Anyone Interested in Ships

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, admiles said:

 

While I certainly don't condone what P&O/DP World have done, I'm not sure the company could have continued as it had been.  No easy solution there.

Very easy solution, if the company cannot operate profitably and has been bleeding out for years it needs to cease this operation. and if it is prepared to break employment laws in order to keep operating it's operating license should be removed to prevent it operating illegally.  If you can't run your business competently enough to make enough to keep it going, get out, sooner rather than later.

 

I suspect the current deplorable situation has evolved over a period during which the company's management has been so focussed on continuing in the hope of things improving because this is their mind set, and been bailed so often out by the owning company after successful pleas for cash, while of course pocketing their salaries and building their own personal wealth and pension funds at the expense of their workers and customers, that they work to the principle that this can go on forever and that if the sh*t hits the fan they can prolong the agony, and further develop those personal pension funds so that they can continue in comfort after it hits the fan (which, shamefully for the governement who issue the operating licence it hasn't, yet), for a further period by dumping their employees on to the labour market without a second thought, pleading that this is the only way they can carry on (when they should be stopped from carrying on, now!!!).

 

This is no help to the employees who have been unceremoniously and callously dismissed, but of course it should never have got to this stage in the first place anyway; had the operation been closed down earlier they might at least have been able to access severance pay!

 

Disgraceful even by the standards of shipowners; I will certainly never travel on one of theirs by choice again, and would urge any human being with a spark of decency in them to do the same.  I would hope that, when it is shown that the company has been acting illegally that individual directors and company officers are held to account and their bank accounts seized, idealy to be distributed amongst the workers.  The world doesn't work as it should, though, and I'm not holding my breath...

[KeithMacdonald]

Has P&O Ferries had a "Ratner moment"?

 

Quote

Today’s parliamentary hearing questioning P&O Ferries’ decision to sack 800 crew began with an abrupt question from Darren Jones MP, chair of the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee, to Hebblethwaite: “When I was reading your biography it seemed pretty light. Are we to assume you don’t know what you are doing or are you just a shameless criminal?”

 

Quote

Kristensen supported the beleaguered P&O boss: “We supported the decision that was taken. P&O Ferries has made unsustainable losses. The business was not viable. This model was chosen as the only route that was an alternative to liquidation.”

To this, Jones asked given the breach of employment law, “Are you going to sack Hebblethwaite for gross misconduct?”

 

 

Quote

Hebblethwaite said the company needed to fundamentally change its business model and it knew no union would have accepted the changes. “Did you ask them?” asked Jones. “No,” came the reply. “You can’t just absent yourself  from the UK legal system,” Andy McDonald MP told Hebblethwaite, “I’ve never heard such a farcical answer.”

 

Quote

 

The P&O boss went on to reveal that the workers would receive a minimum of £15,000 compensation with a maximum of about £170,000 being paid to very few crew members. By signing a settlement agreement the workers lost all rights to take further action, it was noted.

“These weren’t only UK nationals… these were international employees,” Hebblethwaite told MPs. “The previous model required us to have four crews on every ship on Dover-Calais. The new model requires us to have two crews and pay people when they work.” The average salary before the redundancies was £36,000, he said. The new model involved paying people between £5.15 and £6 per hour, he said.

 

 

Reputational damage

 

Quote

Simon Jupp MP asked Hebblethwaite what view P&O Ferries took of the reputational damage it had suffered. “In the minds of customers you are morally bankrupt. What have you done to the brand?” he asked. Hebblethwaite admitted the brand had “taken a hit” and that on some routes such as Dover-Calais there had been a lot of cancellations. But by making the redundancies to the Jersey-registered crews and moving to an agency crew model in line with many of the firm’s competitors, it had reduced costs by about half.

 

Quote

The question was raised over why French and Dutch employees were not made redundant. Hebblethwaite claimed not to know whether national or EU laws made these workers more difficult to sack but added that the vast majority of crew members were employed through Jersey. “This was about changing an uncompetitive crewing model concerning Jersey registered crew,” he added.

