Ferguson Marine GV's

PORT GLASGOW. Castle Road, Port Glasgow PA14 5NG.

GV of Ferguson Marine.

Ferguson Marine ferries for CalMac delayed yet again and now three times over budget.
Yet more delays to two CalMac ferries that could see them completed up to another three months late and cost three times over budget have been revealed by builder Ferguson Marine.

Shipyard chief executive David Tydeman told MSPs in a letter on Wednesday that the two ferries, which are five years late, would cost up to £209.6 million to complete compared to the previous estimate of up to £122m.

That would mean a total cost of around £300m, including some £83m previously spent, compared to the original contract of £97m.
A damning report into the fiasco by public spending watchdogs Audit Scotland in March had estimated the final cost would be at least £240m.
Mr Tydeman said the second ferry, known as hull 802, is not now expected to be handed over until the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previously scheduled timescale of between October and December 2023.

It is being built at the Port Glasgow yard for the Skye-Harris-North Uist triangle route.

Mr Tydeman also said in the update to the Scottish Parliament’s net zero, energy and transport committee that there was a “one to two month worst case slippage in final handover” of Glen Sannox, or 801 – the first vessel.

Mr Tydeman said the diversion of resources from 802 to Glen Sannox because of extra work required on the latter ferry had meant “structural completion” of 802 had moved from September to late November 2022.

He said “practical completion” was now forecast for the end of December 2023, which would delay its final dry docking to early 2024, with “associated trials and handover now planned for Q1 [January-March] 2024”.

Mr Tydeman said: “Whilst this move of the handover date for 802 from Q4 [October-December] 2023 into Q1 2024 is disappointing, we believe that our up-front efforts on much more robust planning of 802 and learning from 801 can present this change of dates as a positive, more professional approach, for a realistic and deliverable handover in time for the summer season 2024.”

He said construction of the ferry had been changed because of multiple problems with the way Glen Sannox had been built, including after the yard was taken over by the Scottish Government in 2019 following its collapse under the ownership of businessman Jim McColl.

He listed these as deficiencies in work planning, gaps in supplier information, inadequate rigour in stock control and material handling, gaps in design data and a “considerable amount of re-work through errors made as the business recovered from administration and mobilised through the pandemic”.

Glen Sannox, ordered for the main Arran route, is due to be finished between March and May next year, and Mr Tydeman said “the target remains for completion in April”.