Turkish delight beckons for island ferry 25/9/13
The former Stornoway freight vessel MV Muirneag has been sold to Turkey. The ship
which was priced at £600,000 is expected to depart the islands for good within days.
A Turkish crew is arriving in Stornoway for a familiarisation and change-over before
sailing her out of the country.
The ageing Muirneag was forced to stop the Ullapool run because crucial safety certifications
lapse next month.
In 2011 she underwent a drydock in Poland to keep her within safety requirements
until now but her owners, Harrison Clyde, were not willing to risk spending further
hefty sums to upgrade her for a special survey because of her age and condition.
Her freight charter with Cal Mac ran out on Saturday and she has been replaced by
Seatruck’s MV Clipper Ranger.
Cal Mac had considered doubling up the daytime passenger ferry, MV Isle of Lewis,
for the night run but this would have created severe capacity constraints and posed
significant health and safety issues.
The Muirneag was unfairly nicknamed the Olympic Flame - because she supposedly never
went out of port if the wind blew up.
In reality, she could ably handle rough weather crossings and has even coped with
Baltic Sea storms - but has poor manoeuvrability when berthing in port under the
light loads 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.
She regularly proved her worth when the MV Isle of Lewis broke down leaving a backlog
of traffic. The Muirneag would easily transport the Isle of Lewis’s bookings of vans
and trucks, freeing up valuable space and preventing further delays for cars.
Parcels and catalogue orders well as supermarket goods got over the Minch on time
for same-day delivery to Lewis and Harris.
The Muirneag is not owned by Cal Mac but has been on charter from for the past 11
years. She is presently managed by V Ships.
Built in Denmark in 1979, she was first known as the MV Mercandian Carrier as she
operated around Scandanavia.
She was renamed twice before being sold to P&O in the mid-1980s for the Irish Sea
and her then new name, the Belard is also etched on the bell. P&O were impressed
with her full load manoeuvrability and kept her for 17 years until she was sold to
the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company.
Between 1998 and 2002 she had two other owners who operated her on various routes
in North Sea and the Baltic. Harrison Clyde then bought her for charter to Cal Mac
for the Stornoway haulage run.
The Muirneag was not the first ship on the freight run. For countless years, Cal
Mac did not take up hauliers demands for an overnight ferry. Then, under European
subsidy rules it was helpless to challenge a rival private operator which started
the 117 metre long MV Taygran Trader on the route in June 2001.
However, Cal Mac took swift advantage of the Taygran Trader absence in September
that year and installed the MV Isle of Arran on the route for a period. Then MV Hascosay
from the former Northlink operated for a while before the Muinreag became the permanent
vessel.