Turkey ferry NV Isle of Islay on track to be delivered by October
State-owned ferry procurer Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) confirmed that MV Isle of Islay remans scheduled to be delivered by October - meaning in theory it could be available for the summer timetable which ends on October 19.
That means that the ferry will have taken just less than three years to be complete, with work starting in October, 2022.
Meanwhile, the delivery of MV Glen Rosa - the second of Scotland's two ferry fiasco vessels, is running eight years late.
The latest in a long series of rescheduled delivery dates for the ship shows that it is due online sometime between April and June - next year.
That's over ten years after the first steel was cut on the Ferguson Marine vessel.
Glen Rosa and sister ship MV Glen Sannox were due online in the first half of 2018 when Ferguson Marine was under the control of tycoon Jim McColl, with both now due to serve Arran. The last estimates suggest the costs of delivery could more than five-fold from the original £97m cost.
A second set of sea trials for MV Isle of Islay have now been carried out by the Turkish shipyard Cemre Marin Endustri in Yalova, Turkey.
MV Glen Rosa (Image: George Munro) The trials took place in the Sea of Marmara from Wednesday, July 16 to Sunday, July 20 and were attended by staff from CMAL and CalMac
Included in the trials were the set-up and testing of the battery energy storage system (BESS), as well as the testing and optimisation of the power management system (PMS) and energy management system (EMS).
The vessel has returned to the Cemre Marin Endustri quayside, where she is undergoing further outfitting work with CMAL saying the vessel remains scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of this year.
It comes as it was confirmed that Ferguson Marine was "mitigating risks" over delivery of MV Glen Rosa while it is not expected to be ready for the start of the crucial summer timetable - next year.
Ferguson Marine, the nationalised Inverclyde shipyard firm at the centre of the fiasco, has Glen Rosa would be ready for passengers in the second quarter of 2026 - between April and June.
Read more from Martin Williams:
But the summer timetable for tourists and islanders alike is usually valid from the end of March.
A ferry user group official said: "It is fantastic to hear that one of many crucial lifeline ferries is finally going to be delivered after a lack of investment.
"We can but hope that the remaining issues with MV Glen Rosa can be ironed out sooner rather than later and hopefully bring to an end a dark chapter in the delivery of lifeline island services. The fact Turkey is deliver a ferry so quickly against the record of Ferguson Marine is an indictment on ferry procurement in Scotland and we can only hope that things can only get better."
CalMac ferry (Image: .) Islay is being built to hold 450 passengers and 107 cars, while Glen Rosa is designed for up to 852 passengers and 127 cars.
Jim Anderson, director of vessels at CMAL, said: 'The successful testing of the hybrid system [of MV Isle of Islay] marks a significant step forward in completing this new vessel for Islay and Jura.
'The team at Cemre have made good progress in the build programme for the vessel, and we continue to work closely with the shipyard as we move into the final stages of the build.'
MV Isle of Islay is the first of four ferries being built at the Turkish yard, and marks what Sottish Government-owned ferry owner and procurer Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) says is a "major milestone in its commitment to delivering new ferries to serve the Scottish islands".
MV Isle of Islay and sister ship MV Loch Indaal are being both being constructed for CalMac's Islay service.
Construction of the vessels got officially underway in October, 2022 after the £105m contract was controversially given to the Turkish shipyard.
CMAL has said that the new 310-foot vehicle passenger ferries will provide a combined 40% increase in vehicle and freight capacity on the Islay routes and "improving the overall resilience" of the wider fleet.
Past testing of Islay evaluated the vessel's performance at full load, including speed, stability, manoeuvrability, anchor deployment/recovery and endurance. The trials also established the effectiveness of the vessel's propulsion plant, automation and navigational systems.
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