Annual Vessel Overhaul Plans 2023/24

Annual Vessel Overhaul Plans 2023/24

This year's annual maintenance period sees the total number of overhaul days required across the fleet increase from 647 days in 2022/2023, to 668 days for 2023/2024. The increase is essential to ensure all required works can be carried out effectively, to reduce risk of in-service breakdowns.  

Several vessels will be subject to an extended annual maintenance period. This is needed to meet the requirements for a peak of scheduled maintenance and survey work, which is in keeping with the age profile of the fleet.  

Earlier in 2023, the communities we serve, our customers and our staff experienced a period of extended disruption, which was due to a combination of technical defects and the subsequent impact on the planned annual maintenance period schedule. With this in mind, we understand that you may be anxious about this work.  

In response to that, it's important to underline that we do carefully plan sufficient time for each vessel to complete the full planned scope of works and always make efforts to manage emergent work in the allotted annual maintenance window. However, there are occasions where essential emergent work can lead to over-runs.  

Please know that we have planned the annual maintenance period with as much detail and consideration as possible, based on our knowledge of the vessels and we are continuously monitoring the progress over each maintenance period closely. 

As we move through the period, we'll continue to keep our customers updated on any emerging challenges or changes. You can stay in touch with us via the customer updates on our website, via our @CalMac_Updates platform on X (formerly Twitter) and for changes to services, our Service Status and Information pages carry all the latest details.  

Route key points to note 

The details below provide an overview on how we will manage the period for each route.  

Arran  

During MV Caledonian Isles overhaul period, MV Isle of Arran and MV Hebridean Isles will operate on this route.

Coll and Tiree 

MV Lord of the Isles will operate the service for the first period of 2024 when MV Clansman goes for overhaul and then performs relief on Little Minch services. 

Uig-Tarbert/Lochmaddy 

The second phase of the Uig Closure is taking place between 30 October 2023 - 11 December 2023. During this time, the vessel will operate from Lochmaddy - Ullapool delivering a single return per day.  

MV Hebrides will be retained on the route for the majority of the winter season operating a normal timetable and her overhaul will be covered by MV Clansman.  

Islay  

MV Finlaggan will be the core vessel on Islay service and will be supported by MV Hebridean Isles offering a second vessel during the following periods: 30 November - 31 December, 26 January - 2 February. During MV Finlaggan's overhaul, MV Isle of Arran and MV Hebridean Isles will operate 6 March - 30 March. 

Oban-Craignure  

A two-vessel service will operate with MV Isle of Mull and MV Loch Frisa where vessel availability allows. MV Loch Frisa will operate a single vessel timetable out with these periods and also MV Isle of Mull will operate on her own, when MV Loch Frisa goes to dry dock. 

Colonsay  

Services on Mondays will be operated by the Oban-Craignure vessel, except during periods of MV Loch Frisa's single vessel service, as MV Loch Frisa cannot berth in Colonsay port. MV Lord of the Isles or MV Clansman will maintain service during these periods however, due to daylight hour restrictions, no service will operate on 6 and 13 November 2023, and 8, 15, 22 January 2024.  

Oban-Castlebay and Mallaig/Oban-Lochboisdale  

As per last year, we will deploy MV Isle of Mull again to support both the MV Isle of Lewis overhaul on Oban-Castlebay, and MV Lord of the Isles on Mallaig-Lochboisdale. This will also be supported for periods by MV Isle of Arran and a shared service will be in place at times to ensure services for both islands are maintained.  

Ullapool-Stornoway 

MV Loch Seaforth will operate the passenger and freight service as normal. During MV Loch Seaforth's docking at the start of the season, MV Isle of Lewis will operate passenger services as normal. MV Arrow will be on charter for a period in November.  

MV Alfred 

MV Alfred is currently scheduled to go for its annual overhaul from the period 19 February - 4 March 2024. 

The schedule can be downloaded below or viewed in the following tables. As outlined above, this is subject to change. However, we will work hard to keep our customers informed.  

Download the overhaul schedule [183KB]

Major vessels

Small vessels

Finally, and importantly, we would like to thank you for your patience over these last few months. We understand the impact this delay has had on the communities we serve and the businesses that use our services - and we are sorry for the inconvenience caused. 

This is one of the most complex timetables Caledonian MacBrayne has ever had to produce, due to the extended absence of MV Hebridean Isles, coupled with an extended dry dock period.