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As the fate of the Spirit of the Tay remains in limbo, the many local supporters of the bold and imaginative Loch Tay steamship venture grow increasingly alarmed.

The 111-foot excursion passenger steamship, which the Historic Boat Company Ltd (HBC) commissioned from Ferguson Ship Builders (FSL) in March 2003, continues to lie in ‘dry dock’, unfinished on the loch shore.

Spirit of the Tay “virtually” afloat – but only as an image of the camera artist…

James Duncan Millar, Chair of Kenmore and District Community Counci, wrote recently to HBC saying: “We wish you to know that the community is strongly behind the concept of the steamer and we wonder whether there is any pressure that we can bring to bear to assist either in ‘naming and shaming’ those who are not performing and processing your sea worthiness application or whether there is any other way we can help you.”

Doubts have been expressed by the vessel’s owners and by the licensing body Maritime Coastguard Authority (MCA), as to the safety of its unit link-ups. It was fabricated in sections at FSL’s Port Glasgow yard and transported to Dalerb on Loch Tay between 2003 and 2004 for welding and eventual outfitting.

But the MCA’s request that FSL carry out further radiographic testing of the welded joints in June, resulted in the x-rays only being produced for examination in late November. Meetings to address these concerns, which have been arranged over the past 6 months between the ship’s owners, the MCA in Aberdeen and FSL have all been cancelled awaiting this evidence. Meanwhile FSL has been in the national news seeking Scottish Executive funding support to underpin its commercial position while bidding for contracts against shipyards in other EC countries.

The company had originally promised that the fabrication of the Spirit’s five units would be completed by June 2003. Also that the final ‘slipping’ and handover of the vessel would happen by October of that year.

In fact, delivery of the ship’s mid sections, its bow and aft section was not made until two months later. By then the Historic Boat Company was having grave misgivings regarding the quality and standard of workmanship, and it refused delivery of the vessel’s stern section. Subsequent remedial work, which should have taken five weeks, eventually took three months and yet still requires attention.

Despite further verbal and written approaches by the owners seeking rectification of the shipbuilders’ workmanship at Loch Tay, FSL said that the hull construction was complete and that it was fit to be launched for outfitting.

It then removed its workforce and all their equipment from the temporary site in June 2004.

HBC says that its project is subject to the approval and licensing of MCA. Stringent fabrication testing, overseen by MCA, has resulted in some 100 X-rays, ultra soundings and various other tests being carried out.

These have confirmed the company’s growing worries regarding the integrity of the welding of the various sections, particularly the steam ship’s stern.
At the moment the empty shell sits forlornly on blocks on the temporary lochside site set up by FSL. This was recently flooded and there is a fear locally that, should further flooding occur, some of the supporting blocks may become dislodged.

Statement

Upon going to press, the HBC issued the following statement to Comment:

“We are a small, embryonic company, which has not benefited from direct or indirect funding of any kind. Consequently, as a result of this absurd David and Goliath situation, Fergusons have felt confident in their ability either to stonewall all approaches or to use every possible tactic to avoid their obligation to rectify these structural defects.

“The ‘Spirit of the Tay’ is now some 16 months behind schedule and, to date, FSL has continually obfuscated and refused to agree a rectification programme. In a further ‘own goal’ by FSL, as a result of this indefensible delay, our worst fears and concerns in other areas have now been realised, and a serious issue with the paintwork has now manifested itself.

“Questions need to be asked as to whether it is credible that our ‘steamer’ is the only vessel built by FSL in recent years to have suffered this fate.”

The statement continues:

“As responsible operators, the safety of the vessel, its passengers and its crew is our primary concern. Anyone who knowingly or wilfully endangers the public is open to criminal prosecution, a fact that seems to have escaped FSL.

“We wait in vain for someone with a grain of integrity within FSL to do the honourable thing and rectify these structural defects to the satisfaction of us their customers and, ultimately, the MCA.

“Alan Dunnet, Fergusons’ Chief Executive has orchestrated a campaign in the national press, supported by various MSPs/MPs, to secure Government contracts in preference to Polish yards in particular, on the basis of FSL’s superior quality and the promise of on-time, on-budget delivery!

“The supreme irony of this is that, regardless of price, had we not been patriotic enough to believe that the ‘Clyde Built’ tradition was alive and well in Port Glasgow, the ‘Spirit of the Tay’ would almost certainly have already been in service today – and that would be courtesy of a Polish yard.

“It was recently announced with much fanfare that the steamship ‘The Walter Scott’ owned by Scottish Water was to receive up to £2.5 million in grants to be totally rebuilt to a higher specification, together with what amounts to an operating subsidy of some £500,000 over 3 years. To date, the ‘Spirit of the Tay’ a major tourism project has received precisely ZERO funding of any kind.

“In an election year, Ministers and MSPs enthusiastically support the huge amounts of public money granted to ‘The Walter Scott’ on the premise that it is the only single screw steamer in Scotland, and they openly boast of their support for Ferguson Shipbuilders in particular.

“All we ask is that careful consideration is given to the implications of such misleading sound bites and that, in the interest of fair competition, candidates for Parliament demonstrate to their constituents that there is truly a level playing field.

“With this in mind, we would like to thank the army of ‘friends’ and supporters who have emailed, phoned and written to us with words of encouragement and support, many pointing out that tourism is the lifeblood of Highland Perthshire and that the ‘Spirit’ will be a tourist magnet.”

The Scheme’s Attraction

HBC’s partners plan to recreate the 1880s venture by the Earl of Breadalbane when a steamer, The Lady of the Lake, plied the loch and a section of railway to Killin was built to bring visitors to the area.
At the turn of the 19th century, visitors were able to travel from Glasgow to Killin by rail, cruise and lunch upon the loch and then travel to Aberfeldy Station by charabanc to catch a train back to Glasgow. The earl’s enterprise paid off, for soon two more vessels – and eventually a larger vessel – were added.

The 21st-century version will cost £750,000. It will accommodate trips for up to 250 passengers from Kenmore at the eastern end of Loch Tay during which a meal would be served in a Victorian-themed restaurant below deck.

A further plan of the company – to lay a section of steam railway which would take passengers to a pier at nearby Killin – would certainly attract steam enthusiasts to Highland Perthshire.