Glen Sannox ferry completion was delayed because anchor not approved

Completion of the hugely-delayed CalMac ferry Glen Sannox was delayed because an anchor was not properly “signed off” during sea trials nine months ago, its builders admitted to MSPs on Tuesday.

Ferguson Marine interim chief executive John Petticrew also said “too much credence” had been given to the initial sea trials in February, which had not involved testing the vessel’s novel liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel system, whose complexity was the major latter delay to the vessel’s handover.

Glen Sannox moored at Inchgreen dock in Greenock on November 15 | John Devlin/The Scotsman

The ship, which will be CalMac’s second largest with space for 850 passengers and 127 cars, should have been finished six-and-a-half years ago.

However, it was only delivered on Thursday last week - a month after the last deadline passed. The ferry is not expected to enter service on the operator’s busiest route to Arran until January.

Mr Petticrew said one of the ferry’s anchors had not been passed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the regulator had agreed to approve a temporary fix while new parts were ordered.

The admission comes three weeks after Ferguson Marine repeatedly failed to respond to a claim from an industry source to The Scotsman that the yard would apply to have the ferry approved with some of its equipment not complete or working because parts were being ordered.

The problem came to light when the anchor failed a test at the start of the second phase of sea trials in October.

Mr Petticrew told the Scottish Parliament’s net zero, energy and transport committee: “The last delay was caused by the anchor not passing the relevant examination by MCA.” He said it involved a mechanism known as a gypsy that prevented the anchor from free falling.

Mr Petticrew said: “It was noted it [the examination] had been done in the February trials, but it turned out it hadn’t been done. The anchors had been lowered, but they hadn’t been signed off, so this promulgated us having to get new parts and pieces to do it.

“One of the anchors was slipping - we could get it down, but we weren’t sure we could get it back up again. We did modifications to that apparatus to make it work and a permanent solution is on its way in the coming weeks.”

Mr Petticrew said the temporary fix was “safe” and had been agreed by the MCA. He said: “It was very, very disappointing that in February it had not been signed off or it hadn’t been indicated that we had this issue.”

Mr Petticrew said installation of the LNG system, which will significantly cut emissions, had been the major part of the latest delays.

He said: “The complexity of the ship became more apparent as you went deeper into it and we gave too much credence to the sea trials in February, which was just a way of demonstrating one fuel system operating [traditional diesel].

“The other system [LNG] had not even been installed and we had complexities with that. The installation of it was far more complex than people thought.

“It took us a considerable amount of time to get the LNG finally passed, and the last piece took three, maybe four weeks. It was a minute bubble in one of the welds from the previous sub-contractor that hadn’t been looked at.”

He said things would have been easier “if we had installed the LNG in the proper timing”.

However, Mr Petticrew dismissed claims the massive delays to the ferry had been caused by it being complicated to build.

He said: “I don’t find it a particularly complex vessel, I just don’t think it was planned and designed properly. Fergusons was well capable of producing this vessel.

“We started before the design was finished. We started too early and we started both ships at the same time. If you don’t have a plan and a design, you’re doomed for failure.”

Much of the blame for this has been pointed at former owner Jim McColl, who won the contract in 2015 and has been accused of building parts in the wrong order to trigger payments, which then had to be redone.

The Port Glasgow yard went into administration in 2019 and was nationalised by the Scottish Government.

However, despite repeated questions by Scottish Labour MSP Monica Lennon, neither Mr Petticrew nor yard chairman Andrew Miller specifically confirmed that everything else on the vessel had been completed, just the MCA was happy with the ferry.

Mr Petticrew said he was “90 per cent” confident sister vessel Glen Rosa, which was also due to be finished in 2018, would be completed by its latest target of September next year. The ferry is also earmarked for the main Arran route to Brodick.

Glen Sannox at Inchgreen dock in Greenock on November 20 | Robert Perry

Earlier, Mr Miller revealed the yard had started to search for a new chief executive a year ago - four months before he sacked David Tydeman in March, whom he said had “lost the confidence of the board in his ability to forecast both timetabling and financially”.

He said Mr Tydeman had made some “not exactly accurate” statements, which had led to “letters of apology” being issued.

Committee convener Edward Mountain asked Mr Miller to provide written evidence of this.

It has been claimed Mr Tydeman was an “easy scapegoat” for delays to the ferries after tensions built up between him and Mr Miller.

Mr Miller said Mr Petticrew’s six-month contract from March had been extended to next Easter because the yard had failed to find a permanent replacement, with a chosen candidate withdrawing ten days ago after signing a contract.

Mr Mountain said of the ferries saga: “We all hope for a successful outcome, I’m just not sure that I can see it.”