Clyde launch amid problem beset contract

The second of two dual-fuel sisters ordered from Ferguson Marine Engineering by Caledonian Maritime Assets(CMAL), the vessel will be deployed on the Caledonian MacBrayne(CalMac) west of Scotland network.

The newbuild’s despatch down the Port Glasgow yard’s slipway on April 9, following recent sea trials with first-of-class Glen Sannox, is seen as a milestone in a programme that has been fraught with well-publicised problems since the contract was signed in 2015.

Glen Rosa will have a maximum capacity for 852 passengers plus at least 127 cars or 16 heavy goods vehicles, or various combinations. The design features a twin-screw, dual-fuel mechanical driveline powered by two six-cylinder Wartsila 34DF main engines, capable of operating on either LNG or conventional diesel fuels. Auxiliary power is provided by a pair of six-cylinder Wartsila 20DF engines.

The fact that the ships are already six years late and three times over-budget in relation to the original combined price of £97m could well prejudice the yard’s efforts to attract new work.

The debacle is widely attributed to Scottish political play, changes in specification and shortcomings in project management over an unprecedented timespan, which has also encompassed the Covid-19 period. After its financial collapse in 2019 amid soaring costs and delays to the construction of the two ferries, the shipbuilder was nationalised by the Scottish Government, which also owns CMAL.

There are currently no further newbuilds on order beyond the Glen Rosa, which is expected to be completed by September 2025.

Ferguson Marine, though, has shown its technical mettle in previous years by building three 44m, mould-breaking, hybrid diesel-electric ferries, delivered into CalMac employ between 2013 and 2015. Moreover, the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, the first-ever  vessels to have been ordered in the UK with LNG dual-fuel main machinery, blend technological complexity with a design tailored to exacting duty in Scotland’s west coast and Hebridean waters.

During the course of the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa build programme, CMAL has ordered four 95m ro-pax ferries in Turkey. Ferguson Marine failed to make the shortlist at the outset, and the contract award overseas, made in two tranches with Cemre Marin, eclipsed the central government’s aspirations for the industry as expressed in the UK National Shipbuilding Strategy. CMAL  is now planning to embark on the replacement of multiple smaller ferries over the next 10 years.