Caledonian MacBrayne has confirmed that its new ferry for the WemyssBay to Rothesay route will be built in Gdansk in Poland.

Funding of up to £8.75million for the new ship was announced last October by Minister of Transport, Nicol Stephen MSP. The company has confirmed that, following a competitive tendering process, the ship will be built by the Remontowa Group in Gdansk. Representatives of the Group met CalMac executives in Gourock today (Monday, March 22) to sign the contract.

The Remontowa Group has a strong track record of building British ships and is currently engaged in work on two ships for Shetland.

CalMac Chairman Dr Harold Mills said: “The eight tenders received were very competitive and we believe that we have achieved an outcome which will give us a ship which will be well suited to its purpose. The Remontowa option was clearly the best in terms of value for money, reliability and delivery guarantees. This is an important step towards the development of a 21^st century ferry service for the island of Bute. The new ship will effectively bring the island closer to the mainland, connecting the two communities. With better access to the rail and road network, I hope that integration of services will lead to even more people using the route and we will obviously be working closely with the appropriate authorities to ensure that the shore infrastructure will match the first-class seagoing facilities.”

CalMac received tenders for the project from yards throughout Europe. Work will commence on the building of the new ship within the next few weeks and the ship is due for delivery in the Summer of 2005 to begin service on CalMac’s busiest route.

Tom McNeil, CalMac’s Technical Director, said: “Work now starts on the final detail of the ship’s form. I am delighted to confirm that she will have stabilisers and be propelled using an advanced version of Azimuthing Thrusters, enabling the ship-handlers to achieve high levels of manoeuvrability and control.  It is worth noting that only one yard out of the eight tenders received, based in England, offered to build the hull within the UK. CalMac is always pleased to be building new ships.

The Streakers have served us well but are now coming to the end of their working lives. The new ship will be ideally suited to commuter traffic and will be a very fitting replacement for the Streakers.”

Procuring the new ship will cost up to £8.75million and will carry approximately 60 cars (nearly twice as many cars as the 38 carried by Streakers currently operating on the route) and 450 passengers on CalMac’s busiest route, and is due to  enter service in 2005.

CalMac Managing Director Lawrie Sinclair also confirmed today that the Company will hold another meeting on Bute to detail the ship’s capabilities and performance once further work has been done on the design. He said: “It is important that everyone appreciates at the outset that there is a fixed budget for this project and that we have to achieve best value for money, while producing the most customer-friendly ship possible. I am very much looking forward to getting the project up and running and delighted to be starting the building process up again, so quickly after getting our two new ships into service last summer. We will go to Bute at the earliest suitable opportunity as we promised, when further work has been completed on the design, as we are aware that there were some people who did not get the chance to see the early proposals at our first meeting on the island. ”

Ends

Photographs of the contract signing ceremony at Gourock are available from CalMac.

Technical details of the new ship are available on a separate attachment.

For further information on the contents of this News Release, please contact Hugh Dan MacLennan, Public Affairs Manager, Caledonian MacBrayne. Tel: 0776 435 4021; e-mail hugh.maclennan@calmac.co.uk

Issued:  TBC          Monday, March 22, 2004  : 1600