 

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/po-ferries-boss-questioned-by-mps-shameless-criminal/

 

Much the same in an account of his meeting with Scottish MPs

 

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/po-5-shocking-moments-peter-26582714

[Joseph_Pestell]

12 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Has P&O Ferries had a "Ratner moment"?

 

 

 

 

 

Reputational damage

 

 

 

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/po-ferries-boss-questioned-by-mps-shameless-criminal/

 

Much the same in an account of his meeting with Scottish MPs

 

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/po-5-shocking-moments-peter-26582714

 

I can't defend P&O's actions - not least because I have family in Dover, some of whom have worked for them.

 

But I found the conduct of the MPs on the Select Committee rather poor.

 

Since then I have learned that, as I already suspected, the roots of P&O's action is the arrival of Irish Ferries on Dover-Calais, with, you guessed it, an agency crew paid at lower rates.

 

Grant Shapps seems to have rather a lot of responsibility in all of this. With, if I recall correctly, 40% of EU/UK goods coming via Calais, this is an important issue that UK Govt really does need to get a grip on. Not to mention the 6 hour delays for cars this weekend..

[admiles]

17 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Very easy solution, if the company cannot operate profitably and has been bleeding out for years it needs to cease this operation. and if it is prepared to break employment laws in order to keep operating it's operating license should be removed to prevent it operating illegally.  If you can't run your business competently enough to make enough to keep it going, get out, sooner rather than later.

 

I suspect the current deplorable situation has evolved over a period during which the company's management has been so focussed on continuing in the hope of things improving because this is their mind set, and been bailed so often out by the owning company after successful pleas for cash, while of course pocketing their salaries and building their own personal wealth and pension funds at the expense of their workers and customers, that they work to the principle that this can go on forever and that if the sh*t hits the fan they can prolong the agony, and further develop those personal pension funds so that they can continue in comfort after it hits the fan (which, shamefully for the governement who issue the operating licence it hasn't, yet), for a further period by dumping their employees on to the labour market without a second thought, pleading that this is the only way they can carry on (when they should be stopped from carrying on, now!!!).

 

This is no help to the employees who have been unceremoniously and callously dismissed, but of course it should never have got to this stage in the first place anyway; had the operation been closed down earlier they might at least have been able to access severance pay!

 

Disgraceful even by the standards of shipowners; I will certainly never travel on one of theirs by choice again, and would urge any human being with a spark of decency in them to do the same.  I would hope that, when it is shown that the company has been acting illegally that individual directors and company officers are held to account and their bank accounts seized, idealy to be distributed amongst the workers.  The world doesn't work as it should, though, and I'm not holding my breath...

 

Can't find fault in any of that tbh apart from the possible exception that if enough people choose to boycott P&O Ferries bang go the jobs anyway.

 

So we have:

 

Scenario A) - Carry on as before with UK crews and the business goes down the tubes as it's fundamentally nonviable. UK crews lose their jobs 

 

Scenario B) - Bring in cheaper agency staff. UK crews lose their jobs and the possible resulting boycott by customers killing it off anyway.

 

Of course there's a possible (but very unlikely - Tory government) option C - Nationalize it due to the existence of the service being in the national interest? Plus they don't have a monopoly with DFDS and soon to be Irish Ferries on the Dover - Calais route.

 

Bit of a "cluster" all round really...

Edited April 5, 2022 by admiles
Do not type wordy forum posts with zero sleep the night before!

[Bon Accord]

40 minutes ago, admiles said:

 

Can't find fault in any of that tbh apart from the possible exception that if enough people choose to boycott P&O Ferries bang go the jobs anyway.

 

So we have:

 

Scenario A) - Carry on as before with UK crews and the business goes down the tubes as it's fundamentally nonviable. UK crews lose their jobs 

 

Scenario B) - Bring in cheaper agency staff. UK crews lose their jobs and the possible resulting boycott by customers killing it off anyway.

 

Of course there's a possible (but very unlikely - Tory government) option C - Nationalize it due to the existence of the service being in the national interest? Plus they don't have a monopoly with DFDS and soon to be Irish Ferries on the Dover - Calais route.

