MV Glen Sannox is a car and passenger ferry constructed at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow for the Scottish Government asset company CMAL, to lease to its ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne. Entering service informally to the Isle of Arran on 12 January 2025, formally on 13 January 2025, she is the first of two dual-fuel CalMac ferries, capable of operating on either marine gas oil, or LNG which offers a marked reduction in sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions, the other being the MV Glen Rosa. The ship's name recalls an earlier Arran ferry.

The ship's sea trials began in February 2024, and she was moved to Inchgreen Quay in Greenock, freeing the Newark Quay at the shipyard for the launch of MV Glen Rosa. After difficulties in completing the LNG power system, there were further delays. Filling the LNG tank (bunkering) was completed by 18 September, and sea trials using LNG began on 20 September. Manufacturer's sea trials were successfully completed on 23 October.

On 19 November 2024, Ferguson Marine announced that the vessel had passed its final certification checks and been issued with a passenger certificate. The ship was handed over to CMAL on 21 November. Following crew familiarisation trials by CalMac, the ship entered revenue-earning service on the Troon to Brodick route on 12 January 2025, and her first voyage in timetabled operation was on 13 January.

History

The state-owned enterprise CalMac, originally Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd, was formed in 1973 as a vessel owner and operator providing most of the ferry services to the Firth of Clyde and the Hebridean islands off the west coast of Scotland. In 2006, its roles were split to satisfy EU competition rules. As Caledonian Maritime Assets (CMAL) it continued to own the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet and order new ships, while CalMac Ferries Ltd (CalMac) was created as a separate company which successfully bid in open competitive tender for the contract to operate the services.

Many of CalMac's ferries were built by Ferguson Shipbuilders, which employed over 300 people in 2000, but it had struggled to compete and orders from the Scottish Executive were won by the Remontowa shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. In 2011 Ferguson Shipbuilders successfully bid for two small hybrid ferries for CMAL, funded by the Scottish Government's Low Emissions Hybrid Ferries project.

Ferries plan The Scottish Government's Ferries Plan, which its executive agency Transport Scotland published in December 2012, included indicative proposals for two new major vessels. 20 August 2015 email from: Transport Scotland Ferries Unit, re Minister for Transport and Islands. International emissions regulations tightened, and cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel was adopted by ferry operators in Northern Europe, particularly Norway. The Danish island of Samsø invited tenders for the first in the EU, and in June 2013 Remontowa was awarded the contract for this dual-fuel ferry, to be delivered in October 2014. David MacBrayne Ltd bid to operate a ferry connecting Gotland in Sweden, with detailed proposals drawn up by CalMac, but in May 2014 this bid was reported unsuccessful.

To prepare the Vessel Replacement and Deployment Plan (VRDP), Transport Scotland held tripartite monthly meetings with CMAL and CalMac, starting in October 2013. By agreement, CalMac led development of programmes for the vessels. This included two new major ferries, one to be deployed on services between Uig – Tarbert / Lochmaddy, the other on services between Ardrossan – Brodick / Campbeltown. These vessels would ideally be of similar capacity to MV Loch Seaforth, and likely be LNG dual-fuel powered. In early July 2014 the Scottish Government, using CalMac's initial analytical work, authorised the procurement of these two new major ferries, aiming to name the preferred bidder in nine months. CMAL's head of vessels said then that this timetable was a "hugely challenging". It left CalMac only three weeks to produce its Specification of Technical and Operational Requirements. They quickly adapted work done for the Gotland ferry bid, but made some errors such as including irrelevant description of passenger cabins. The exceptionally large and detailed specification now had to be made more concise as part of CMAL's tender documents.

Rescue of Fergusons

Ferguson Shipbuilders had been struggling to get orders. Cash flow problems, and difficulties in arranging financial bonds (or refund guarantees) left it unable to bid for several major contracts. The workforce was reduced to 77, then on 15 August 2014, a month before the Scottish independence referendum, the yard went bankrupt, and the administrators KPMG immediately laid off 70 workers. The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond of the SNP, personally intervened and persuaded businessman Jim McColl, one of his Council of Economic Advisers, to buy out the shipyard. McColl's Clyde Blowers Capital, previously deterred by the yard's debts, now took over its assets and business, and formed Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd. (FMEL) as a new subsidiary. On 30 September Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that FMEL had been given the order for a third hybrid ferry, MV Catriona. Government ministers had given CMAL a letter of comfort allowing this contract to go ahead without a refund guarantee.

CMAL's draft specification was disputed by CalMac, who said on 14 October that it only met 20% of their requirements. The compromise eventually specified in the tender documents meant wider ships which would need improvements to ports.

