Ferries for Kintyre

[deirdreh]

The Courier this week has highlighted that the Northern Ireland Assembly has no plans to fund their part of a Campbeltown to Ballycastle ferry at this time.

I know that a petition (No188) was put to the Scottish Parliament in April 2000 to ask for the Scottish Parliament to enable Calmac (100% publicly owned) to run the service from Campbeltown to Ballycastle. Give the current situation what do people think about revisiting that? I think that the advantages of Calmac running such a service is that anyone travelling to Scottish islands will be looking at the Calmac brochure which is very comprehensive.

Not that long ago the Scottish Executive granted Northlink Ferries (backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland) £35 million to run a purpose built ferry between the mainland and Orkney / Shetland. Not long after Northlink got the contract they said that they had underestimated the costings and needed another £35 million which they got. Calmac gets a subsidy of about £30 million for all its services.

I do not think it is too much to ask the Scottish Executive to fund a £5 million pound ferry. I also do not think we should settle for a make do ferry. If a new purpose built ferry is good enough for Northlink then it should be good enough for us as well.

I also wondered what people thought of a Campbeltown to Arran Calmac ferry to link up to Ayrshire? I think it would make a great difference to the area. Campbeltown was built on the sea and, in my opinion, will only thrive on the sea.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention the Road Equivalent Tarriff ferry fare system where instead of paying extortionate fares the cost of travelling by ferry is calculated as if the ferry were a bus. The cost of a vehicle is then calculated as being equal to the cost it would have been if you had driven the same distance, in fuel costs. I think it is much fairer and likely to open up the west coast to visitors and commerce, which we really need to sustain local services and small businesses.

[general jack o'niell]

how much money has been wasted to come up with that stupid idea? and where can i get an overpaid consultants job with the ministary of stupid ideas. where would this ferry sail to in arran? lamlash? theres a ferry link there to the kintyre mainland already!!! Brodick? wjhen would it dock, the ferry to ardrossan runs every hour so theres only an hour when the pier is free, plus it would take more time to sail from campbeltown to brodick than it would take to drive up the coast, take the ferry to lamlash then drive down to brodick. i sailed this route often enough to know how long it would take from c/town to brodick, at an average ferry spedd of say 14knots on a good day it would take 1hr 45mins minimum, probably longer with reduced speed going out of c/town and into Brodick.

a stupid idea, from the house of stupid ideas in stupid street, stupid town.

[The Hitman]

Hear Hear!!

[daftdog]

Can you not make your point without being an ar$e about it General or is stupid your word for the day..

You made a fair point, but a bit over the top in your response..

Could have just said "deirdre, you are stupid" would have been just as effective as what you said..

Oh right, that is what you said..



Post like yours will not encourage users to open dialogue and express ideas on the community.

[general jack o'niell]

i wasn't aware it was her idea. i thought it was somebody elses idea and she was just bringing it to our attention. had i known it was her own idea i would have worded my response differently. it is however a an ill thought out, unworkable, strawgrasping, "heres another chance to blow us off so we can moan we never get anything" and yes stupid idea.

how about a trainlink with oban? a ferry from inverary to cut out that bit of road between there and the turnoff to dunoon?

what about a tunnel to ireland? all equally stupid ideas, the difference is i don't expect anyone to take my three suggestions seriously. if deirdrie is offended with my opinion, i'm sorry, but she put it out there with a vote for it, i just thought my opinion might be a bit more relevent than most, how many have ever sailed between campbeltown and brodick? not many i would imagine, i used to fish there and make the trip twice a day so i know how long it takes, what it's like under various wind directions and speeds etc so i was speaking from experience, if they wanted a link from here they could upgrade the present skipness one with a larger boat, but that would take a fair bit to improve berthing on either side and thats not counting the road links which are barely better than single track.

[Beachcomber]

I also wondered what people thought of a Campbeltown to Arran Calmac ferry to link up to Ayrshire? I think it would make a great difference to the area. Campbeltown was built on the sea and, in my opinion, will only thrive on the sea.

For coming into Campbeltown I'd have thought a link-up with Stranraer would have been better than trying to work a system into Ardrossan-Brodick timetable. That would tie-in well with holidaymakers coming up from England or the borders, and perhaps useful for connecting with the Ireland/Stranraer ferries too.

As regards a link with Arran, I wonder how much investment would be necessary to establish a small ferry link from, say, Machrie on Arran across to, say, Carradale or Torrisdale? People coming off the Ardrossan ferry at Brodick could then drive across Arran and then hop-scotch onto Kintyre that way, in much the same way that they do with the Lochranza to Claonaig/Tarbert ferries only further down.