 

Bit of a "cluster" all round really...

 

Or Scenario C) - adopt legislation requiring all vessels operating in British waters to pay at the very least UK minimum wage so as to partially level the playing field. Additionally ensure all those operating solely on ferry runs to the continent adopt the salary scales of at least one of the countries of destination, i.e. on Dover-Calais the ships concerned can choose to pay either French or British wages.

The French and Belgians proposed a similar scheme some years ago to the EU and it received support across the EU membership, however the ever helpful British government used their veto to sink it because they're pathologically obsessed with shafting our own people to the altar of the free market economy.

[admiles]

3 minutes ago, Bon Accord said:

 

Or Scenario C) - adopt legislation requiring all vessels operating in British waters to pay at the very least UK minimum wage so as to partially level the playing field. Additionally ensure all those operating solely on ferry runs to the continent adopt the salary scales of at least one of the countries of destination, i.e. on Dover-Calais the ships concerned can choose to pay either French or British wages.

The French and Belgians proposed a similar scheme some years ago to the EU and it received support across the EU membership, however the ever helpful British government used their veto to sink it because they're pathologically obsessed with shafting our own people to the altar of the free market economy.

 

Seems like an excellent plan to me.........it'll never happen!

[johnofwessex]

Given our dependence on short sea ferries for both goods and passengers why dont we have a British Owned British Flag operator?

 

Better still a Nationalised one?

 

Bring back Sealink anyone?

[rockershovel]

28 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

Given our dependence on short sea ferries for both goods and passengers why dont we have a British Owned British Flag operator?

 

Better still a Nationalised one?

 

Bring back Sealink anyone?

For the same reason that "British Airways" aren't British owned, BAA were handed over to Spanish control .... our political class don't know how to actually run a business, but lack the common decency to leave the stage altogether. 

 

The current lot make much display of flag-wagging but might usefully reflect on the views of the PM's namesake, particularly as they relate to a figure of the time who would be PM in his turn. 

 

The windfarm sector, dear to the hearts of the current incumbent is dominated by Dutch and Belgian contractors, laying cable supplied by an Italian company (Prysmian, formerly BICC....) and controlled by German and Danish operators. Why? Because their countries possessed governments with the will and purpose to make it so. 

 

That's why we don't have a British-flag, British-controlled ferry operator in Dover. 

Edited April 9, 2022 by rockershovel

[Ron Ron Ron]

8 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

For the same reason that "British Airways" aren't British owned, BAA were handed over to Spanish control .... our political class don't know how to actually run a business, but lack the common decency to leave the stage altogether. 

Both BA and the former BAA (they’re a different company now), we’re fully British and entirely privately owned, with no government involvement whatsoever, prior to falling into the hands of majority, non-British ownership.

Their transfer in to “foreign ownership” has nothing to do with the politicians.

All you can pin on the political class, is their lack of desire to introduce restrictions on the non-UK ownership of private companies, that would have kept them and other large companies, majority British owned.

In a multi-national business world, that is becoming increasing difficult, but still doable.

 

[rockershovel]

43 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Both BA and the former BAA (they’re a different company now), we’re fully British and entirely privately owned, with no government involvement whatsoever, prior to falling into the hands of majority, non-British ownership.

Their transfer in to “foreign ownership” has nothing to do with the politicians.

All you can pin on the political class, is their lack of desire to introduce restrictions on the non-UK ownership of private companies, that would have kept them and other large companies, majority British owned.

In a multi-national business world, that is becoming increasing difficult, but still doable.

 

 

I humbly beg to differ. 

 

try doing business in Norway against Statoil or Norsk Hydro, in Denmark against Orsted (formerly ), in Holland against Allseas or DEME, in Belgium against DEME. If you haven't had enough by then, try doing business with Germany against Siemens, Krupp, Thyssen (however they are currently combined). Try doing business in Italy against FIAT, MV Agusta, ENI , in France against EDF ...... these countries have taken control of the emergent "renewables" sector precisely because they wished to make it happen. I recently visited a Polish fabrication yard which the government had nationalised precisely to keep it in operation, and its wages and training programes operational... they had a quite splendid painting and coating facility, brand new, government money. They make wind farm pylons....

