42 year-old drama teacher Rosemary Fletcher, from Port Askaig in Islay, Continue reading
Tag Archives: Port Askaig
Islay High School drama teacher sues Argyll & Bute Council
A drama teacher at Islay High School in Bowmore is claiming Continue reading
The Ileach breaks big story on new Islay ferry incompatability with existing ports
The Ileach, Islay’s cracking newspaper whose jourmalism is after our own heart, broke a major story in its last issue. (The latest is due out at the end of this week.)
The paper has been systematically pursuing a serious omission in strategic forethought in CMAL’s commissioning of its new, larger, £21 million Islay ferry – like whether it can actually dock at and use existing facilities at the ports for the route.
The Ileach was well informed that there was a problem and raised the issue with CMAL, The company’s first response was to say that it, at Port Ellen and Kennacraig, it proposed ‘to instigate a modernisation programme to precede the delivery of the new ferry in 2011′ - with the comforting qualification: ‘Whilst the existing infrastructure on Islay and the mainland will accommodate the new ferry’.
The Ileach then enquired whether the developments at the mainland port of Kenacraig and the Islay port of Port Ellen would be simultaneous or consecutive. A good question – there would be little value in having port facilities enabling, say, a ferry to depart from the mainland but unable to get into Port Ellen.
CMAL’s reply was that: ‘the new vessel will be able to use the existing ports as they are at present, however this is not ideal and some minor modifications are being developed’.
The Ileach’s research continued and on 23rd February they told CMAL: ‘We are being told that significant work will have to take place to modify the new linkspan at Port Askaig (Editor’s Note: this linkspan has been installed quite recently as part of a major re-engineering of the harbour facilities at Port Askaig, a contract which has been attended by long term and serious difficulties for the operation of the small car ferry over to Jura) and that this work has been costed at approx £500,000′.
The newspaper said that it understood that: ‘works costing a similar amount will need to be carried out at Kennacraig … and that (the ferry) will not be able to operate from the present Port Ellen infrastructure at all – and that serious redevelopment costing at least £10 million will be required’.
The profound concern for Islay is that, as The Ileach went on to stress to CMAL, if its information is correct: ‘this would mean the de facto closure of of Port Ellen as a ferry port when the new Islay ferry commences operations? Certainly for years, if not for good?’
The company’s reply, following a long paragraph of the sort of self-justifying ‘corporate speak’ that degrades language, was: ‘With the design of the new Islay vessel now finalised and construction underway, detailed design work is currently ongoing in respect of the associated pier and harbour infrastructure. The new vessel will be able to be berthed safely and securely at the recently completed Port Askaig facility. The new vessel can also be accommodated at the existing Kennacraig facility. At Port Ellen, detailed examination has revealed that passengers and vehicles could not be accommodated in its current form.
‘CMAL will continue to work very hard to consider how best to develop improvement works at Port Ellen and Kennacraig.’
CMAL say it is holding public meetings at Port Ellen and at Tarbert on the mainland on 10th and 11th March: ‘where we hope to feedback from the public consultation and detail our preferred construction timetable subject to funding’. Whatever that means.
The Ileach’s persistent enquiries have clearly forced into the open a serious problem for the development of ferry transort to and from Islay. This is local journalism at its very best. You can subscribe to The Ileach online and, wherever you are in the world, you will be emailed a link to download a pdf file of the latest issue.
Alexander Robertson & Sons, America’s Cup Yachtbuilders at Sandbank on the Holy Loch near Dunoon
A big player in Argyll’s nautical history was the boatbuilding business at Sandbank on the Holy Loch north of Dunoon which was run by Alexander Robertson and his sons.
Robertson’s parents (his father was a fisherman from the Isle of Skye) moved from Inverkip, where he was born, to Sandbank to take over the Post Office there. Young Alexander was apprenticed as a boatbuilder in Dunoon then in Govan.
In 1876, when he was 25, he began building small wooden boats at his Sandbank workshop, in partnership with Daniel Kerr. Two years later that partnership broke up but Robertson went on to expand the business in bigger premises. He was still Chairman of the company in 1935, two years before he died.
He started by designing himself but later employed many of the leading designers of the day to work on, for example, the 12 metre and 15 metre racing yachts which made the firm its name. The business was obviously a major employer in the area – particularly in its heyday in the early 1900s.
