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Shipbuilder Harland & Wolff in Move to Build and Operate Isles of Scilly Ferry

30th August 2023
The current Isles of Scilly passenger vessel Scillonian III has served between Penzance Harbour (as above) and Hugh Town, St. Mary’s since 1977. It was built by Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd and Afloat’s adds the north Devon shipyard in recent years was acquired by Harland & Wolff.
The current Isles of Scilly passenger vessel Scillonian III has served between Penzance Harbour (as above) and Hugh Town, St. Mary’s since 1977. It was built by Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd and Afloat’s adds the north Devon shipyard in recent years was acquired by Harland & Wolff. Credit: Jehan Ashmore

Shipbuilder, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings is in the running to build and operate two new ferries to serve the remote Isles of Scilly, 24 nautical miles off Cornwall in south-west England.

The shipbuilding group which has facilities on both sides of the Irish Sea, is reaching the conclusion of a full technical, operational and financial business case on the newbuild ferries on the Penzance Harbour-Hugh Town, St. Mary’s route.

According to The Irish News, H&W will join partners, including local councils, to make an application for the UK government's levelling up funding. In addition, to seeking a licence to operate the two vessels on the 37 nautical mile route and be based initially over a five-year period.

Harland & Wolff however, warns that "there is no certainty at this point that this opportunity will proceed to financial close".

In the event that if H&W’s project proceeds, it is not known whether any of the workload for the newbuilds, would be carried out at the shipbuilder group’s main Belfast shipyard.

More on the story here and as BBC News reported, H&W's proposal would put it in competition with the established Isles of Scilly Steamship Company which celebrated its centenary in 2020.

The shipyard at Queens Island, Afloat adds is one of Harland & Wolff’s four facilities. Two are located in Scotland and the fourth in England, at Appledore, Devon is where the current Scilly ferry, Scillonian III was built in 1977.

In recent years, the shipyard in 2019 was acquired by Infrastrata, owners of H&W and the facility with 300 years of shipbuilding was renamed Harland & Wolff (Appledore).

Published in Shipyards
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.