 

Try looking into the history of BP, formerly British Petroleum and before that, the Anglo Iranian Oil Company. 

 

I've been told many times in my travels, that British industry cannot compete because of our "free market" obsessions, and the fact that we don't keep our financial people firmly locked up unless needed, where they belong. It's hard to disagree with people who are doing the business, and paying me at least twice what I'd earn at home. 

 

 

[duncan]

The same applies to a "tiny" country like Ireland !!!!

[Dava]

I had a birthday this week, yesterday we were able to join MV Sonning from Newark castle for her first sail of the season, on the river Trent to Farndon & return. Just 90 delightful minutes with the excitement of Newark town lock and turns both ways.

 

The Sonning was built in 1902 by Salters of Oxford as a classic Thames steam launch, now diesel powered but with elegant hull lines. How many still survive like this? Recommended. Www.rivertrip.co.uk

Dava

 

[SHMD]

Awful, just awful...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61209894

 

 

Kev.

 

[Bon Accord]

The ITF (and it seems RMT) boarded "Spirit of Britain" a few days ago in Dover, they then made a post on Facebook highlighting their findings and included a copy of the contracts the new crews are sailing under.

They're contracted to serve 17 weeks onboard (+/- 1 week) before they'd be eligible for repatriation home.

The basic monthly wage for the deck crew is $961USD, which works out to approx. £170 per week. That is a consolidated rate as they receive no pay when on leave.

They are contracted to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
There's no chance of even nipping ashore as turnaround times in port are approximately an hour.

 

In contrast, the previous mostly UK crew worked 1 week on/1 week off and were salaried.

ITF found the nationalities onboard to be as follows:

Officers
British
Polish
Romanian
Croatian
Russian
Latvian
Ukrainian

Ratings
Romanian
Georgian
Ukrainian
Latvian
Indian
Honduran
German
Bulgarian
Mauritius

 

Emergency drills must be entertaining with that many nationalities involved, with most using English as their 2nd language.

 

The "Spirit of Britain" indeed.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Bon Accord

[admiles]

19 hours ago, SHMD said:

Awful, just awful...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61209894

 

 

Kev.

 

 

Sadly nothing unusual in that. Had to reapply for my job three times in my career, every time at a lower salary. 

 

From the outside it looks as if P&O Ferries simply isn't a viable business any more and should be either sold or wound up.

[The Johnster]

I'd agree with that; if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen and make room for someone who can.  It looks to me like a combination of traffic not returning to pre-covid levels resuliting in overcapacity on the Straits of Dover, and poor, but optimistic, management over a considerable period previously, and now they are a bit desperate.  What I think the government needs to be wary of is bailouts, in the light of the Calmac debacle in Scotland.

 

As Calmac services are vital to the economy of Arran, Bute, and the Hebrides, as there is little alternative to them in those communities.  The Firth of Clyde islands have developed as Glasgow dormitories dependent on the ferries for a century and a half, and the demise of the puffers has meant dependency on Calmac for the outer isles as well.  Calmac seem to be wedded to the concept of traditional ships and fast ferries, cats and trimarans, might be more suitable for some of their services.  At least there are alterenatives on the Straits of Dover

 

The same may apply to the Straits of Dover services; fast ferries backed up by traditional ships for HGV customers have proven successful on  the Irish Sea routes, despite being prone to cancellation in foul weather.  Do traffic routing issues mitigate against them in the Straits?; the southern Irish Sea routes are not exactly devoid of conflicting traffic!

 

While on the subject of ferries, the idea of a fast trimaran Cardiff-Bristol service and a Swansea-Ilfracombe/West of England route has resurfaced.  I predict nothing will come of it but Swansea council see keen on the latter idea in conjunction in conjunction with their proposed tidal lagoon.  At least there would be water to float the ships at low tide on both sides if Ilfracombe is used, but the question arises of how to deal with disabled passengers at 'Combe, currently steps up a multi level landing stage.  It is not clear whether or not a vehicle ferry is being proposed, which would need construction of a vehicle ro-ro faciltiy at 'Combe, where there is not a vast amount of space for one.  I don't think the traffic warrants it; it's a long old schlep round via the Severn Bridge but the proposed ferry would need to be quite small, and the western end of the Bristol Channel is not noted for calm weather even in summer...

