able to obtain all the necessary permissions from the MCA. 

We are determined that this ferry is given full consideration, and insist that it is not acceptable give up on this opportunity with the key question of 'will it pass the MCA' unanswered. Our only option therefore, is to pay for an independent professional assessment of the ferry design. 

The sellers have offered to pay half the cost of this assessment, if we can pay the other half. The work we want to commission is a series of design assessments and computations by the Department of Naval Architecture at Strathclyde University. These assessments will answer all the key questions that the MCA will have. They address the vessel's stability and ability to survive damage and flooding - ie the key safety attributes that the vessel will have to demonstrate. 

We need to do this as quickly as possible. Time is running out - the ferry will be completed soon, and if we cannot convince Scottish Government to proceed, the opportunity will be lost. These studies should give Transport Scotland and CMAL the confidence they need to enter into purchase negotiations. Hopefully it will ultimately result in the arrival of this catamaran on our service in a matter of months.

Although we have reason to be confident, there is no guarantee that the vessel will pass the assessments by Strathclyde University, and no guarantee that a positive outcome will give Transport Scotland the confidence they say they need. But there are so many potential benefits of this ferry - and so many risks to our service if no action is taken - that we are absolutely determined that this opportunity be fully explored. We hope you are too. 

This project successfully funded on 14th March 2021