Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act this week reveal a long list of safety problems found on the Island Princess since April 1.
These predate the revelation last month that Clydelink’s service had been suspended because crew were not qualified.
The first MCA inspection took place on March 27 – but then on April 13, nearly two weeks after the service started, further inspections found a total of 14 faults which had to be rectified before the Kilcreggan to Gourock ferry could sail again.
These included lifejackets without service history and a lack of training for the crew in how to launch a liferaft..
The boat, which came to the Clyde from Lymington in late March, took over the SPT-funded service between Gourock and Kilcreggan on April 1 amid controversy which saw over 400 people demonstrating on Kilcreggan’s pier.
Other problems found on April 13 include faulty firefighting equipment and liferafts wrongly stowed; there was no passenger safety announcement and one of the navigation lights didn’t even have a bulb.
Crew were said to have had no induction training and no knowledge of how to use firefighting equipment.
The Clydelink boat was inspected on three further occasions before on May 22 it was prevented from sailing until a suitably qualified skipper was on board.
The inspection reports can be found here: MCA FOI
Clydelink and SPT were unavailable for comment today; at a meeting with MSPs last month SPT officials said safety concerns were the MCA’s responsibility.
Meanwhile today (Friday) operators Clydelink said that some sailings in the early morning and at midday were cancelled due to high winds.
RE – You have to wonder how this boat was allowed to sail on April 1, when 12 days later there were so many problems – Julian I to wonder: either SPT knew and ignored or SPT were not made aware – or could it be something else?????
Funny, when I left Gourock this morning there was nothing more than a standard Clyde stiff breeze. Lucky I didn’t tender for the route tho, I now understand that if I submitted a bid with a pleasure boat that could take 60 people, and was the cheapest, I’d have been running the route. I’m not even exaggerating! It turns out SPT did not even evaluate the tenders, they just looked at the price and said ‘okay’. And again, I exaggerate not.
watching with growing alarm from Brittany. Ferry safety must be of paramount importance