Hydraulics hitch leaves motorists stranded aboard island ferry

Published on Saturday 6 August 2011 13:32

A 20-MINUTE crossing turned into a six-hour ordeal for a dozen motorists after technical problems hit a Scottish ferry.

A hitch with the hydraulics meant the ramp on the MV Loch Ranza was jammed and unable to unload vehicles on the Gigha to Tayinloan sailing in Argyll and Bute on Friday evening.

While foot passengers were able to get on and off the boat as extra sailings were put on to clear the backlog, the motorists heading back to the mainland were unable to get their cars off as the ramp would not budge.

And people wanting to take their vehicles over to the seven-mile-long island were unable to do so, as they faced the long wait at the Tayinloan pier for engineers to arrive from Glasgow to fix the problem.

Ferry operators Caledonian MacBrayne said the hydraulic difficulties developed at around 5pm and were resolved by about 10.30pm, and added it was rare for the short-crossing boats to encounter such problems.

A spokesman explained: "These boats are normally very reliable. Everything was done to minimise the problems and extra sailings were put on after the ferry was fixed to clear the backlog."

One holidaymaker said: "Normally it is a hop-on, hop-off ferry, so it was a bit frustrating to be held up as we tried to get on the ferry. But I suppose it must have been worse for the motorists who had come from Gigha and could not get their cars off the boat. Their vehicles were going backwards and forwards from Gigha to Tayinloan during the evening for the foot passenger crossings.

"But to be fair to the staff, they did everything possible in the situation and we got there in the end."