​CalMac confirm Isle of Lewis ‘disposal’ plan

The Isle of Lewis is 29 years old.The Isle of Lewis is 29 years old.
The Isle of Lewis is 29 years old.
CalMac have confirmed to the Gazette that they are looking at disposing of the ‘MV Isle of Lewis’ – the second largest vessel in their fleet, and by no means their oldest – once two new vessels arrive for Western Isles routes next year.

Four new ships are currently in construction in Turkey – along with the two ill-fated ones at the Ferguson Shipyard – two of which are due for Lochmaddy and Tarbert.

It was hoped that their arrival would significantly improve fleet resilience, but CalMac have now confirmed that they will be seeking to dispose of both the ‘Isle of Lewis’ – currently operating between Castlebay and Oban – and the ‘Isle of Mull’.

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The ‘Isle of Lewis’ entered service in 1995 to operate the Stornoway-Ullapool crossing. At the time she was the largest in the fleet and was switched to Barra in 2016 following the arrival of the ‘Loch Seaforth’.

Pauline Blackshaw, CalMac’s Director of Strategy & Change, said: “We have carried out an initial assessment of vessel deployment at the point when we will have the six new major vessels currently under construction in our fleet.

"This assessment identified MV Isle of Lewis and MV Isle of Mull as the vessels most likely to be released from service at that point.

“Vessel disposal is contingent on a number of dependencies, and this initial assessment will remain under review over the next year and is subject to change.

"As we welcome these into the fleet, we are committed to having a resilience vessel to reduce disruption when a major vessel has an issue.”

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