Delivery of new CalMac ferry MV Glen Rosa put back to February

The expected handover date of the long-delayed CalMac ferry MV Glen Rosa has been put back by another two months until next February.

The dual-fuel ship being built by the state-owned Ferguson shipyard was expected to be ready by the end of the year, and had originally been due for delivery in 2018.

Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn said he had been told by the firm's boss that the yard could deliver the ship by the end of the year but officials had recommended a short delay to allow for the fitting of redesigned propellers.

Ferguson Marine is still assessing the impact on overall cost for the ship, already well over £200m which is more than four times the original contract price.

In a letter to Holyrood's transport committee, Flynn said: "Ferguson Marine has assured me that Glen Rosa can be delivered this year, however the handover will now be scheduled to take place in February 2027.

"This enables new propellers to be fitted and the ship's liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel systems to be filled and commissioned only once.

"Doing this work now avoids the need to recall the vessel later."

MV Glen Rosa and its identical sister vessel MV Glen Sannox are the first LNG-powered ships of their kind ever built in the UK, but construction has been blighted by design challenges and disputes over who is blame for the problems.

When Glen Sannox entered service on CalMac's Arran route in January 2025, nearly seven years later than expected, it quickly won praise from ferry users.

Two months later, however, a weld opened up near the stern of the ship, causing a small leak.

It was quickly fixed, but subsequent investigation concluded the underlying problem was excessive vibration when the ship was moving astern in harbour - which was itself linked to the design of the propellers.

These propellers, along with the ship's rudder, gearboxes and dual-fuel propulsion system, were all designed and supplied by the Finnish firm Wartsila.

Wartsila has spent months redesigning them, and new ones are expected to be fitted to Glen Sannox when it goes for its annual maintenance in December.

Glen Rosa is currently moored on the Clyde at Inchgreen for the final phase of construction but will have to enter dry dock before similar work can be carried out.

Flynn said the decision to put back the delivery date yet again was recommended to him by a multi-agency group comprising ferries procurement agency CMAL, ferries operator CalMac, Ferguson Marine and Transport Scotland.

He said there was an opportunity to fit the new propellers to MV Glen Rosa in January, by which time it would become clearer how the redesigned propeller blades were performing on Glen Sannox.

He said it had been agreed this made more sense than handing the ship over with the older propellers, then withdrawing it again in order to have new ones fitted at a later date.

Transport committee convener Willie Rennie, however, said new delays were "completely unacceptable".

He said: "When the Cabinet Secretary next appears before the committee on November 18, he will need to be fleet of foot in providing concrete answers as to why, under his tutelage, islanders must suffer the consequences of yet further delays and over the winter period too."

In a separate letter to the transport committee, Ferguson Marine confirmed it had yet to carry out builder's sea trials of MV Glen Rosa, which were expected to take place in October, but these were now scheduled for November.

Chief executive Graeme Thomson said this delay was due to a number of system issues that had been identified, which was a "normal part of commissioning a vessel of this complexity".

Thomson said the decision to fit the new propellers to the ship prior to handover amounted to "extra scope" and would take place in dry dock in late January.

He said that for safety reasons it was not possible for the ship to enter dry dock with LNG on board, so the commissioning of the LNG systems had also been put back until the work was complete.

Thomson said that once builder's sea trials were complete he would give the MSPs a "substantive update" on the outcome, the revised handover schedule and the "cost impact of the change".

Builder' sea trials are the first in a series of at-sea testing voyages of a ship, which are followed by owner's acceptance trials and a final regulator approval process.

Once delivered, CalMac will also want to conduct its own crew familiarisation and berthing trials before the ship begins carrying passengers.

The two ships were initially expected to cost £97m when they were ordered from the Port Glasgow firm in 2015 but the repeated delays and technical problems have resulted in a succession of large cost increases.

An extra £150m has been required to finish Glen Sannox, and the latest estimate for completion of Glen Rosa is £197.5m.

These figures are over and above the £83m paid out prior to nationalisation, and do not include £45m of written-down government loans to the shipyard.

Ministers have said the loans were were not directly related to the troubled ferries but that is disputed by the yard's former owner.

Last month, BBC Scotland News revealed that Glen Sannox had experienced a large and uncontrolled venting of flammable methane gas during its first year of operation, due to the failure of a valve which was part of Wartsila's engine system.

The ship has not operated on LNG since the incident, although CalMac says it is safe to do so following the fitting of an upgraded valve and monitoring equipment.