Anger as £800m Clyde shipbuilding plan to resolve ferries crisis sinks

The consortium that also includes Peter Breslin, managing director of Govan Drydock, have said that despite discussions there has been no interest in taking the plan - that they felt would breath new life into Scottish shipbulding - any further by either ministers or Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL), the taxpayer-funded company which owns and procures ferries.

The group includes Professor Alf Baird, former director of the Maritime Research Group at Napier University who said: "Ministers apparent disrespect and rejection of such an offer from one of the world's foremost established designers and innovators in the small ferry market is difficult to comprehend, especially given ongoing service issues throughout Scotland due to ferry design and procurement failure."

Mr Ballantyne said that a seminar at the University of Strathclyde to explain the vision was personally attended by Robbie Drummond, the chief executive and managing director of ferry service operator CalMac but not by representatives of CMAL, despite invitations.

READ MORE: All you need to know about the Ferguson Marine bailout

CMAL said a representative attended through an online stream.

He said that Kevin Hobbs, chief executive of CMAL did not return a call and said: "We couldn't get a sensible audience with him.

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(From left) Peter Breslin,  Stuart Ballantyne and Professor Alf Baird 

"Mr Drummond, on the other hand, appeared to want results. And they have the MV Alfred, a catamaran, running now so everyone should be over their fear of catamarans."

Mr Ballantyne, who nine years ago received an honorary degree from Strathclyde University for services to the global maritime industry said: "CMAL are just not interested. They are still dismissive of catamarans.

"We have been knocking on the door but it needs a politician to say it is good for Scotland."

CMAL has denied that it is anti-catamaran.

The project for 50 ferries for use by CalMac for the lifeline islands services off the west coast of Scotland and for services to Orkney and Shetland would cost £250m more than it has so far cost to build just four in Turkey and at Ferguson Marine in Scotland.

The group also said they expected the savings in operating subsidy to exceed £1 billion over the 20-year build programme period.

CalMac's parent company David MacBrayne Group (DMG) has received nearly £900m in taxpayer subsidies over six years from the Scottish Government to run the ferry services since securing the ferry contract in 2016. The level of handout has soared from £131.939m in 2016/17 to over £163m in 2021/22 including £11.7m in Covid funding.

It was envisaged that the major catamaran project would revitalise Clyde shipbuilding being and be built at nationalized Ferguson Marine, Inchgreen dry dock in Inverclyde and Govan dry dock.

READ MORE: Ministers told to scrap CMAL to create ferries agency and keep CalMac

The dry dock dates back to the 19th century, and has been out of action for more than 40 years but there are hopes that it can be brought back into use. Govan Drydock has said it wants to return the A listed dry dock to a fully operational ship repair and maintenance facility.

Mr Baird said that CMAL and the Scottish Government had the option to go down the catamaran route when ordering from Turkey - but ended up choosing a design that ruled out catamarans.

"Neither Stuart nor I received any interest in our proposal from the Scottish Government which is disappointing. There was some hope we might at least be asked to discuss the matter further with them.

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Stuart Ballantyne's standard 50m catamaran ferry design became part of a 30-vessel Philippines fleet

"The Scottish Government own a ferry yard in Ferguson Marine and the Scottish public sector desperately needs some 50+ new ferries for domestic use over the next 15-20 yrs; all that is lacking is a coherent costed shipbuilding strategy which the proven catamaran designs would provide and also offering faster delivery times than CMAL's unproven and problematic monohull prototypes.

"The point has been made that far more competitive catamarans have been intentionally excluded from the procurement processes and this needs to be remedied.

"It is clearly too late for the Turkey orders and likely also for the small ferries soon to be ordered."

He added: "The same officials dealing with procurement during the Ferguson fiasco are still in post and have not altered their approach as far as I am aware. They are still ordering problematic heavy displacement monohull prototypes."

It comes as the two new lifeline vessels Glen Sannox and the so far unnamed Hull 802 which were due online in the first half of 2018 when Ferguson Marine was under the control of Scots tycoon Jim McColl, with one initially to serve Arran and the other to serve the Skye triangle routes to North Uist and Harris, are now over five years late. And the last estimates suggest the costs of delivery could more than quadruple from the original £97m cost.

In 2022, some 17 of state-owned ferry operator CalMac's 31 working ferries deployed across Scotland was over its 25-year-old life expectancy. The oldest in the CalMac fleet is is the Isle of Cumbrae which 47 years old.

To succeed in bringing major shipbuilding back to the Clyde would require funding to refurbish both Inchgreen and Govan.

The group had been seeking public funding through Scottish Government and private investors for the upgrading of Inchgreen and Govan.

A spokesperson for CMAL said: “CMAL is not anti-catamaran; but what often goes unreported is that in geographies similar to Scotland, with comparable weather and sea conditions, medium speed (below 20 knots) catamarans are not a common choice for passenger / commercial ferry services.

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"In fact, of the 435 ferries (passengers, cars and freight) operating from Dover Strait northwards, including the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Scandinavian fjords – only six are catamarans. There are good reasons for this. An important factor in vessel choice is compatibility with specific routes, as well as flexibility to meet vessel redeployment needs across the network. We will only ever order the vessels best suited to the routes and communities they are intended to serve.

“To correct the record, CMAL did attend the aforementioned Strathclyde University seminar via the online stream.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is committed to delivering six new major vessels to the Calmac fleet by 2026. All options are considered in developing new vessels for particular routes. Procurement of new vessels would need to be undertaken in line with relevant legislation and process, with local authorities responsible for the procurement of their own vessels.”