 

As for the Cardiff-Bristol trimaran, I think this is delusional.  The vessel would have to compete with motorway coaches and the Severn Tunnel, and the only competitive edge I can see that it might have is speed.  When you take into account the speed restriction in the Cardiff Bay lagoon, passage through the barrage sea locks, and negotiating the River Avon which is wiggly and narrow at low tide (a timetabled service has to run at all states of the tide, and on summer spring lows the Avon is not very impressive, though the mud banks are), then when you get to Bristol you need to berth at Hotwells at low tide, a good schlep from the city centre.  Bus and train are much quicker, probably cheaper, and having experienced the way small multihulls lurch about in a bit of a chop, more comfortable as well.  The landing stage at Hotwells would need rebuilding.

 

 

[KeithMacdonald]

13 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

While on the subject of ferries, the idea of a fast trimaran Cardiff-Bristol service and a Swansea-Ilfracombe/West of England route has resurfaced.  I predict nothing will come of it

 

I concur.

 

Quote

it was reported that Swansea Council was in talks with council officials in both Cornwall and Devon about a new hydrogen-powered ferry service linking Wales with the south west.

 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/new-ferry-service-could-link-6980655

 

That "hydrogen-powered" is a sure sign of wishful thinking. As in, would it not be viable any other way?

[KeithMacdonald]

Meanwhile, in Fowey ...
 

Quote

 

The 2022 cruise season at a Cornish harbour got underway in style this morning (Wednesday, April 20) with the arrival of a luxury expedition ship. Bringing hundreds of visitors to Fowey, the cruise ship Hanseatic Inspiration is stopping in the harbour as part of a 'circumnavigation of Western Europe' from Madeira to Hamburg. The newest of three expedition ships owned by Hapag-Lloyd, Hanseatic Inspiration is relatively small at just 139 metres in length and carrying a maximum of 230 passengers. However, what it lacks in size, it makes up for in luxury and adventure, with cruises to Antarctica, South America and the Arctic regions. Anchored in Fowey harbour for the day, the cruise ship is the first to visit the town this year, sailing from the Isles of Scilly overnight.

 

 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/luxury-expedition-cruise-ship-arrives-6973589

 

[KeithMacdonald]

51 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

At least there would be water to float the ships at low tide on both sides if Ilfracombe is used, but the question arises of how to deal with disabled passengers at 'Combe, currently steps up a multi level landing stage. 

 

A look at the Lundy island ferry gives a good view of the space available. Even a small ro-ro ferry would need new facilities, probably demanding part of the existing car-park space.

 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3644681

 

[The Johnster]

Oldenburg gives a pretty good impression of scale, with the pier behind her being capable of handling vessels the size of Waverley or Bristol Queen, over 250' long.  What this photo doesn't show, and might be difficult to envisage for those not familiar with the Bristol Channel, is that this is a high water shot, and a spring low might be pushing 40' lower than this.  Oldenburg takes advantage of high water to unload, as her derrick cannot be used at other stage of the tide.

 

The tide is of paramount importance in Bristol Channel sea operations, and prevents any regular timetable service being undertaken from anywhere other than Swansea breakwater and Ilfracombe pier; there is either no water or insufficient water for even shallow draught vessels at Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, Porthcawl, Mumbles or Tenby, or Bristol, Clevedon, even Weston-Super-Mare on spring lows at Birnbeck, Watchet, Minehead, Lundy, Bideford, or Padstow.  The time of high, and consequently low, tides progresses by around half an hour per tide, think of it as an hour a day, ish, so a pier where there is 25 feet of water at 09,00 on Monday morning might be unusable by 09.00 on Friday and be completely dry with the shoreline a hundred yards away.  Thus 'ferry' services in the Bristol Channel have never been possible, and passenger sailings have always been pleasure cruises, traditionally leaving 'up-Channel' piers or pontoons around high water and typically heading for a down-Channel pier on the ebb to shorten the passage and save fuel, where they can moor and perhaps dry out over low water, to return with the flood later in the day.  It may be possible to take in a shorter evening cruise such as Penarth-Bristol over the high tide. 

