On November 02 2007 Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) announced the order of a new ferry for Islay, which had been placed with the Remontowa Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. In the meanwhile work progresses on the new Islay ferry and CMAL staff will be attending equipment factory acceptance tests, dock trials and finally sea trials with the ferry scheduled to arrive in the spring of 2011. So far everyone referred to it as the "New Islay Ferry" but in the meanwhile CMAL started thinking of possible names for the new ferry. Four possible names were chosen by CMAL for their association with Islay and all are currently available on the UK Ship Register. CMAL is launching a competition which will allow the public to pick the name of the new ferry being built for the Islay route. The most popular name will be announced on St Andrew's Day, Monday 30 November 2009. Here are the four possible names for the new Islay Ferry:

1. FINLAGGAN Fionn Lagan
2. GLENDALE Gleann Dail
3. LOCHEIL Loch Iall
4. PIONEER Treòraiche

Artist impression of the new Islay ferry - Finlaggan - Glendale - Locheil - Pioneer

There will be an official launch of the ship in Gdansk next summer which will be attended by two lucky competition winners, chosen at random, who both voted for the chosen name. The ship will have a proper naming and commissioning ceremony once she arrives in Scotland. Joining the competition is as follows: "To register their preference, entrants can either write to CMAL or go on-line to www.cmassets.co.uk to vote. Voting will begin at 10am on Monday 19 October and closes at midday on Monday 16 November." Continue reading....

In addition to this a team from the Vessels Department at CMAL will be in Islay on Tuesday 20 October at the Bowmore Hall to update members of the public on the ferry's progress from 4.30pm-7.30pm.

Cmal is already presenting information on the progress of the new ferry. In the latest newsletter they published the following information: "The new ferry for Islay continues to take shape and this year has seen CMAL take responsibility for the full project management of the vessel build with a full time CMAL representative now based on site. The £24M contract to build the new passenger and vehicle ferry to serve the Islay route was won by Remontowa yard in Gdansk, Poland at the end of 2007. CMAL staff will make regular inspections of the work and monitor the progress and quality. As work progresses we will be attending equipment factory acceptance tests, dock trials and finally sea trials with the ferry scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2011. CMAL Director of Vessels Andrew Duncan visited the yard recently to see how the new ferry was taking shape and can be seen in these photographs with other members of the team inspecting the keel section and the deckhouse section which is being built in Aluminium."

Tag: cmal ferry competition