Route Spare / relief vessel Length 30 m | Launched 1992 Draft 1.6 m | |
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Name MV Loch TarbertScottish Gaelic Loch an Tairbeirt Namesake Loch Tarbert on Kintyre Owner Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited | ||
Lochranza ferry mv loch tarbert
MV Loch Tarbert is a Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ro-ro car ferry, built in 1992 and currently operated by Caledonian MacBrayne. She has spent most of her career on the seasonal Claonaig – Lochranza crossing.
Contents
Mv loch tarbert arriving at lochranza
History
MV Loch Tarbert was built in 1992 by JW Miller & Sons Ltd of St Monans.
Layout
Loch Tarbert is a variant on MV Isle of Cumbrae's design. Her car deck has capacity for 18 cars. Passenger accommodation for 150 passengers is in a starboard lounge and on two outer decks. A large funnel on the opposite side to her wheelhouse is painted in CalMac livery.
Service
MV Loch Tarbert replaced MV Loch Ranza on the seasonal Claonaig – Lochranza crossing in July 1992. She has operated this crossing in summers ever since. In winters she has relieved at Fishnish, Colintraive and Largs. She provided additional dangerous loads sailings from Largs to Lochranza until the service from Tarbert to Arran started.
In early 1996, she opened the new Otternish – Leverburgh route across the Sound of Harris, awaiting new MV Loch Bhrusda. During a seaman's strike in 2000, Arran traffic was diverted to the Loch Fyne and Claonaig crossings. Loch Tarbert was joined by MV Isle of Cumbrae to cope with the traffic.
At the end of recent summers, Loch Tarbert has moved to Tarbert to start a winter service to Portavadie, with a lunchtime sailing to Arran. The service is usually taken over by one of the smaller Loch Class. Loch Tarbert usually relieves at Largs, but spends most of the winter as a spare vessel.
Loch Tarbert was replaced on the Claonaig - Lochranza crossing in September 2016 by the MV Catriona - the third of Caledonian MacBrayne's hybrid ferries - and she became a spare/relief vessel.