Summer season forces Waverley to wave goodbye to Queen’s Jubilee

IT IS the world’s last sea-going paddle steamer and was earmarked to fly the flag for Scotland in a vast river pageant as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

But the famous Waverley looks set to miss this summer’s spectacular flotilla down the River Thames because the event clashes with its lucrative summer season.

Operators of the historic vessel said it was “unlikely” the Clyde-built boat would participate in the 1,000 boat tribute purely because of financial reasons.

Although a number of other Scottish ships will take part – including the Dim Riv, a replica Viking longship built for Shetland’s Up Helly Aa festival – the pageant on 3 June falls during the Waverley’s summer season, when it carries passengers on pleasure cruises along the Firth of Clyde.

The future of the Waverley has been in doubt for several years due to soaring operating costs, and those who run it have relied upon the generosity of donors to continue sailing.

With the pageant in London requiring crews to give up four days to plan and take part, the boat’s owners would miss out on significant income from day- trippers which will help keep it afloat.

A spokeswoman for the Waverley Steam Navigation Company said: “We have been invited, but it is unlikely we will be attending. Our timetabling is such that it makes it difficult. It is a commercial decision.”

Those charged with planning the grand river pageant, which will see the ships sail from Wandsworth to Tower Bridge – said they had anticipated that some vessels invited might not be able to take part.

A spokeswoman for the organisers said: “We appreciate that for some boats coming a long way, somebody getting ill – or for other reasons – they may not be able to take part but we expect few dropouts.

“We do have a reserve list to call upon. Only one in three boats that applied to take part were given a place.”

Details of the event prompted London mayor Boris Johnson to predict a “glorious” spectacle which would “perhaps be more exciting than the Olympics themselves”.

Pageant master Adrian Evans has promised it will be “a once-in-a-lifetime event, one that will reclaim the Thames as a royal route”.

An ongoing appeal for money for the Waverley saw Euromillions winner Chris Weir from Largs make an undisclosed donation. She and her husband Colin won £161 million last July.

Despite raising more than £140,000, ensuring the boat will fulfil its obligations for the coming season, the appeal is still short of the £350,000 target set by operators, and concerns remain for what will happen beyond 2012.

The ship, built in 1947 to replace the original Waverley, which sank off Dunkirk seven years earlier, carries 140,000 passengers on pleasure cruises around Britain every year and is particularly popular with communities who live on the banks of the Clyde.

The volunteer-run Dim Riv, built for 1980’s Up Helly Aa festival, will be crewed by 14 “Vikings” from the Shetland Islands, including two past Guiser Jarls – the lead character of each Up Helly Aa – and Neil Robertson, who will be the fire festival’s Guiser Jarl in 2015.