HERE IS THE PROOF THAT THE GOVERNMENT WERE WARNED IN ADVANCE ABOUT THE IMPENDING FERRY FIASCO!

YOURS FOR SCOTLAND EXCLUSIVE.

Here is the letter that blows this whole fiasco apart. It is all a shambles but pay particular attention to the paragraph where the author of this letter questions whether the supply of wrong information was a mistake, or an intentional attempt to mislead. Certainly the protect the quango and protect the fees and charges for ”serving” seems hugely more important than getting the best ferry services for our islanders and protecting the public purse.

My view is this should be a resignation matter. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been squandered by these incompetents. Dr Stuart Ballantyne is a Scot, who is a world expert on Ferries and is the Chairman of Sea Transport Solutions, a company responsible for the design of over 100 ferries operating successfully in over 47 different administrations all over the World. He holds an Honorary Degree from the University of Strathclyde. Amazingly Dr Ballantyne did not receive even the courtesy of a reply.

Kate Forbes MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Finance
Dear Cabinet Secretary
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
25th February 2021

I wrote to your predecessor Derek Mackay MSP on 11 January to offer the services of Sea
Transport Solutions in resolving the requirement for the vessels 801 and 802 currently
partially built at Ferguson’s yard at Port Glasgow and in enabling the construction of modern efficient ferries to replace the aging and inefficient CMAL fleet operated byCaledonian Macbrayne.

In response I received a short reply from R Davie, Finance, Infrastructure and Sponsorship
Manager at Transport Scotland. In this he informed me that “Scottish Ministers remain
committed to the completion of vessels 801 and 802, the workforce at Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow Limited and the future of the yard”.

We at Sea Transport Solutions have been following recent hearings of the Rural Economy
and Connectivity Committee and are astonished at this decision bearing in mind the intrinsic unsuitability of these vessels for the services to which they are intended, the significant additional cost of bringing them into service and their anticipated extremely high operating costs thereafter. As they are unable to berth at existing terminals, 802 for example will I understand require an estimated £60 million in terminal investment which brings the additional cost of bringing this vessel into service to well in excess of £100 million, leaving aside the funds already spent and effectively lost. We can design and build ferries in a UK yard appropriate to Caledonian MacBrayne’s requirements to operate to existing terminals for less than a quarter of that sum while at least halving the operating cost per unit. There is no reason why such vessels could not be built on a production basis at Fergusons assuming efficient management.

Transport Scotland’s Finance, Infrastructure and Sponsorship Manager, R Davie, mentions
that decisions on vessel investment are taken in the context of the Vessel Replacement and
Deployment Plan (VRDP) and that should we retain an interest in any future procurement
opportunities, we should contact CMAL directly.

We have to say that, as we understand it, we believe that the VRDP in effect perpetuates the antiquated CalMac approach, but with bigger more costly ships of the 801/802 type, thereby actually further reducing the already poor performance of the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services. As regards CMAL, our experience in dealing with them over the last three decades has been disappointing and bewildering. Over the years we have been met either with blank incomprehension or a high handed attitude of “we know best”. That this is not the case can be illustrated by two examples.

We submitted a design to CMAL for a replacement ferry for the Arran service based on our
well-tested, fuel-efficient, highly manoeuvrable and cost effective catamaran format. We
were later to discover that a series of design options was presented by CMAL in which our 80 car, 762 passenger design was quoted as having a deadweight (i.e. payload) of 200t and a capacity for only four trucks. The actual deadweight of the vessel is >440t which is more than enough to cater for any load recorded as being carried on the route to date or indeed
anticipated in future.
It was also suggested by CMAL that our catamaran design would not fit existing terminals
(untrue) and that their sea-keeping would be inferior (also untrue). Our smaller Pentalina,
operated by Pentland Ferries, which incidentally frequently carried nine fully laden trailers,
has proven to be an excellent sea boat, regularly sailing in conditions that keep NorthLink’s
Hamnavoe stormbound in port. Hamnavoe is of a design not dissimilar to 801 and 802 and
incidentally emits some four times the CO2 per crossing as Pentalina and at some three times the operating cost.

