Professor John Robertson OBA
Throughout much of 2024, the Herald worked with opposition politicians in a campaign aimed at undermining CalMac and, by association, the SNP’s competence in government.
We, at TuS found several reports of the unsuitability of catamarans across the globe, even in milder conditions than off the West coast of Scotland and today we have used the X AI platform Grok to finally answer the question – Are mono hull or catamaran ferries better for the West Coast of Scotland island routes?
The findings were unequivocal in favour of the mono-hulls:
Choosing between mono hull and catamaran ferries for Scotland’s West Coast island routes depends on several factors, including sea conditions, route characteristics, passenger comfort, and operational efficiency. Here’s a concise comparison based on available information and the specific context of the West Coast of Scotland:Mono Hull Ferries
- Stability in Rough Seas: Mono hulls, with their deeper drafts and heavier displacement, are generally more stable in the rough, unpredictable waters of the West Coast of Scotland, where strong winds and high waves are common, especially in winter. They are better suited for handling adverse weather conditions, which is critical for year-round reliability on routes like those operated by CalMac.
- Capacity: Mono hulls typically offer greater capacity for vehicles and passengers, which is advantageous for high-demand routes to larger islands like Skye, Mull, or Arran. They can carry heavier loads, including freight, which is vital for island economies.
- Fuel Efficiency: Mono hulls are less fuel-efficient at high speeds compared to catamarans but perform well at moderate speeds typical for longer routes. Their fuel consumption is more predictable in rough conditions.
- Maneuverability: Mono hulls are less agile than catamarans, which can be a drawback in tight harbors or when quick turnarounds are needed.
- Examples: Most CalMac ferries, such as the MV Caledonian Isles or MV Isle of Mull, are mono hulls, designed for durability and capacity on routes exposed to open sea conditions.
Catamaran Ferries
- Speed and Efficiency: Catamarans are generally faster and more fuel-efficient at high speeds due to their lighter construction and dual-hull design, which reduces drag. This makes them suitable for shorter, high-frequency routes or calmer waters, such as sheltered routes to smaller islands or during summer months.
- Passenger Comfort: Catamarans offer a smoother ride in calm to moderate seas due to their wide beam and reduced rolling. However, in rough seas, they can experience more pitching and slamming, which may reduce comfort and increase seasickness for passengers on exposed routes.
- Maneuverability: Their twin-hull design allows for better maneuverability in ports, which is beneficial for quick docking and undocking in smaller harbors.
- Capacity: Catamarans typically have lower vehicle and freight capacity compared to mono hulls of similar size, which may limit their suitability for high-demand routes or those requiring significant cargo transport.
- Examples: Catamarans like the MV Alfred (operated by Pentland Ferries in the Orkney region) have been used successfully in Scotland but are less common on CalMac’s West Coast routes due to capacity and sea condition constraints.
Context-Specific Considerations
- Sea Conditions: The West Coast of Scotland, particularly routes to the Outer Hebrides or exposed islands like Barra, experiences frequent storms and high swells. Mono hulls are better equipped to handle these conditions, ensuring reliability and safety. Catamarans may struggle in severe weather, leading to more frequent cancellations.
- Route Length and Demand: For longer routes (e.g., Oban to Barra, ~5 hours) or high-capacity routes (e.g., Ardrossan to Arran), mono hulls are preferred due to their ability to carry more passengers and vehicles. Catamarans may be viable for shorter, less busy routes, such as between smaller islands or in sheltered waters like the Firth of Clyde.
- Infrastructure: Many West Coast ports are designed for mono hull ferries, with loading ramps and berths suited to their size and draft. Catamarans may require infrastructure upgrades, which could increase costs.
- Environmental Impact: Catamarans can be more fuel-efficient on certain routes, reducing emissions, but newer mono hull designs (e.g., CalMac’s hybrid ferries like MV Hallaig) are closing this gap with greener technologies.
Conclusion
For the West Coast of Scotland’s island routes, mono hull ferries are generally better suited due to their stability in rough seas, higher capacity for passengers and freight, and compatibility with existing infrastructure. They ensure year-round reliability in the region’s challenging weather conditions. Catamarans could be considered for shorter, sheltered routes or as supplementary vessels for high-frequency summer services, but their limitations in capacity and rough-sea performance make them less ideal as the primary choice for most routes.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
we’ve been through this already.
can’t the Herald find some new SNP bad news so they have repeat out of date and largely discredited nonsense.
clutching at straws.
John Lawson
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Interesting, but I’d still rather trust CalMac’s judgements on what THEY need for resilient operations than any involved in the scurrilous ‘ferry fiasco’ campaign to undermine them.
