The Mull and Iona Ferry Committee blamed Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (Cmal) for leaving passengers with poorer service, favoring larger ferries for the CalMac west coast routes over more smaller ones.
However, Cmal chief executive Kevin Hobbs hit back, calling the committee “totally unfortunate” and calling its statements inaccurate, unprofessional and distasteful.
Committee chairman Joe Reid said he had looked into the procurement of Cmal ferries and feared that the recent selection of large ferries for routes to the island would be repeated when the main Mull ferry was replaced.
The Islay vessels, which will increase capacity by nearly 40 per cent by carrying 100 cars and 450 passengers, were ordered last month for £105m, with another £25m needed to upgrade the port.
Reid said: “As we move closer to replacing our own MV Isle of Mull, there is understandable concern in our islands that Cmal’s preference for large ferry ‘cruise ships’ will be replicated by Mull.”
Instead, he said buying a few smaller ships would allow for more frequent sailings and prevent disruptions from any port upgrades needed for larger ferries.
The committee chairman said the option would also mean that other ferries would not need to be diverted from other routes during ship maintenance, reducing wider network disruption.
Reed said: “They [Cmal] decided to replace it [an Islay ferry] with one large ship, but then decided to replace both Islay ships.
“The alternative, which we think would be a better outcome in every way, would be to replace each ferry to the island with two smaller ferries – four in total.
“Evaluation of their options appears to have been deliberately skewed in comparison to the best choice, which was to opt for smaller but larger ferries.”
Reed said the decision came after one ferry was ordered for the Ullapool-Stornoway route - MV Loch Seaforth - and one for the Uig-North-Uist-Harris Triangle, which is being built by Ferguson Marine in Inverclyde.
He said last year’s accident at Loch Seafort, which lasted almost two months, “demonstrates the fragility of a service that relies on a single ship.”
The committee produced a report which it said described how Cmal “conducted a ‘misleading, biased and biased’ option valuation that resulted in much more expensive courts and worse service for the islanders”.
He accused Cmal of “a series of misleading errors and omissions designed to favor one large vessel over two smaller ones.”
The report stated that “all ferry options, regardless of size, were expected to require the same crew of 27”, resulting in a “bias in favor of the largest vessel option”.
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Reed said: “Cmal and the Hebridean Ferry Company seem to have a masculine fascination with making each new ferry bigger than the previous one, to the point where they create misleading presentations to justify them.
“They certainly don’t consider in any meaningful way whether there are better ways to do things that might be easier for the taxpayer and better for the islanders.”
He said a Norwegian ferry of the same capacity, built by the same Turkish shipyard as the Islay ferries, would cost half as much.
However, Cmal said the comparison was “completely flawed” and reflected a “profound misunderstanding of the technical aspects of the ship’s design”.
It stated that Islay ships required a number of different specifications, such as extra power to operate on the high seas.
Kevin Hobbs of Cmal said: “We are concerned that this particular ferry committee keeps talking about all sorts of things.
“I think they are downright annoying.
“Even though they represent the Isle of Mull, one wonders where they get their information from because, frankly, it’s unrecognizable, inaccurate and certainly unprofessional.
“We have 45 people in Port Glasgow who are well qualified in naval architecture, maritime civil engineering and all kinds of other maritime and shipping businesses.
“We all come from the private shipping and engineering professions and I just find it very, very frustrating the way it plays out.
“If people would only ask us, everything could be explained 100 percent.”
Hobbs said Cmal designed the vessels for what was proposed by CalMac and Transport Scotland.
He said: “All roads seem to lead back to ‘Cmal don’t know what they’re talking about’ when in fact, if you look at the reality, we get a ‘statement of requirements’ that reflects what the CalMac contract is ( courtesy of Transport Scotland).
“This is not Cmal saying that we need 27 crew members – this is a combination of the Maritime Agency and the Coast Guard Agency, talking about what it means to safely operate a vessel and listen to the opinion of the inhabitants of the island.
“There are people who think ships should be smaller, and there are others who think they should be bigger.”
A spokesperson for Cmal added: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We operate with facts, not opinions.
“We are not in the business of cheating or wasting Scottish taxpayer money.
“Vessels are built to size according to the route to ensure stability and seaworthiness. Passenger comfort is the main factor.”
A spokesman for CalMac said: “This is clearly a matter for Cmal/Transport Scotland as the purchasing authority and not for us as the operator.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are confident that Cmal has conducted a robust procurement process for the contract to build two new vessels to serve the island.
“It is also worth noting that the Council of the Ferry Communities drew attention [Scottish Parliament’s] Committee on Rural Economy and Connectivity that the Islay consultation process was a model on which to build.”