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Stornoway, Lewis
Muirneag sails to Baltic Sea 31/10/11
The MV Isle of Arran (pictured above) is covering for the Stornoway freight ferry Muirneag for the next three weeks. The MV Muirneag sailed for drydock in Gydnia near Gdnask in Poland late on Saturday night.
In the Baltic Sea port she will undergo necessary work to keep her within safety requirements to continue regular freight sailings until she is taken off the Ullapool to Stornoway crossing in two years.
She has an unfair reputation of not being suited for rough weather crossings because she rarely ventures out in high winds or heavy seas.
However, the real reason is because of her extremely poor manoeuvrability when berthing
in port -
Though the ship is seaworthy in the open water she was never designed to carry such light loads as on her current run. The lack of heavier cargo lifts her bottom up and affects her ability to negotiate close quarters navigation and risks her crashing into the pier.
The Muirneag is not owned by Cal Mac but charted from Harrison Clyde, and managed by V Ships, until 2013.
In the future, a single, 25% larger, vessel would replace both the Muirneag and the Isle of Lewis on the route.
The new £49 million ship could constantly run across the Minch operating a three sailing weekday 24/7 schedule. A fourth sailing could be rostered at busy peak periods during the summer. She would be certified for 600 passengers.
Meanwhile, Western Isles ferry services were cancelled or disrupted due to gales later on Friday. The Braighe causeway on Point, Lewis, was shut for a period due to heavy seas breaking over it. Mechanical problems also caused a two hour delay to the MV Isle of Lewis on Sunday.