 

Back in the day, Campbell's ran a Cardiff-Weston 'ferry', calling at Penarth, which was the fastest way of travelling between those places, but despite everybody calling it the 'ferry;, it was not a ferry in the public transport sense running to a set timetable at regular times.  It was popular on Sundays in the days when Cardiff and Penarth were 'dry', as the bar opened as soon as the moorings were slipped.  You could have a drinkers' day out, on the steamer and in pubs in Weston, enlivened by the fraught dash to Birnbeck at the last minute if the tide had prevented the steamer using the Grand, followed by the sorry defeated inebriated schlep back to the station to go home the long, and expensive, way around.

 

Campbell's also tried a hovercraft to run a regular timetable ferry from Penarth to Weston in the early 60s (1963?), but there were complaints about the noise on both sides of the Channel, the vibration was horrible, and the thing was too small to carry an economic payload.  You could get from Rhoose to Lulsgate by air in about 10 minutes in those days, and if you could afford the air fare the taxis between airports and city centres wouldn't be likely to bother you; don't think many people did it for getting from Cardiff to Bristol, though, more popular as a joyride jaunt.

Edited April 25, 2022 by The Johnster

[KeithMacdonald]

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

As Calmac services are vital to the economy of Arran, Bute, and the Hebrides, as there is little alternative to them in those communities.  The Firth of Clyde islands have developed as Glasgow dormitories dependent on the ferries for a century and a half, and the demise of the puffers has meant dependency on Calmac for the outer isles as well.  Calmac seem to be wedded to the concept of traditional ships

 

My father-in-law was a Harbour Master in that part of the world, and had strong views on the way Calmac operated, and the way they "sweat the assets". I could try and repeat them here but the swearword filter would definitely get in the way. A much much more polite version has just been provided by BBC Scotland (23 April 2022).

 

Quote

 

The problem with CalMac's ageing ferries

 

The main Arran ferry is out of action again, putting Calmac's ageing fleet in the spotlight. Is Scotland's west coast ferry network fit for purpose? Most islands in the west of Scotland rely on services from state-owned Caledonian MacBrayne, which operates 34 vessels - the largest fleet in the UK. But the fleet has a problem - the pace of renewal has been slow and the ageing boats are developing more faults, leading to delays and cancellations.

 

How old is the CalMac ferry fleet? The average age of the CalMac ferries is almost 24 years and many of the large boats are even older. Of the 10 largest ferries, four are more than 30 years old and the MV Isle of Arran is 39.

 

 

Passing the buck, Calmac says it's not their fault, they're a public organisation, they only have what they're given ...

 

Quote

The Scottish government's Transport Scotland agency has long known it needs to renew the CalMac fleet - but those ambitions have foundered, in part at least, due to the Ferguson ferry fiasco. Back in 2012, a ferries plan included a programme of vessel replacement. Two years later tenders went out for two new large ships - one for the Arran route and the other destined for the "Uig triangle", serving Skye, North Uist and Harris. More than seven years later those ships, Glen Sannox and the as yet un-named hull 802, are still under construction at the now-nationalised Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow. The cost to the public purse has risen to 2.5 times the original £97m budget - and the first ship won't be handed over to CalMac until the spring of 2023 at the earliest, nearly five years late.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-61161932

 

You might say they could have got a perfectly usable ro-ro ferry at a fraction of the price elsewhere in Europe. i couldn't possibly comment.

 

The lifeline ferry deal that went adrift

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49042833

 

 

[Bon Accord]

Calmac are between a rock and a hard place as they don't own the ships or the piers, they're all owned (and built as required) etc by a third party whom they charter the assets from, that being CMAL a government quango.