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I totally agree with you Bob as MacBraynes in one form or another who have been running successful services on the West Coast since 1851. During a substantial part of that time the Clyde was the world center for ship building and innovative design so if there was any advantage in multi hulled craft it would have been picked a century ago.
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I
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When the Met office only yesterday were telling us that extreme weather patterns are likely to become the norm for the UK with I assume rougher sea conditions I would have thought the very limited capability of catamarans is a no brainer but again the Herod is not renowned for any intelligent and non bias headlines just Unionist p**h.
Robbo
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O/T
Labour are failing in what they promoted as being their main mission as the new UK government.
Number one focus for them being “Growth” in the UK economy.
On July 11th it was reported that:
“Chancellor Rachel Reeves has called the economy’s recent performance “disappointing” after figures showed it shrank unexpectedly in May”
Also……….
“The economy contracted by 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, after also shrinking in April”
Ian Murray, Labour’s so called ‘Scottish’ Secretary, declared in 2024 that Labour’s first budget as the new UK government would herald an era of “Growth” for Scotland. Yet his Labour party are the government of the UK State , so why is “Growth” not being achieved by them ,as the UK government, for the UK State ?
In July this year it was reported that “Business confidence in Scotland at highest level in eight months” this was via a Royal Bank of Scotland survey, as in those who are not exactly pro Scotland when it comes to the constitutional question. Also it was stated that “The private sector also saw its strongest rise in activity since November 2024, the bank’s growth tracker found” (in Scotland).
Now Labour may try and take the credit for this but then is it not Labour who often say that “the SNP are failing Scotland’s economy” so that is then Labour conceding that the Scottish government do indeed have an input and so an impact upon the state of the Scottish economy, via their decisions and policies in Scotland as a Scottish government.
So currently the position is Scotland is positive but the same cannot be said for the UK State………
“Scotland’s economy has recently been reported to be outperforming the rest of the UK, including England and Wales , in some key areas. Specifically, Scotland’s economic growth per person has been higher than the UK average since the pandemic, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies” also “KPMG predicts that Scotland’s GDP growth will outpace the UK average in 2026″.
(Scotland’s diverse economy, including strengths in finance, high-tech IT, and pharmaceuticals, is cited as a reason for its positive economic performance).
I mean Labour cannot have it both ways can they………..they as the new UK government are failing the economy in the UK, but they want to take credit for Scotland’s better economic position while simultanously Labour also declare that the SNP are failing Scotland’s economy ???
Indeed in Labour’s 2024 Manifesto they declared that “In our Business Case for Scotland, Scottish Labour has also set out our plans to support the economy in the devolved context. We believe that the Scottish government needs to work better in partnership, planning strategically for our economy and using its convening power to bring workers, organisations and business together to overcome barriers and realise opportunities” .
Also they stated in their Manifesto that “Labour will stop the chaos and support business through a stable policy environment in Scotland and across the UK. At a UK level, Labour will strengthen our economic institutions, and in Scotland we will streamline the cluttered landscape of agencies and strategies, giving investors the certainty they need to fuel growth“.
Well Scotland has achieved “Business confidence” but it seems the at a “UK level” the Labour party as the new UK government have failed to “fuel growth” for their UK State. So Scotland does not need Labour in Scotland to “fuel growth” as it has already achieved this with the SNP in charge as the Scottish government.
Amusingly , or rather infuriatingly , Labour also stated in their Manifesto , with no sense of irony in the context of a centralised UK political position, that in the context of Scotland’s political position based in Holyrood, Edinburgh:
“The country remains too centralised, with the economic potential of too many regions and communities across Scotland ignored”……..
Does this not also contradict Labour’s position for the whole UK where we see a UK “centralised” government that is based in London at a WM “centralised” parliament.
How about now where Labour as the new UK “centralised” government are ignoring Scottish Industry and Scottish jobs and instead they, as the new “centralised” UK Labour government at WM, are instead preferring to prioritise English jobs for what they refer to as being a ‘British’ Industry, as in see the jobs that Labour have saved in Scunthorpe Steelworks and too at the Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire with Labour as the new UK “centralised” government.
The Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire , owned by a private company PRAX, now sees the Labour UK government “providing short-term funding for essential operations and also actively seeking a buyer for the refinery” while in Scotland no such intervention was seen by the same UK Labour government in Grangemouth Oil Refinery , indeed Sarwar pledged that both the jobs and the Refinery would be saved by a new Labour UK government during his 2024 GE campaign on behalf of the UK Labour party.
Also, the same Anas Sarwar , when he was challenged on why did Labour not fulfil their pledge to save Grangemouth Oil Refinery , he then actually kept responding that it was owned by a “private company”, information that he did not emphasise during his GE campaign on behalf of UK Labour last year when he promised Labour would save Grangemouth Refinery.