The nature of the road almost guarantees they'd head down to Campbeltown before coming back up the west side. Probably wouldn't be popular with some people, particularly if they're not associated with the tourist industry, who wouldn't welcome the extra traffic.

[general jack o'niell]

if you were going that far why not just have the lochranza ferry sail to and from carradale? oh i forgot, carradale hasn't had a harbour since 1958. yes i know, no i haven't seen it!!!

the only feasable route is the ballycastle to campbeltown to ayr route, but the section between campbeltown and ayr would be at least 2hrs plus, maybe even three and you wouldn't get me across the bennan in a southerly breeze for all the coffee in where ever the coffee comes from?

[deirdreh]

how much money has been wasted to come up with that stupid idea?

None that I am aware of. Ideas and debate don't cost anything.

I am happy to hear your personal knowledge and experience which is why I put the idea out to the forum as I am sure this has been looked at in the past and there will be many people like yourself who can shed more light on the logistics than I can.

Am I not right in saying that there are some ferries that are faster than others? Would it not be right in saying then that a good, purpose built fast ferry would cut travelling time greatly and make the journey more viable?

[general jack o'niell]

if you get a fastlink one like they have elsewhere that could do over 20knots then c/town to ayr could be done in under two hours, its a bigger distance than the larne crossing or the shorter dover crossings, offhand from memory which is patchy after so long i think its nearly forty miles, maybe more. that calls for a serious ferry, not a refitted offcast from another route, a purpose built vessel for the route that could cope with the exposed crossing under certain weather conditions which can be severe. the last time i did the cairnryan to larne crossing it went at three quarter speed due to weather on a day i thought was nearly calm.

if the powers that be on both sides see no future in a link between the town and ballycastle i don't see this proposal being taken seriously, don't think i'm against a ferry, i'm all for it, and i'd use it.

[The Elusive Mr D.]

Me and several friends (yes , I do have some), crossed to Lamlash from Cloanaig on a rather stormy day. The wind was coming from the south and the waves were breaking over the bow of the ferry. When we reached the other side we were advised to get back for the 5 o'clock sailing at the latest as the crew didn't think there would be any more after that, and they were right! Trying to get it docked at Cloaniag took the skipper 15 minutes and several attempts. I enjoyed the experience but wouldn't fancy a similar trip on a more exposed stretch of water, especially if it was on one of the "floating boxes" that seem to be used on the shorter runs
Having said all that, if a ferry was running between Campbeltown and Ayrshire I would use it, also one going to Northern Ireland. I'm no sailor but I do enjoy a bracing sea trip on a boat with a bar in it

[general jack o'niell]

that ferry crossing the bennan with a southerly force five or more would be lost will all hands, i can assure you of that much, i once was forced into making the crossing from an anchorage in lamlash loch to campbeltown on a friday morning in a southerly force eight, something i would never want to repeat, there were two other boats that had spent the night in brodick, they went all the way to tarbert rather than risk it. we had to go, we had a catch to land, but i was never more glad to round davaar light in my life. my crew were even gladder, tho they did look a bit pale when they surfaced from the fo'castle, they'd spent the whole trip wedged into their bunks, the table was ripped from the deck and the coal fire upended and dislodged from its chimney, i know you don't get too many days like that but they need to be accounted for regardless.

[Sweltered]

that ferry crossing the bennan with a southerly force five or more would be lost will all hands, i can assure you of that much, i once was forced into making the crossing from an anchorage in lamlash loch to campbeltown on a friday morning in a southerly force eight, something i would never want to repeat, there were two other boats that had spent the night in brodick, they went all the way to tarbert rather than risk it. we had to go, we had a catch to land, but i was never more glad to round davaar light in my life. my crew were even gladder, tho they did look a bit pale when they surfaced from the fo'castle, they'd spent the whole trip wedged into their bunks, the table was ripped from the deck and the coal fire upended and dislodged from its chimney, i know you don't get too many days like that but they need to be accounted for regardless.

I remember getting the McIlchere's bacon rolls for you that morning!

[general jack o'niell]

i remember that, longest three and a half hours of my life, but then i had a nobles built boat under me, i remember your uncle waving a dishcloth out the trap so i would slow her down, then he came on deck with a cup of coffee for me, how he managed to boil a kettle i'll never know. the boat looked like a great big hand had lifted it up, turned it upside down and given it a good shake by the time we got to the quay.

[John S]

The Courier this week has highlighted that the Northern Ireland Assembly has no plans to fund their part of a Campbeltown to Ballycastle ferry at this time.

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=961272007

Keep the focus on the Ireland ferry, any distraction, no-matter how well meaning, is counter productive at this stage.

[general jack o'niell]

i agree, thats why i made my original comment. one ferry at a time please!!!!!