Naturally he was a multi-tasking bigwig in Cowal and in Argyll – representing Cowal on Argyll County Council; being a Parish Councillor; appointed as a Justice of the Peace; being a member of the local School Board; acting as director of Dunoon District Cottage Hospital and being on the Board of Management of the Parish Church.
The company built the first 15 metre racing yacht – the Shimna, in 1907, designed by the famous William Fife.
It built over 55 boats in Britain’s preparations for the First World War. It managed to stay in business during the Great Depression of the mid-1930s as rich businessmen went in for a bout of highly conspicuous consumption by building and racing yachts on the Clyde. (Yacht racing is fairly, if modestly, described as ‘standing in a shower tearing up £100 notes.).
Between the wars, as well as racing yachts for the depressions-proof, the company built lifeboats. It got its first RNLI lifeboat order in 1935. This was for the Charlotte Elizabeth, the first motor-powered lifeboat launched in Scotland, later stationed at Port Askaig, in Argyll’s Isle of Islay. Robertson’s built and maintained ten more lifeboats and also built a series of tenders to service larger boats being built further up the Clyde.
It was during this period that Robertson’s built the Ron, later renamed Ron of Argyll on which For Argyll has published a companion article to this one. Ron was – and is – a 15 metre ketch designed by J A McCallum in 1928. She was followed by Southern Cross – an interesting coincidence, given where Ron of Argyll is currently sailing. Southern Cross was a 16 metre ketch designed by Alfred Mylne in 1930
In the Second World War the yard built a range of the large and fast Fairmile Marine Motor Boats for the Admiralty. These included Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) and Motor Gun Boats (MGBs), both renamed after the war as ‘fast patrol boats’.
After this war, the company had success in building the one-class Loch Long boats – 6.4metre, 2-man keelboats. Cove Sailing Club on the shores of Loch Long on the Rosneath peninsula describes itself as ‘the home of the Loch Long one-design’. Interestingly, there is a fleet of these still racing in Aldeburgh in Suffolk and there is a class association website, run by Cove Sailing Club, for more information.
As well as this class of boat, Robertson’s were selected to build two of Britain’s 12 metre challengers for the America’s Cup: Sceptre in 1958 and Sovereign in 1964, both designed by David Boyd. Neither won. Sceptre lost to Columbia and Sovereign lost to Constellation.
Business began to slow markedly after this time and the yard spent its time building fast launches for the RAF. They also took on fixed price contracts for two 63′ General Service Mk 1 Pinnaces. These contracts were effectively the end of Robertson’s. Delays, design changes and rising materials costs saw the business in the sort of financial difficulties described as being ‘between a rock and a hard place’.
The Robertson Family sold the yard in 1965.
The footnote is that it became a subsidiary of Glasgow’s Auchinleck Investment Company who built there a wide range of fibreglass (GRP) boats there – like Pipers, Ohlsons, Etchells and Pilot Launches – for 14 more years. They shut down in 1980, faced with rising costs of oil and resin – and tough competition from established GRP yards down south.
The buildings in the lower yard were pulled down in the late 1980s and the site was levelled for re-development. Now all that’s left is the slipway, although some of the classic boats built at the yard – like Ron of Argyll now in the Whitsundays – are still sailing in a wide variety of waters.
The photographs show Alexander Robertson (bearded) with his sons at the Sandbank yard and Alexander Robertson himself. Both are reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.
Islay Energy Trust partners Scottish Power Renewables in Sound of Islay tidal energy project
Islay Energy Trust has voted – at its AGM – to partner Scottish Power Renewables to progress the Sound of Islay Tidal Energy Project which theTrust has been working on for over a year.
Scottish Power’s Head of Renewables Policy, Alan Mortimer, addressed the Trust’s members at the AGM. He listed the reasons why the Sound of Islay is a first class potential source for tidal energy generation:
- it has a strong, consistent and reliable tidal flow
- its seabed geography is suitable
- it is relatively sheltered frm the prevailing south westerlies
- it has good port facilities to hand at Port Askaig
- it has power transmission cables
- it is relatively close to the heavily populated Central Belt with Scotland’s most concentrated energy needs
Philip Maxwell, Chair of Islay Energy Trust and Alan Mortimer signed a Memorandum of Understanding and the agreement is to submit more detailed plans for approval in September this year.
Scottish Power Renewables has an established relationship with Hammerfest Strom UK, the tidal energy technology designers. Its marine turbine – looking much like a wind turbine – was tested for four years in a Norwegian fjord without failure. The indications are that this device will be suitable for conditions in the Sound of Islay.
