Glen Sannox returns to service after repairs and berthing trials

MV Glen Sannox, leaving Port Ellen after berthing trials on the Islay route

CalMac's newest ferry has returned to service on its normal route serving Arran after repairs and berthing trials at other west coast harbours.

MV Glen Sannox was temporarily withdrawn from the Troon-Brodick service earlier this month after a temporary repair to a small weld crack needed remedial work.

The initial problem is believed to be linked to excessive vibration and a permanent fix is planned for when the ship goes in for annual maintenance next month.

The weld repair was carried out relatively quickly, but CalMac said it took the opportunity to carry out trials berthing the new ship on the Islay route before it returned to normal service on Tuesday.

Glen Sannox is one of the longest ships in the CalMac fleet, so trials are needed to see if it can berth at harbours such as Port Ellen

MV Glen Sannox, built by the Ferguson shipyard, is the second largest vessel in the CalMac fleet and had not previously been trialled at harbours in Islay.

The ferry operator frequently moves vessels around the west coast network to act as relief vessels when other ships are out of action for repairs or maintenance.

Glen Sannox visited the mainland port of Kennacraig on the Kintyre peninsula before sailing to the island harbours of Port Askaig and Port Ellen.

A CalMac spokeswoman said: "While we don't intend to deploy the Glen Sannox to Islay on a regular basis, this is the ideal opportunity to find out which ports the vessel can operate from, giving reassurance to communities when services are stretched.

"Testing the vessel's ability to use the ports on the island and at Kennacraig is a prudent decision and should help with resilience and service reliability in the future."

While Glen Sannox was away, the Arran service was maintained using the chartered catamaran MV Alfred and MV Caledonian Isles, a 32-year-old ship which recently returned to operations after 20 months of repairs.

CalMac has not yet disclosed whether the berthing trials were successful.

The catamaran has also previously been trialled as an alternative vessel for Islay but it struggled to berth at Kennacraig. Since then work has been done on the harbour so the trial may now be repeated.

The results of the berthing trials at Islay ports have not yet been published

A small crack in a weld close to the steering gear of Glen Sannox was detected in March, two months after the ship entered service.

It was quickly repaired at the time, but required some more remedial work which took longer this time because there was no space for the ship to remain at Brodick and it had to travel to a quay in Greenock.

An investigation is still being carried out into underlying cause of that problem, but it is believed to be linked to vibration, possibly linked to the propeller.