In railway terms CMAL is basically the equivalent of the ROSCOs and Network Rail combined as one entity.

Calmac in contrast are merely the operators who run the franchise.

CMAL was setup because of the need to "tender" the Calmac franchise every 8 years, so a new body was setup for accountancy purposes so as to seperate the assets.

Prior to that Calmac was like BR in that everything was managed and owned "in house", e.g. the people running the ships and ports were the same people who specified the newbuild ships/ports and maintained the same.

Unfortunately, in the style of classic British management, this company (CMAL) which was setup simply as a box ticking exercise - and not intended to have any real power or influence - has become a monster in it's own right. Not only do they act as if they're a real bona fide shipping company, but they're constantly trying to extend their influence/interference into Calmac's day to day operations. For an example of that attitude have a look at their website and take note of the type of language they use to describe 'their' assets.

There is huge seasonal variation in traffic on most Calmac routes, e.g. rammed full in high summer but with many running near empty in the winter. It would not be cost effective to have enough capacity to carry everything in the summer as you'd then have (expensive) wasted assets lying around all winter haemorrhaging money.

Fast ferries are expensive to run and to be most efficient they need to spend as much of their time as possible at speed. On most Calmac routes this would be difficult because a certain portion of the voyage always occurs in sheltered waters where there are speed limits or restrictions on wash.

Fast ferries (be they cats or otherwise) also do not like bad weather, so they'd be little use in the winter months and if they were used would be very much route specific, which restricts operational flexibility in the network sense.

Put all that together and the simple fact is that it's impossible to build an ideal Calmac ship - there are simply too many variables to consider. The inevitable result is a vessel which has to be a jack of all trades but isn't really outstanding at any one, it also means they'll be more expensive to build and run compared to a ship built only for a specific route or ports, i.e. a one trick pony.

Calmac ports are a mixed bag in terms of age and facilities. Ownership is split between CMAL, various local councils and a number of different harbour authorities or trusts. Most of the ports are historical in terms of geography and do not exist solely for use of the ferry, they're used by fishing vessels, pleasure craft and even cruise ships. Some of them are quite literally the same old wooden Victorian piers originally used by much smaller steamers a century ago albeit much modified over the years.

Standardisation of port facilities within the Calmac empire - something which would be a game changer with regard to building and operating their ships - would be monstrously expensive and time consuming to achieve, that is assuming you could get the many stakeholders to agree to the plan in the first instance.

To sort out the piers and ships so as to provide standardisation, interoperability and the efficiencies that creates you're looking at not a lot shy of a £1 Billion.

You might say that if that's what needs to be done from an entirely logic based perspective then get on with it, and whilst it's a lot of money it is a seriously long term investment paid back over several generations.

However, then factor into your reasoning that the population of all the West Coast islands put together only comes to 40 odd thousand people.

Then ask yourself that if you were a politician and had a billion quid to spend, how many folk on the mainland could you benefit with that money in the short to medium term by building schools, hospitals etc and other big ticket, big PR "quick win" items? The answer is potentially millions of people.

So the choice is spend the cash on a few windswept albeit picturesque rocks on the west coast, or achieve political immortality by building a new super hospital in a city?

No prizes for guessing where the priorities are.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Bon Accord

[pH]

Black Ball Lines’ MV ‘Coho’ arriving in Victoria BC from Port Angeles, Washington State. Rather unusually, loads cars through the door in the starboard side. Built for this run in 1959.

 

 

[admiles]

18 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Meanwhile, in Fowey ...
 

 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/luxury-expedition-cruise-ship-arrives-6973589

 

 

I still qualify for a 10% discount on any Hapag-Lloyd cruise or flight despite not having worked for them for well over 20 years! They were a superb company to work for and I still miss my days there. 

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, pH said:

Black Ball Lines’ MV ‘Coho’ arriving in Victoria BC from Port Angeles, Washington State. Rather unusually, loads cars through the door in the starboard side. Built for this run in 1959.

 

 

Built back when ships (and other things) had pleasing designs as part of the build.