The thinking seems to be that an array of ten of Hammerfest Strom’s marine turbines would be be installed in the Sound at depths where they would not interfere with shipping regularly on passage through the Sound as well as into Port Askaig.
It is not yet clear where this agreement and this project leave the proposed feasibility study Islay Energy Trust was developing with Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University but we will report on that shortly.
Hammerfest Strom are also interested in the potential of the Pentland Firth and have been to Caithness for public consutations.
The photograph above, of the Sound of Islay looking across to the Paps of Jura, is reproduced here with the permission of the photographer, Ron Steenvoorden, who publishes the IslayInfo online tourist guide and the Islay Weblog community website. Both sites were winners in their categories in the ForArgyll Awards 2008.
12th January update: Weather disruption to roads & Argyll ferries
Roads: All Argyll roads are open. The approaches to the Erskine Bridge are still experiencing high winds.
Ferries: Ferry services are almost back to normal at the moment. Current disruptions are:
- Oban-Lismore: Sailings on this route are now suspended for technical reasons until further notice.
- Fionnphort-Iona: Essential repair work to the Iona slipway means that his service will be operating a restricted timetable until further notice. Sailings are as follows: Depart Fionnphort: 0845, 1215, 1445 and 1800. Depart Iona: 0900, 1230, 1500 and 1815.
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Bruichladdich – another Islay pier problem for Argyll & Bute Council
Sometimes you have to feel sorry for Argyll and Bute Council. It seems to have attracted a jinx on pier / slipway contracts. For Argyll has reported several times on the foreseeable and avoidable problems at the new Port Askaig Harbour development on Islay, with the slipway for the small ferry over to Feolin on Jura unusable for serious safety reasons.
Now the same Argyll island has been hit with a double whammy. The new, purpose-designed pier at Bruichladdich Distillery seems, according to Islay newspaper, The Ileach, not to be fit for the purpose. after all.
Its function was to enable Shell UK to deliver heavy fuel oil for the Islay distilleries by sea rather than by tanker on the roads. Shell forced the Council’s hand on the issue by threatening to stop tanker deliveries to the island if the pier extension wasn’t built. This pressure led to the new pier project that was scrambled through without some quite basic research being done beforehand, leaving the completed structure now of limited use.
The pier was designed to facilitate the docking of one particular ship, the oil tanker Keewhit. The built reality is that Keewhit can only dock there at high tide in specific weather conditions; and even then carrying only 600 tons of fuel – a percentage of its commercial capacity. Tanker delivery by road remains a necessity.
The project had faced local opposition when it was proposed. Objections centred around environmental issues and the lack of benefit to local fishing boats and leisure craft. Now the pier cannot even be used by the ship it was designed to facilitate.
To parahrase Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, to screw up one harbour development may be regarded as a misfortune; to screw up a second looks like carelessness.
Logic alone suggests that there is a need for the Council to examine the process by which its major engieering developments are researched, specified, tendered, costed, contracted and monitored. Something, somewhere would appear to be repeatedly going wrong in more than one of these areas. It has to be discoverable.
The final cost of the Port Askaig harbour development is also giving serious cause for concern. The project was initially costed at £5,500,000 but accordign to the Council’s Andrew Law, this figure was ‘was based on an outline idea and not detailed design’. Writing earlier this year, in February 2008, Mr Law went on to say that: ‘Current estimates are:
- Phase 1: £5,200,000
- Phase 2: £6,500,000 and
- Phase 3: £1,000,000
producing a cost of £12,700,000. The project is taking 9 years to complete’.
Worse, the contractors on the Port Askaig job, Carillion, completed the marine works very late. In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of public service contracts, where one would have expected it to be subject to a penalty, the company has now warned the Council that it is to claim for around £1.5 million more to cover the costs on its time overrun. These claims will be disputed by the Council.
The Scottish Government has introduced an advisory body of poachers turned gamekeepers – finance and industry specialists – to advise them on contracting public service projects. There’s no shame in copying a good idea.
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Weather disruption to Argyll Ferries 9th / 10th November
Because of the today’s weather (9th November), the following cancellations and disruptions are affecting Argyll ferries.
Oban – Coll – Tiree: The ship was unable to land at either Coll or Tiree this afternoon and so it turned at 15.00 and is making its way back to Oban. The next ferry to Coll and Tiree will be on Tuesday 11th at 06.45.
Oban – Lochboisdale – Castlebay: today’s sailing has been cancelled. The next sailing from Oban to Barra & Uist will be Tuesday 11th Nov at 15:30.
