MV Bute

For the 1954 ferry, see MV Bute (1954).
MV Bute en route from Rothesay to Wemyss Bay
History
United Kingdom
Name: MV Bute
Owner: Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited
Operator: Caledonian MacBrayne
Port of registry: Glasgow, United Kingdom
Route: Wemyss Bay - Rothesay
Ordered: 22 March 2004
Builder: Remontowa, Poland
Cost: £8,500,000[1]
Yard number: 1333
Launched: 9 February 2005[2]
Christened:
  • 1 July 2005
  • by Mrs Marjorie Bulloch
Maiden voyage: 11 July 2005
Identification:
Status: in service
General characteristics
Tonnage: 2612 tonnes[3]
Length: 72 m[4]
Beam: 15.3 m
Draft: 5 m
Speed: 14 knots
Capacity: 450 passengers, 60 cars

MV Bute is a ferry owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, on the route between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay.

History

She is the seventh Clyde ship to bear the name Bute and Calmac's first ferry built outside the UK since the MV Suilven in 1974. There was much dissent over the decision to order a new ferry from outside the UK.[5] Launched in Poland, she sailed for Scotland, arriving in Gourock on 28 June 2005. After trials, she entered service in July 2005.[6]

Layout

MV Bute has a semi-open car deck with a clearance height of 5.1m. Like the MV Coruisk before her, she has bow and stern access. In addition she has a starboard vehicle ramp aft which was used at Rothesay before the pier was converted to allow end-loading.

Passenger accommodation is on two levels: the first housing forward and aft lounges with a kiosk area and toilets between, while the second level is open deck space from the twin funnels to just forward of the bridge. The bridge sits on its own perch above the open deck. A single lift connects the car deck with the lounge.

Bute has Azipod units with electrically driven propellers mounted on a steerable pod, protruding beneath the hull. These made her harder to position at piers than her predecessors with Voith Schneider Propellers and led to delays in the first season.[5]

Service

MV Bute operates the route between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, along with her sister ship MV Argyle. Being more manoeuvrable than the new vessels, the streakers MV Juno and MV Saturn returned to provide the service during work to build a new end-loading linkspan at Rothesay pier in 2007.[2]

Due to works at Wemyss Bay pier, the service was temporarily moved to Gourock in October 2015, making each crossing an hour long. Services resumed from Wemyss Bay in March 2016, after a £6 million pier upgrade was completed.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "MV Bute". Ships of Calmac. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
  2. 1 2 "History of MV Argyle". Ships of Calmac. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  3. ↑ Ian McCrorie. CalMac Ferries. Caledonian MacBrayne. ISBN 0-9507166-7-7.
  4. ↑ "MV Bute". CalMac. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  5. 1 2 "History of MV Bute". Ships of Calmac. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
  6. ↑ Admin, MV Bute (2015-11-06). "MV Bute home page". www.mvbute.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
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