An expert advisor flagged the opportunity to buy a cut price catamaran for a fraction of the price of two ferries being built by Ferguson Marine.
The Scottish Government rejected the opportunity to buy a catamaran for just £13.8 million as an alternative to its disastrous £400million CalMac ferry building debacle.
Baird, a former director of the Maritime Research Group at Napier University and former member of the Scottish Government’s Expert Ferry Group, said: “In 2017, a 100-car and 800-passenger capacity catamaran nearing completion in an Asian yard became available, in part due to the then financial crisis in Venezuela where the ferry was originally destined.
Former First Minister Humza Yousaf was Transport Minister at the time Baird suggested the catamaran purchase in 2017. It was subsequently nationalised, but problems continued and the cost of the ships has risen to about four times the original £97million contract price. “The same thing more or less occurred recently in 2021 when another nearly completed large car-ferry catamaran became available from a yard in Asia for a price of around £12million.
Caledonian Macbrayne Transport Scotland Scottish Government River Clyde
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