MV Isle of Mull - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

MV Isle of Mull is one of the larger Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited owns the ferries, ports, harbours and infrastructure for the ferry services serving the west coast of Scotland and the Clyde Estuary.CMAL is wholly owned by the Scottish Government, with Scottish Ministers as sole shareholders.-History:Until...

ferries operated by Caledonian MacBrayne

Caledonian MacBrayne

Caledonian MacBrayne is the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries, and ferry services, between the mainland of Scotland and 22 of the major islands on Scotland's west coast...

from Oban

Oban

Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...

on the west of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

History

MV Isle of Mull was designed for the route between Oban

Oban

and Craignure

Craignure

Craignure is a village and the main ferry port on the Isle of Mull, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.The village is located around Craignure Bay, on Mull's east coast. It has a population of roughly 200 people....

on the Isle of Mull

Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull or simply Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute....

. After being launched on the Clyde in 1987, she entered service on the 11 April 1988, in place of the older and slower .

However the new vessel was seriously overweight – by more than 100 tons - due to both design and Steel Supply, British Steel had installed a new Computerised Gauge Control at its Dalzell Plate production unit, and during the initial production of steel plate after its introduction it tended to produce plates still within the allowed manufacturing specification, but at or near the upper gauge allowed in the tolerance - resulting in the steel tending to be heavier than designed.
In late autumn 1988 she was taken out of service for two weeks and sent to Tees Dockyard Ltd in Middlesbrough to be lengthened by 5.4 m (20 ft). The extent of this implant can most easily be observed when climbing the stairs from the car deck to the passenger accommodation. These stairs used to be a single flight, but now have a level section halfway up. The new length of hull made the vessel better both in terms of vehicle capacity (taking it to around 80) but also in that she handled better at sea with her overall speed increased slightly.

In the late 1990s she underwent internal refurbishment. Her cafeteria was redecorated and the serving area modified – setting the standard for the rest of the fleet. The shop was moved to a more prominent position in the entrance concourse and she received new seating covers etc. The Isle of Mull underwent another major refurbishment in 2005. The cafeteria was redesigned with a new service area layout, including self-service tea and coffee machines and was renamed the Mariners Cafeteria. A coffee bar was installed in the viewing lounge at the after end of the ship opposite the doors leading out to the open deck which overlooks the rope handling area of the ship and is named the Coffee Cabin. The bar has also been renamed The Still.

Layout

The totally enclosed car deck has room for up to 80 cars. Headroom on the bow and stern ramps is 4.7 metres. She is equipped with a bow visor, bow ramp and stern ramp. The two-part folding bow ramp is shaped like an inverted ‘L’. When raised, the main section plugs the access to the car deck. The forward section folds out flat upon contact with the linkspan.

Above the car deck are two levels of accommodation, providing shelter and facilities for up to 1000 passengers. The first deck houses the cafeteria at the bow, with the main entrance concourse and shop immediately aft. Behind this are lounges, toilets and the information desk, with the bar at the stern. The next deck has an observation lounge at the stern and crew accommodation further forward. External deck space stretches from the lounge to just short of the bridge on both sides. An observation lounge on the top deck has seating aft of the funnel. The large amount of open deck space is one factor that makes the Isle of Mull popular with tourists and locals alike.

Service

MV Isle of Mull has operated the crossing between Oban

Oban

and Craignure

Craignure

on the Isle of Mull since 1988. She completes the sailing in just under 40 minutes on a good day, a marked improvement on her predecessor. There is some flexibility with additional sailings provided by . Isle of Mull also provides the link between the mainland and the island of Colonsay

Colonsay

Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...

and has provided winter relief on a various routes.

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