New Stornoway ferry launch

Contact newsdesk on: info@hebridesnews.co.uk

New Stornoway ferry is launched 21/3/14

Photo shows the new ferry immediately after entering the water. The ship which presently has no power of her own is being pulled by tugs to a fitting-out berth.

The new £42 million Stornoway ferry, MV Loch Seaforth, has been launched in Germany.

The 116 metre long vessel was officially named by her godmother Joan Murray - the eldest daughter of the late Captain John Smith, of the last MV Loch Seaforth which was the MacBrayne mailboat that linked Stornoway with Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh from 1947 until 1972.

A bottle of malt whisky was smashed against her bulbous bow and the yard’s whistle blared out as the ship - painted in Cal Mac’s colours - glided down the slipway out of the covered building hall and into the water in Flensburger fjord.

Tugs halted her momentum in the sea. They towed and nudged her to her new berth at the fitting-out quay where her pre-fabricated upper deck superstructure will be put in place.

Decks 5,6 and 7 for the ship are being manufactured at a shipyard in Gdansk and are being shipped into Germany for final assembly.

Work on completing the vessel will continue over the coming months.

Her engines will be fitted later and outfitting will now begin, followed by harbour and sea trials before the vessel is completed in late summer.

A specially labelled version of Gordon and McPhail single malt whisky was produced to mark the launch of the ferry, a bottle of which was smashed against the vessel to officially launch it.

The new vessel will operate between Stornoway and Ullapool and has significantly greater capacity than the previous ship.