CalMac

[islaydarkblue]

How dare they take any ship out of service in order to carry out essential mainenance. I blame The Scottish Government for this ridiculous insistence that ferries are safe for passengers to use. Have we learned nothing from The Herald Of Free Enterprise? We need to keep these ferries running and to hell with safety and maintenance.

I enclose an article explaining why the MV Hebrides ferry was withdrawn from service twice in a week which explains everything. https://news.stv.tv/highlands-island...ist-and-harris

[Deeranged]

It was not for essential maintenance.
It was to repair the CO2 fire fighting equipment which should have been repaired when the ferry received it annual overhaul during the previous winter timetable period.
This is not the first time that days have been wasted trying to carry out a repair at the pier side of a large Calmac ferry by their mobile repair team which has been a failure.
On that occasion I have first hand experience of this as we were due to be sailing on the MV Hebridean Isles (Heb Isles) ferry which had over a week before developed a leak in its hull.
The Calmac mobile repair team spent three days trying to repair the MV Hebridean Isles ferry which was withdrawn from service on a Saturday at lunchtime when it arrived at Port Askaig on Islay.
The Heb Isles limped back to Kennacraig where the Calmac mobile team of engineers worked on fixing the repair until late on the following Tuesday afternoon after which it had sea trials which proved that the repair was no use.
The Heb Isles was removed from service and it sailed to dry dock in Greenock for repairs.
The Heb Isles did not arrive at the dry dock in Greenock until the Friday afternoon and no work was carried out over the weekend as Calmac management team refused to pay overtime rates.
Over a week was wasted trying to carry out a repair at Kennacraig plus the management of Calmac’s penny pinching attitude regarding getting the MV Hebridean Isles repaired as soon as possible and back in service.
On this occasion the Heb Isles being withdrawn from service did not affect any other Calmac ferry route as the MV Finlaggan operated a single ferry service on the Kennacraig to Islay route. The only people to be inconvenienced were people travelling to and from Islay by ferry with the members of the Islay Ferry Committee unlike other ferry committees never contacting the BBC or STV to highlight their problems with Calmac.

So let's get this clear. The fire safety sytem on board a sea going vessel developed a fault and an attempt was made to repair that system at an annual service, that attempt at repair was unsuccessful but sufficient to allow the vessel to safely operate, presumably under a temporary maritime safety license, however a full repair was required at a later date to restore the vessel to fully licensable condition?

The fire safety system is pretty key to the safety of a sea going vessel, I'm sure you'll agree with that, and therefore any maintenance on it is essential maintenance. Is it your opinion that it would have been better to allow the vessel to operate in an unsafe condition rather than placing it in dry dock for repairs? Certainly seems to be your preference reading the absilute nonsense you're spouting here.

[BCram]

So let's get this clear. The fire safety sytem on board a sea going vessel developed a fault and an attempt was made to repair that system at an annual service, that attempt at repair was unsuccessful but sufficient to allow the vessel to safely operate, presumably under a temporary maritime safety license, however a full repair was required at a later date to restore the vessel to fully licensable condition?

The fire safety system is pretty key to the safety of a sea going vessel, I'm sure you'll agree with that, and therefore any maintenance on it is essential maintenance. Is it your opinion that it would have been better to allow the vessel to operate in an unsafe condition rather than placing it in dry dock for repairs? Certainly seems to be your preference reading the absilute nonsense you're spouting here.

Islay is not spouting rubbish. He has given a chronological report of what happened. OK it is an opinion that it would have been better to go strhigaight to the dry Dock but I think it is a reasonable one given that the dry dock was the ultimate answer.
I think the whole ferry fiasco is a symptom of the cosy relationship between the SNP and the operating companies. If Country File can produce a
highly critical of the effect of the ferry weaknesses as they affected Arran, there must be something very far wrong.
Calmac get this sorted. Complain about SNP political interference and actually tell the public what severe pressures you are working under. Ferries 4 years late and very much over budget how long is this farce going to continue?

[Deeranged]

Ferries 4 years late and very much over budget how long is this farce going to continue?

Not much longer, it was reported on the news yesterday that one of them sailed from the yard and up the Clyde.

Unfortunately once I read that Islay seemed to be espousing not carrying out essential safety related maintenance on a sea going vessel I stopped reading his post and made the assumption that, like most of his posts, it was just nonsense. I apologise to you for that on this occasion.

[islaydarkblue]

So let's get this clear. The fire safety sytem on board a sea going vessel developed a fault and an attempt was made to repair that system at an annual service, that attempt at repair was unsuccessful but sufficient to allow the vessel to safely operate, presumably under a temporary maritime safety license, however a full repair was required at a later date to restore the vessel to fully licensable condition?

The fire safety system is pretty key to the safety of a sea going vessel, I'm sure you'll agree with that, and therefore any maintenance on it is essential maintenance. Is it your opinion that it would have been better to allow the vessel to operate in an unsafe condition rather than placing it in dry dock for repairs? Certainly seems to be your preference reading the absilute nonsense you're spouting here.

For the record I am not spouting nonsense.
I am telling you the facts which are freely available to read on news websites, local ferry committee websites whose islands are served by Calmac ferries and the Calmac Communities Board of directors meetings on their website.
The root problem of these problems happening on the Calmac ferries is that the management of Calmac do not allow sufficient time for their ferries to receive their annual overhaul (service). They only allow two weeks which results in them coming back either later than planned, jobs being delayed or in the case of the fire fighting equipment on the MV Hebrides and MV Lord of the Isles ferries breaking down.
No doubt you will dispute this information and that is your prerogative.
However the poster jdfc asked if anyone on this board used Calmac ferries and I was replying to him not you.