Construction Vessel procurement and bidding The start of the vessel procurement process was publicly announced on 15 October 2014 by the Transport Minister Keith Brown. The pre-qualifying questionnaire (PQQ), issued by CMAL on 17 October, invited shipbuilders to demonstrate their capability for detailed design, construction, testing, and delivery of two 100 metres long ROPAX ferries. The questionnaire emphasised the requirement for Bank Refund Guarantee bonds before work started, and requested evidence from a bank confirming its willingness to provide these guarantees. Following discussion with CMAL, FMEL said on 9 December that guarantees from its parent company Clyde Blowers Capital (CBC) would be inappropriate, so it intended to provide Bank Guarantees and would "endeavour to provide Guarantees to levels that provide the security you require."

Of the six shipbuilders shortlisted for the invitation to tender (ITT), only Remontowa was experienced in building dual-fuel LNG engined ships. They had won the contract for the dual fuel Samsø ferry in 2013, and delivered it in February 2015.

The ITT, issued on 10 December 2014, included a 135-page technical schedule, mostly derived from a much longer "Specification of Operational and Technical Requirements" (SoTR) for the vessels drawn up by CalMac. It said they were to be dual-fuel LNG engined. Under the industry standard BIMCO design and build New Build Contract, shipyards bid a fixed price to take responsibility for designing and building ships to meet the specification, and the full risk for this remains with the builder throughout the construction period. Bidders were required to accept the terms of the draft contract included with the ITT, or provide comments and/or propose amendments to this draft.

The ITT required refund guarantees on behalf of the Builder by "a first class international bank". FMEL wrote that they had no comment to make "at this time". When FMEL told local MSP Stuart McMillan that they could not provide these guarantees, he wrote to the deputy first minister John Swinney. In early February 2015 transport minister Derek Mackay responded; "While CMAL's board in line with standard industry practice has a preference for refund guarantees it has on occasion taken alternative approaches to ensure that ship yards, including Ferguson under its previous owners, were not excluded from bidding for those government contracts." This letter was taken by McColl as suggesting that "alternative approaches were acceptable. On this basis FMEL proceeded with the tender." CMAL say they had "no awareness of, or involvement in, these exchanges."

Shortlisted tenders

Tenders were submitted by 31 March 2015, then evaluated on cost and quality by CMAL with assistance of a consultant naval architect. CalMac gave technical input. The FMEL design was heavy, with large engines, and the two ship contracts totalled £109.8M. Their bid briefly mentioned a lighter design they had developed in the "initial stages" of the project before going on to develop the heavier ship in order to give greater "comfort" on their ability to meet the deadweight (cargo capacity) requirement. On 17 May CMAL's evaluators asked for more details of this earlier design, enabling FMEL to price each ship contract at £50.25M, eventually negotiated down to £48.5M each, a total of £97M.

The assessment placed the Remontowa bid second, FMEL's was "the highest quality bid received but also the highest price. Taken together, the FMEL tender achieved the highest overall evaluation score". On 20 August 2015 the Transport Scotland Ferries Unit wrote asking the transport minister to approve in principle award of the contracts by CMAL before the tenders expired on 31 August. Transport Scotland (TS) told CMAL on 21 August that FMEL would be named as preferred bidder at the end of the month. Also on 21 August, FMEL's lawyers said that refund guarantees could not be arranged by CBC, and instead proposed guarantees from its subsidiary, the holding company Ferguson Marine Engineering (Holdings) Limited, but CMAL required independent refund guarantees as specified. Negotiations were far from concluded, and CMAL told TS that announcing the preferred bidder would "materially reduce their negotiating hand"; TS offered CMAL a letter of comfort if needed. On 31 August 2015, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the shipyard and named FMEL as preferred tenderer for the £97m contract, MacKay said it was for dual-fuel ferries, "allowing them to use cleaner fuel and future-proofing them for the advent of tighter regulations around sulphur emissions." Erik Østergaard, Chair of CMAL, said "Subject to agreement on all points, we hope to be in a position to finalise the award of the contract later in September."

Role of CMAL

CMAL understood that government ministers wanted the ferries built in Scotland by FMEL, but on 25 September the CMAL board considered there were "too many risks involved around the refund guarantee matter which are still to be resolved and to that end the Board are not in a position to award the contract to FMEL at this stage." Next day, Østergaard emailed TS that CMAL could not recommend the level of unsecured risk, and proposed rejecting the deal; putting the project on hold, or "re-opening the contract negotiations with Remontowa (with whom we have a track record of doing business) or even a second yard in parallel while continuing negotiations with FMEL." Initially FMEL proposed an unusually small final milestone instalment, reducing their incentive to complete, but on 29 September they increased it to 25%, which with insurance backed guarantee coverage at 25% left CMAL at risk for around half of payments made pre-delivery. CMAL produced a paper setting out the risks. On 9 October TS confirmed that Scottish ministers had noted and accepted the risks and, as CMAL's sole shareholder, approved award of the contracts. Ministers approved £10.6m loan funding to CMAL, with special provisions to protect against the risks and repayments only due after completed ferries were in service. MacKay and Swinney signed off on the contract, and on 16 October contracts were signed between CMAL and FMEL, which MacKay publicly announced that day at the SNP's annual conference in Aberdeen.