Caledonian Isles’ repairs extended to mid-November

The vessel, which has been out of service since January this year, experienced further mechanical difficulty on its anticipated first day of returning to service last month and is now expected to undergo further repairs which are expected to take more than a month to complete.

A CalMac spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, MV Caledonian Isles may be out of service until mid-November. We have identified that the clutch outer sleeve in the port gearbox is damaged and must be replaced. Spares have been ordered but they are on a long lead time and we’re looking at alternative options to replace the damaged parts. We have also identified the need for repairs to the starboard stern tube.”

Duncan Mackison, CalMac’s interim chief executive officer, said: “We did anticipate a difficult winter, with our major vessels spending a record number of days in annual maintenance, and it is shaping up to be just that. The combination of MV Caledonian Isles’ ongoing technical issues and the start of this year’s maintenance window has created a perfect storm for ferry services.

“We have a baseline deployment plan for the winter timetable period which allows for MV Caledonian Isles being in service. Now, we are likely to have to regularly review where vessels are deployed to try and maintain services across the whole west coast.

“Our priority is to keep communities on the network informed of our plans and meet service demands wherever we can. However, it is in inevitable there will be some disruption and on behalf of CalMac I apologise for that.

“I know this will be disappointing news for local people and many of my colleagues, who live and work in these communities, share in that disappointment. We are doing everything in our gift to provide certainty to people who rely on us to travel and to add resilience to services wherever possible.”

If the vessel returns to service in mid-November, it will still need to depart for its annual overhaul between January 6 and February 3 2025. CalMac has said it will try to complete some of the work during the current repair period, however, the vessel will still require a period in dock in the new year.

The absence of the vessel, which is one of the largest in the fleet, has coincided with the start of this year’s annual maintenance schedule for all the ferry operator’s vessels. CalMac has extended a temporary deployment plan until Sunday October 20, which is the end of the summer timetable period. Future deployment plans will be announced by Thursday October 17.

A comment from CalMac’s Clyde area operations manager Donna Lockhart hinted at further disruption this winter.

Ms Lockhart said: “As the situation with MV Caledonian Isles progresses, and other major vessels enter and exit annual maintenance, there is likely to be a need for regular changes to vessel deployment. Our aim is to keep you and other communities well-informed, to maintain services wherever possible and to ensure that any deployment plans are shared with an appropriate level of notice. We will continue to use our route prioritisation matrix and to engage with you and other local stakeholders throughout winter.”