AND HERE IS THE NEW OFFER TO SOLVE THE FERRY CRISIS…LATEST!
The Ferry Crisis Development Proposal
Our group (Clyde Catamaran Group) led by Dr Stuart Ballantyne, Professor Alf Baird, Peter Breslin of Govan Drydock, Robert Buirds of Save Inchgreen Drydock Campaign, and Ken McArthur of Marine Capital Corp, has offered Scottish Government Ministers a solution to resolve the current crisis affecting our Scottish Ferry Fleet which would involve: –
- Build a new ferry fleet (based on the safest and most environmentally efficient vessels, and well proven designs)
- Save the taxpayer millions (and over a £billion in the long run)
- Increase sailings, capacity, and service frequency/reliability
- Reinvigorate Scottish commercial shipbuilding.
- Create hundreds of skilled jobs and apprenticeships (a dedicated shipbuilding training centre)
Build a new ferry fleet
Stuart will provide the licence for his proven catamaran design which will form the basic vessel design for most of the Scottish ferry fleet encompassing all ship sizes/capacities required. This will replace the CMAL one-off designs (prototype ship) which has been a major flaw in ferry strategy for building the new fleet. One-off design is more expensive as you are starting from scratch which takes added time and money and requires new ship worthiness certification for each new ship.
Stuart’s proven designs remove the time it takes to approve design, planning and certification saving time and money. Proven and more efficient designs also take much less time to build and avoids uncertainties and problems in the shipyard associated with unique unproven prototype construction, which results in added cost and delay, and runs the risk of catastrophic failure as we have seen with the two unfinished CMAL ferries at Port Glasgow.