Was the misquoting of deadweight a genuine mistake? If so an extremely serious one that it seems led to the commissioning of 801. Or was this a deliberate attempt to mislead? If so, an even more serious matter. The link is
:
https://issuu.com/idmorrison/docs/brodick_-public_meeting– _3rd_december_2012?viewMode=singlePage&fbclid=IwAR0pUDIY86s161oNI0I7DkX8ovJkQoF4u_Cg PwFlSmNOyoKSYea7QIpErQs

As a second example, CMAL’s three small 23 car hybrid diesel/battery electric ferries are
often quoted as examples of environmental good practice. In fact, in terms of litres of diesel consumed per car space per hour at between 3.89 and 4.13, they compare badly with Western Ferries efficient conventional diesel 40 car ferries quoted consumption at 1.83 litres per hour per car space and yet Western Ferries vessels at almost twice the capacity cost one third the build cost of the CMAL hybrids. Our 35 car design would compare at least as favourably in terms of cost and environmental credentials. We actually own and operate ferries and our own terminals so we practice what we preach.

I suggest that CMAL are not well placed at present to deal with the on-going matter of
replacing the current Clyde and Hebrides fleet. As CMAL do not own all the terminals to which CalMac operates. I see no reason why they need own all the ships.

One or more alternative ship owning entities could have the potential to provide a more cost effective ship leasing arrangement than that provided by CMAL and could bring new tonnage on stream both faster and for less capital and operating cost. We at Sea Transport Solutions would be more than happy to work in partnership to offer such a service and in so doing effect a step-change in productivity so as to markedly improve frequency and capacity of Clyde and Hebrides ferry services while significantly reducing the annual cost to the Scottish exchequer. The present system is a disgrace, likely to pull your Government down.

Our group has designed and enabled the building of over 100 state of the art ferries and other vessels now operating in some forty seven administrations worldwide. We are currently fulfilling a contract for twenty catamaran ferries for the Philippines. While we have found an enthusiastic welcome for our input in these administrations, I find it hard to understand why we have experienced thus far such a negative response in my native Scotland.

As a proud Scot, it distresses me that Scotland’s maritime capability has been reduced to such a shadow of its former standing. I have offered to make a contribution to reinstating Scotland as a world class ship designing, building and operating nation and would be happy to meet with you and such others as may be appropriate to discuss how this might be achieved.

Finally I wish you well in your new ministerial duties and if I may suggest, in the light of
be prudent to revisit your predecessor’s decision to continue with 801 and 802, but develop instead a future strategy for the yard in a competitive market, in which, if desired, Sea Transport Solutions could provide the design competence and experience.
You can phone me directly on xxxx xxxx xxxx
Yours faithfully

Dr Stuart Ballantyne
Chairman

MY COMMENTS

The Scottish Government and both CALMAC AND CMAL should all be looking to sack those responsible for selecting the wrong ships at huge unnecessary expense, with higher operating costs than necessary, then failing to deliver them on time and on cost. Worse they turned down the opportunity to build, under licence, up to fifty ferries, of a proven design, in cooperation with Dr Ballantyne that had the potential to renew the entire Scottish Ferry fleet for less money than what has been squandered on these two ships. Heads must roll!

I am, as always

Yours for Scotland

BEAT THE CENSORS.

Sadly some sites had given up on being pro Indy sites and have decided to become merely pro SNP sites where any criticism of the Party Leader or opposition to the latest policy extremes, results in censorship being applied. This, in the rather over optimistic belief that this will suppress public discussion on such topics. My regular readers have expertly worked out that by regularly sharing articles on this site defeats that censorship and makes it all rather pointless. I really do appreciate such support and free speech in Scotland is remaining unaffected by their juvenile censorship. Indeed it is has become a symptom of weakness and guilt. Quite encouraging really.

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