However he, Sarwar, is now even further embarrassed by the fact that the Oil refinery in Lincolnshire was also owned by a “private company” yet somehow that did not prohibit the Labour UK government from intervening and then aiding the workers there by seeking a resolution to try to save their jobs and the Oil Refinery there………….
(I do not grudge workers jobs being saved in England but I do grudge a Labour UK party saving some jobs in their UK State while not the doing the same for all other jobs within the UK State . I also very much grudge Anas Sarwar having a (list )place as a MSP within Scotland as he defends his UK party choosing to protect and save jobs and industries outwith Scotland more than he does for all of the jobs and Industry here) .
(Wales also let down by the new Labour UK government as Port Talbot steelworks in Wales also not given same priority as Scunthorpe Steelworks aka ‘British’ Steel by the Labour UK government , as Scunthorpe jobs worth saving but Port Talbot jobs not so much, instead they are now lost, as apparently Port Talbot not “British” – enough- “Steel” for the UK aka English Labour party).
So for all of the Labour UK government’s cruel spending cuts to those who are most vulnerable , so then seen as those who were most in need , we then also saw no similar action being taken by Labour against the more wealthy within the UK, so proving that Rachel Reeves and also Keir Starmer plans for “Growth”, as the Labour Chancellor and Labour PM of the new Labour UK government, ain’t working for their UK State.
Surely then this is yet another example of the flawed concept that is the so called ‘trickle down economics” theory…………which seems to be what Labour thinks will work for their UK State, but so far it has miserably #Failed.
Thoughit is not #failing for the wealthy as I recently read online in March 2025 that “The richest 1% of people in the UK are worth £2.8 trillion” .
I also read online that based on this above news re the richest 1% that someone stated “Tell me again why a Labour government needs to cut benefits for the disabled and the poor” ? (via Twitter account of David Osland).
Meanwhile in Scotland things are not as bad as elsewhere within the UK State………until that is one begins to factor in the extremely relentless negative input via yet another UK government and also most of the UK media………..where Labour as yet another terrible UK government and also where we still have an equally terrible UK media, who are both determined to diminish, undermine and suppress all of the positives connected to and so linked to Scotland while it is currently governed by the SNP………in fact that is the only way that they can both , as UK factors , try to diminish confidence in both Scotland and the SNP with the people of Scotland……as well as undermining and suppressing all the things that make a positive case for Scotland being more than able to be successful as a future independent nation……..
We just need to reach others , as in other voters, in Scotland…….we need way way more money for the YES movement to produce material to publicise all of the positives connected to an independent and very much resource rich Scotland in order to finally convince those voters who are still to be convinced……….as in convince them that that Scotland only ever fails while it is still connected to the UK…break that connection and then see the huge difference that will surely be unleashed in Scotland……
Independence is for the taking, the UK has had it’s chance and it has #Failed…..on so so so many levels….time for real positive change and positive reforms and that will only actually ever happen with an independent Scotland.
Liz S
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Re my above comment that “Scotland only ever fails while it is still connected to the UK” , that is when decisions are made on services at a UK level , like say on the NHS, Energy matters, the environment etc that as UK decisions have a negative impact on Scotland.
The UK internal market is another thing that prohibits Scotland from implementing progressive and workable solutions to problems , as our Scottish government is restricted as to what is it “allowed” to do by the UK government (since Brexit).
So although our economy is currently positive just think how much more our economy would advance and so increase if we were making our own decisions that promoted Scotland as a positive and great place to do business and also trade with as an independent nation…………currently Labour MP’s elected in Scotland are all ‘talking Scotland down’ and instead are ‘talking up England’ as we hear them at PMQ’s asking why Scotland is not as successful as England ?
Is that what their constituents want them to do as their WM representatives ?
The Tories and Lib Dems also have a tendency to adopt this same disrespectful behaviour/attitude and ignorant position towards Scotland…..while failing to note that currently Scotland is still subject to UK reserved policies and powers that limit what it, as a country, is able to do ………our Scottish government are also unable to borrow money but instead when money is needed for a specific area (usually because of a cruel UK government policy) then they , as the Scottish government, are expected to adopt a mitigation exercise aka a ‘Pay peter to rob Paul’ exercise that then prompts more calls from opposition parties that the area that needed to be mitigated (‘robbed)’ is now also failing ( aka a no win situation for the Scottish government) .
So yes Scotland only fails when the UK does something to prohibit our government from taking an action that would either prevent or solve a problem that already exists or could potentially exist within Scotland …..and then it is our government in Scotland who gets the blame from both the UK politicians and their UK media.
Liz S
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