Wemys Bay – Rothesay: This service has been disrupted and ferries restarted at 16.00 in both directions.
Fionnphort – Iona: Sailings on this service were cancelled earlier and the service was to be reviewed later this afternoon. There seems to be no change at the moment. (17.30)
Kennacraig – Port Ellen – Kennacraig: Tonight’s 18.00 sailing tonight (9th November) from Kennacraig will go to Port Askaig on Islay and not to Port Ellen. This means that tomorrow morning (10th November) the 7.00 sailing to Kennacraig will leave from Port Askaig and not Port Ellen.
Renewed anger at failure of new £13m Islay ferry terminal
We have reported on several earlier occasions on the failed project building a new harbour and ferry terminal at Port Askaig on Islay. We have described the anger felt by residents of nearby island, Jura, at having a less capable ferry service than before and at being without access to airlifts in medical emergencies in the hours of darkness.
Without rehearsing again the facts of the case we would refer you to our previous reports – in chronological order:
- Long term threats to Jura ferry service from predicted faults at new Port Askaig slip
- New passenger ferry for Jura as car ferry from Port Askaig hit by ten year service reduction
- CalMac to the rescue of Jura’s air ambulance support
- Jura face-off meeting with Council over Port Askaig ferry disaster
- More problems at Islay’s Port Askaig pier as fishermen consider direct action
There is now renewed anger that work to remove boulders bocking the harbour cannot be completed until Carillion, the contractors, return to the site. MacLeod Construction, contracted to deliver new harbour buildings at Port Askaig, is now delayed for between six months and a year because of Carillion’s failure to clear the site.
Councillors on the area committee for MId Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands were also told that there would be three days next year when the 3.15pm ferry to Jura would be unable to take vehicles. Moreover the new ferry terminal is without running water with a water supply remaining unconnected because Scottish Water does not have ‘the necessary storage capacity’. It then emerged that the original contract did not include a requirement for a water supply.
Councillor Robin Currie, whose responsibilities include Islay and Jura, says: ‘After spending £13 million, the Jura ferry service is less now than it was before we started any of this’.
Carillion have been instructed to return to the site. One wag, playing on the closeness of their name to a ‘carillon’- a peak of bells, suggests that they should ‘get the bell’.
Gaelic digital television channel, BBC Alba, launches today but said to be unable to broadcast live
The new Gaelic television channel, BBC Alba – based in the purpose-built Fas studio complex at the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mor Ostaig on Skye – will start satellite transmission today. Its first broadcasts will be documentaries. One of these will be Taras Trump, exploring American tycoon Donald Trump’s Scottish connections – his mother came from the Isle of Lewis. Will they mention the controversial golf complex he plans for Balmenie in Aberdeenshire? Then there is a programme featuring French football star Zinedine Zidane, sent off in the 2006 World Cup final and ending a genuinely inspirational career wit a head butt.
This looks like a good programming strategy – marrying local ‘hooks’ with programmes of wide general interest but not necessarily connected to the Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland.
The channel will be on Sky and Freesat from 2100 BST today (Friday 19th September), but not on Freeview for another two years.
There is an apparent mystery in a rather coy statement that news programmes will be launched at a later, unspecified, date. A live news operation of an initially modest kind with a few bulletins a day would be a very straightforward provision to enable. So why the delay?
Behind the understatement lies the sort of avoidable mess recently damaging the Isle of Jura’s ferry service to Port Askaig in Islay. There, Argyll and Bute Council built a new slipway as part of a major harbour development at Port Askaig without consulting the expertise of those who knew local circumstances. When it entered operation, it quickly became clear that it was unusable for the small ferry to Feolin which could not either embark or disembark vehicles without serious risk of accident. Heath-Robinson arrangements have had to be made by using the new linkspan built for the large CalMac ferry to Islay – dodging around that ferry’s schedules. Emergency night medical evacuations have been imperilled.
At MG Alba there is a similar, if less life-threatening embarrassment. For foreseeable technical reasons, the new studio is said simply to be unable to broadcast live direct to viewers. A temporary – and expensive – solution would be the purchase of an Outside Broadcast Unit (OBU) truck which could drive to an appropriate transmission point on the island. So news will be added at a later date when the best way forward has been decided and enabled.
It could be ten years before the situation between Jura and Port Askaig can be fully resolved. It will be a shorter time lapse for the MG Alba mistake. But how long?