MV Glen Rosa

MV Glen Rosa fitting out at Newark Quay, August 2024
History
NameGlen Rosa
NamesakeGlen Rosa on the Isle of Arran
OwnerCaledonian Maritime Assets Limited
OperatorCaledonian MacBrayne
Port of registryGlasgow
RouteTroon - Brodick
Ordered16 October 2015
BuilderFerguson Marine, Port Glasgow, Scotland
Cost£97 million original contract for two ferries; £380 million as of June 2024, and £45 million loan written off.
Yard number802
Laid down16 June 2016
Launched9 April 2024
Christenedby Beth Atkinson
CompletedSeptember 2025 (expected)
IdentificationIMO number: 9794525
StatusUnder construction
General characteristics
Tonnage1,273 DWT
Length102.4 m (335 ft 11 in)
Beam17 m (55 ft 9 in)
Draught3.4 m (11 ft 2 in)
Installed power2 × Wärtsilä 34DF diesels.
Propulsion
Speed14.5 kn (26.85 km/h)
Capacity
  • 1,000 passengers, 127 cars or 16 HGVs (planned)
    • 852 passengers (actual)

MV Glen Rosa (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Ruasaidh) is a car and passenger ferry, the second of two major vessels constructed at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow for the Scottish Government asset company CMAL to lease to its ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne. Originally planned for Uig based services, she will serve Arran. Like her sister ship, Glen Sannox, she is to be a dual-fuel ferry, capable of operating on either marine gas oil, or LNG which offers a marked reduction in sulphur, nitrous oxide and carbon emissions. The ship's name was chosen from a shortlist by public ballot on 30 August 2023. She is currently expected to be delivered no earlier than April 2026.

Of the six shipyards biding for fixed price contracts to design and build the two ships, Ferguson Marine (FMEL), owned by Jim McColl, was the only Scottish bidder. During negotiations, the government named FMEL as preferred tenderer, though it had just told CMAL that it could not provide the contractually required bank-backed guarantee. FMEL had already discussed this with Scottish Government ministers, who now decided the government would take on the risks, and the contracts were awarded on 16 October 2015.

The ships were to be delivered by July 2018, but FMEL began construction before providing drawings and plans for approval, with increasing delays when work had to be redone. In July 2017, FMEL denied responsibly and claimed additional costs, CMAL dismissed the claims. The dispute escalated with further delays. FMEL went into administration, and in December 2019 the shipyard was nationalised as Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd., but increasing costs and further lengthy delays became a continuing political scandal, the "ferry fiasco".

The sister ship, Glen Sannox, had been substantially incomplete when launched on 21 November 2017 and moved to the shipyard's Newark Quay, freeing the slipway for the two sections of Hull 802 (Glen Rosa) to be brought together.