[islaydarkblue]

Not much longer, it was reported on the news yesterday that one of them sailed from the yard and up the Clyde.

Unfortunately once I read that Islay seemed to be espousing not carrying out essential safety related maintenance on a sea going vessel I stopped reading his post and made the assumption that, like most of his posts, it was just nonsense. I apologise to you for that on this occasion.

The photograph of the MV Glen Sannox on the BBC website showed it being towed by a tug back to Ferguson’s Shipyard from Darvel dry dock not sailing using its own engines.
This ferry is four years late and it is badly needed on the Ardrossan to Brodick ferry route as the MV Caledonian Isles ferry which is the main ferry on this route has recently suffered a number of major breakdowns.

[islaydarkblue]

Islay is not spouting rubbish. He has given a chronological report of what happened. OK it is an opinion that it would have been better to go strhigaight to the dry Dock but I think it is a reasonable one given that the dry dock was the ultimate answer.
I think the whole ferry fiasco is a symptom of the cosy relationship between the SNP and the operating companies. If Country File can produce a
highly critical of the effect of the ferry weaknesses as they affected Arran, there must be something very far wrong.
Calmac get this sorted. Complain about SNP political interference and actually tell the public what severe pressures you are working under. Ferries 4 years late and very much over budget how long is this farce going to continue?

Thank you for your post.
There does not appear to be the same problems with ferries on the Northlink route despite the ferries on this route sailing in far worse weather conditions than Calmac ferries whose sailings are continually being cancelled due to swell conditions.
Northlink ferries are operated by Serco PLC.
Incidentally in November 2016 I received a tip off from two members of a ferry group that Serco who were bidding to be the operating company running the ferries on the 2016-24 Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes asked for certain protections which Transport Scotland bosses refused to give because the Scottish Government owned Calmac Ferries Limited had not asked for them.
As a result Serco were immediately barred from tendering for this contract which was then given to Calmac Ferries Limited as they were the remaining bidder.
In my opinion Serco must now be delighted that Transport Scotland bosses barred them from tendering as they would have continually received complaints from SNP and Green MSPs because Serco is a Public Limited Company and ‘fair game’ as far as these Scottish politicians are concerned.
Transport is a devolved matter at Holyrood and Nicola Sturgeon cannot blame Westminster for the current Calmac Ferries fiasco.

[Deeranged]

For the record I am not spouting nonsense.
I am telling you the facts which are freely available to read on news websites, local ferry committee websites whose islands are served by Calmac ferries and the Calmac Communities Board of directors meetings on their website.
The root problem of these problems happening on the Calmac ferries is that the management of Calmac do not allow sufficient time for their ferries to receive their annual overhaul (service). They only allow two weeks which results in them coming back either later than planned, jobs being delayed or in the case of the fire fighting equipment on the MV Hebrides and MV Lord of the Isles ferries breaking down.
No doubt you will dispute this information and that is your prerogative.
However the poster jdfc asked if anyone on this board used Calmac ferries and I was replying to him not you.

I picked up on what appears to be your preference to sail unsafe vessels - can you confirm you'd rather see essential maintenance done than not done?

[BCram]

Thank you for your post.
There does not appear to be the same problems with ferries on the Northlink route despite the ferries on this route sailing in far worse weather conditions than Calmac ferries whose sailings are continually being cancelled due to swell conditions.
Northlink ferries are operated by Serco PLC.
Incidentally in November 2016 I received a tip off from two members of a ferry group that Serco who were bidding to be the operating company running the ferries on the 2016-24 Clyde and Hebridean ferry routes asked for certain protections which Transport Scotland bosses refused to give because the Scottish Government owned Calmac Ferries Limited had not asked for them.
As a result Serco were immediately barred from tendering for this contract which was then given to Calmac Ferries Limited as they were the remaining bidder.
In my opinion Serco must now be delighted that Transport Scotland bosses barred them from tendering as they would have continually received complaints from SNP and Green MSPs because Serco is a Public Limited Company and ‘fair game’ as far as these Scottish politicians are concerned.
Transport is a devolved matter at Holyrood and Nicola Sturgeon cannot blame Westminster for the current Calmac Ferries fiasco.

Do you know what the protections they asked for were? You just have to look at the rail franchise system to see the problems that using the government as the customer causes. I think there may be a completely different mindset needed for our public transport system both ferries and trains. Kicking the SNP and Greens may be completely counter productive and be harming their ability to strike fair deals on wages and conditions that would ultimately benefit moaning customers who live on Islay!
Perhaps if you fired bullets at the operating companies rather than the politicians who should be working on the general publics behave, you might have more success.

[islaydarkblue]

I picked up on what appears to be your preference to sail unsafe vessels - can you confirm you'd rather see essential maintenance done than not done?

I would rather see essential maintenance carried out during a Calmac ferries annual overhaul period not it having to be withdrawn from service during the busy summer timetable with tourists planning to sail on the ferry having to sleep in their cars.
The one good thing to come out of this fiasco is that these tourists will see how the island residents are having to put up with a poor ferry service which is their ‘bridge to the mainland’ because CMAL have been starved of funding for new ferries by the SNP controlled Scottish Government until it is too late.