CALMAC Ferries 'new boat' service starts

[Brandane]

How many calmac ferries are close to or over their service lifetime?

BBC News - The problem with CalMac's ageing ferries
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-61161932

2.5 year old article, so add that to the ferry ages. And this is only about the bigger ferries, the smaller ones serving more minor routes are in a bad way too.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

They were speced to a stupid design using long / diesel which isnt standard diesel or diesel / electric that you would normally find this meant they were massively expensive and massively heavier so they couldn't fit the docks. Why they didn't buy some off the shelf sea cat type ferries for 1/4 of the price I don't know!!

Sea cats would struggle on the routes they run, I think. Routes too short, seas too bumpy.

Perhaps someone can comment on this?

 

[Brandane]

Mod Note: Thread Title amended.

Note to mod responsible - The Glen Sannox is a ship, not a boat!

 

[Jameshow]

Sea cats would struggle on the routes they run, I think. Routes too short, seas too bumpy.

Perhaps someone can comment on this?

I think it's more that sea cat type fast ferries cannot carry hgv loads, which traditional heavy ferries obviously do...

 

[Tenkaykev]

Sea cats would struggle on the routes they run, I think. Routes too short, seas too bumpy.

Perhaps someone can comment on this?

We used to have a Cat on the Poole Cherbourg route, it was known colloquially as " The Vomit Comet "

 

[Baldy]

Not sure you'd get the cat ferries on the docks/car ramps.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

The Chat Jury has spoken and we need trad boaty ferries, clearly

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Not sure you'd get the cat ferries on the docks/car ramps.

Are there a lot of cats crossing to / from Arran?

 

[Baldy]

Are there a lot of cats crossing to / from Arran?

No, but they've been using hired cats on other routes.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I've just searched pussies for hire. My wife wants an explanation.

 

[Dogtrousers]

We used to have a Cat on the Poole Cherbourg route, it was known colloquially as " The Vomit Comet "

I went on that just once. I remember there was a spiral car ramp that the car in front of me got temporarily stuck in somehow. Then there were children vomiting everywhere, just all over the place. Here a vomiting child, there a vomiting child. I wasn't actually sick but felt pretty horrible. I never chose it again.

 

[Brandane]

By "cat ferries", are we talking about catamarans?
If so, there has been one operating on the Troon/Arran route for about a year now. CalMac chartered m.v. Alfred from Pentland ferries to provide the service, due to the late delivery of new ferries and one of the regular ferries (Caledonian Isles) needing extensive repairs which are still on-going.
By all reports, m.v. Alfred has done a good job on this route. And it is perfectly capable of carrying HGV's in the same way as any other ferry.

 

[BoldonLad]

They were speced to a stupid design using long / diesel which isnt standard diesel or diesel / electric that you would normally find this meant they were massively expensive and massively heavier so they couldn't fit the docks. Why they didn't buy some off the shelf sea cat type ferries for 1/4 of the price I don't know!!

It may be the same thing, with a different name, but, I thought the vessel was going have a Deisel/LNG hybrid Power Plant?

 

[Drago]

By "cat ferries", are we talking about catamarans?
If so, there has been one operating on the Troon/Arran route for about a year now. CalMac chartered m.v. Alfred from Pentland ferries to provide the service, due to the late delivery of new ferries and one of the regular ferries (Caledonian Isles) needing extensive repairs which are still on-going.
By all reports, m.v. Alfred has done a good job on this route. And it is perfectly capable of carrying HGV's in the same way as any other ferry.

View attachment 759055

Ooh, I like that. The speed stripe makes it look racy.

 

[Time Waster]

Note to mod responsible - The Glen Sannox is a ship, not a boat!

A ship is anything about 80gross tons, 150 GT or 500 tonnes or a sailing vessel with three masts depending on source for the distinction.

Of course submarines are always called boats irrespective of their weight. If you have ever stood next to a submarine like the RN sails then they are big things, even the smaller classes (hunter killers as opposed to the hide under the water ready to destroy the world omes). That is apparently due to early subs were always small and a few man at most.

There is a saying that any boat or ship can go underwater but only subs can come up again!!l Calling the Calmac ferries boats, is that freudian slip about their seaworthiness?