Glen Sannox ferry to be pulled out of service for 'essential maintenance' as timeline revealed

The Glen Sannox ferry will be taken out of service for at least a week later this month for essential maintenance.

The start date for the works, first reported by The Scotsman, will fall little more than a month after the long-delayed vessel finally entered passenger service for the first time.

Glen Sannox arriving in Brodick on its first official passenger sailing on January 13 | John Devlin/The Scotsman

Operator CalMac said the vessel would travel to Inchgreen dry dock in Greenock on February 23, with maintenance works to start the following day.

The works would then be finished by Sunday, March 2. CalMac said the vessel should return to service on Monday, March 3.

Repairs will be carried out to Glen Sannox’s anchors. The fault with Glen Sannox’s anchors mechanism involves “gypsy” wheels, which are used to haul them from the seabed. The devices were found to have slipped during sea trials before the ship was completed by the Ferguson Marine shipyard in November and will now be replaced.

Several other minor remedial works will be carried out to make best use of the time in dock, CalMac said.

The Isle of Arran will cover Glen Sannox’s timetable for the duration of the repairs, sailing between Troon and Brodick.

A CalMac spokesperson said: “MV Glen Sannox’s performance since entering service has been first class. We’re delighted with how resilient she has proven, particularly when operating in weather conditions which have led to other services on the network being disrupted.

“We anticipate losing a number of return sailings to technical issues when any new vessel enters service, but MV Glen Sannox has outperformed our expectations.

“The need to carry out these repairs was highlighted prior to entering service, but the main thing is that we have a plan in place to maintain service levels whilst these works take place.

“Redeploying MV Isle of Arran to cover provides the capacity and frequency the community on Arran needs.”

Glen Sannox, which was ordered a decade ago, finally entered full passenger service last month after suffering a long series of setbacks and delays that left the vessel, along with sister ship Glen Rosa, costing some £400 million - around four times their original contract value.

John Devlin/The Scotsman

Scottish Labour transport spokesperson Claire Baker told The Scotsman last month over the repairs: "That this long-awaited ferry faces being taken out of service only weeks after it is launched is a huge blow to islanders when all they wanted for Christmas was a reliable transport service.

"The SNP have failed to support our lifeline ferries and now any repair, big or small, causes huge disruption."

The timeline for the maintenance works was revealed after a week in which confidence in the delivery of sister vessel Glen Rosa has plummeted.

Scottish Conservative MSP Graham Simpson said he had been told Glen Rosa’s completion could be delayed by a further six months until April 2026, which would make the ferry eight years late.

Ferguson Marine interim chief executive John Petticrew this week conceded there was a risk of further delay to the ferry, which should have been finished in July 2018, in answers given to a Holyrood committee.