Ben-my-Chree’s loan to CalMac looks off after the Isle of Aaran Ferry Committee said her berthing trials were unsuccessful.
The committee is a consultative body made up of representatives from the community and business on Arran.
It said that “though we are awaiting the full report on those trials, we are keen to keep communities updated as quickly as possible” before adding that the were not as successful as CalMac had hoped.
It said: “Whilst the vessel berthed successfully at Brodick, we were at the very edge of the limits it was safe to operate to, and we’d be relying on completely benign conditions to berth.
“The vessel will head back to the Isle of Man. We will continue to explore any and all options to add resilience and capacity to the fleet. That includes looking for third-party charters, as we always do, though it is a very challenging market.
“The intention behind looking at MV Ben-My-Chree was to add resilience to the fleet, and were the trials successful we would have had the ability to redeploy the fleet and add capacity to both the Arran service and other parts of the network.”
Ben-my-Chree is heading back to Douglas and is due to arrive in the early hours of tomorrow.
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