Alan Drury's photos with the keyword: Caledonian McBrayne

MV Lord of the Isles is one of the larger Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ferries, run by Caledonian MacBrayne and largely operating from Mallaig on the west of Scotland. Built in Port Glasgow, she is the most-travelled vessel in today's fleet. MV Lord of the Isles, affectionately known as LOTI, was launched on the 7 March 1989 at Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow. Although based at Oban for most of her life, she is able to berth and load traffic all over the Clyde and Hebridean Isles network. At 85m long MV Lord of the Isles is one of the biggest ships in the fleet. Broadly similar to MV Isle of Mull at the forward end, while her aft end resembles that of MV Hebridean Isles. The car deck, open at the stern, is capable of holding up to 56 cars. She has a vehicle hoist to allow loading at the older piers. The passenger accommodation provides space for a maximum certificate complement of 506. It consists of lounges, cafeteria, bar and shop on one deck, with an aft observation lounge on the deck above.She is the last vessel in the fleet to have sleeping accommodation for the longer passages. Entering service in 1989 on the Coll / Tiree and Barra / South Uist routes from Oban, LOTI combined two previous timetables. This freed up both Columba (1964) and Claymore (1978) and allowed a cascade to take place within the fleet. She remained at Oban for nine years, occasionally switching places with MV Isle of Mull on the Craignure crossing and relieving at Uig and Ardrossan. In 1998 she was replaced by MV Clansman and transferred to Mallaig to replace the veteran MV Iona on the seasonal Skye service. During the winter months she returned to Oban in a relief role. From 2003 to 2016, LOTI returned to Oban, alongside Isle of Mull and Clansman, providing additional sailings on a wide range of routes. With seven islands appearing regularly in her routine, she is easily the most-travelled vessel in today's fleet. She served on the Ardrossan - Brodick route in 2012, while Caledonian Isles went for overhaul. LOTI was used to commence a trial winter service between Mallaig and Lochboisdale from 2013. Over half of the scheduled trial sailings were cancelled due to adverse weather and tidal conditions.[citation needed] Despite the apparent lack of success, it was announced in September 2015 that she would commence daily return sailings on the route from summer timetable 2016. For the first time, this means that LOTI is now based around Mallaig, not Oban. Lochboisdale no longer has a direct link to Oban, apart from two days a week in Winter, with Mallaig becoming the mainland port. "LOTI" also carries out extra sailings on the Mallaig - Armadale route[citation needed] alongside the 2016 season vessels MV Lochinvar and MV Loch Bhrusda, which had replaced MV Coruisk. This vessel reshuffling has been criticised for the reduced capacity and inadequate passenger accommodation of Lochinvar, with calls for Coruisk to return to Mallaig alongside Lord of the Isles. During the winter 2016/2017 period, she started serving Oban from Lochboisdale two days a week, alongside her thrice-weekly sailings to Mallaig. From March 2017, LOTI will be partnered on the Mallaig - Armadale crossing by MV Loch Fyne, the previous smaller vessels being cascaded elsewhere in the CalMac network until the new ferries for Arran and Uig are due in service in 2019.

MV Clansman is a ferry owned by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited and operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, operating from Oban on the west coast of Scotland. The present MV Clansman is the fifth vessel to carry the name in the CalMac fleet over the years. The most recent predecessor was the 1964 built hoist loading ferry. Launched on 27 March 1998 at Appledore Shipbuilders in North Devon, she entered service four months later. As the third largest vessel in the fleet, she brought new levels of capacity and passenger comfort to the routes. The main complaint passengers had was Clansman's lack of open deckspace. The design of the ship was such that exterior areas for passengers came at a premium. Calmac remedied this problem by adding an extension, above the area aft of the bar during her annual overhaul in 2003 Clansman has an almost identical sister ship, MV Hebrides, built in 2000 to a similar specification. In April 2016, Clansman currently serves Coll, Tiree and Colonsay from Oban, with MV Isle of Lewis operating a daily dedicated service to Castlebay. A new daily return service from Lochboisdale to Mallaig commenced in April 2016, thus ending South Uist's direct link with Oban. A cafeteria is situated at the bow, with an observation lounge directly above. Aft are a series of lounges, shop and bar. Above is crew accommodation and a relatively small amount of open deck space. She lacks a forward deck. The car deck has room for approximately 90 cars. It also has a mezzanine deck on the starboard side which can be raised or lowered to allow loading of up to 10 more cars. Recently, the upper deck was extended aft to allow for more open deck space and some deck space sheltered from the elements. Designed specifically for the Oban – Castlebay / Lochboisdale and Oban – Coll / Tiree services, Clansman replaced MV Lord of the Isles. At 99m in length, she is the largest vessel that can safely navigate the numerous channels on her routes. She was however too large to call at Tobermory which was dropped from the Coll/Tiree sailings on her introduction. Each winter since her introduction, Clansman has relieved the larger Calmac units for their annual refit, leaving the route she was built for with Lord of the Isles. She has seen service at Lewis, Uig, Mull and Arran. A breakdown on 17 June 2010 resulted in Clansman being taken out of service for crankshaft repairs, and problems found meanwhile reassembling the engine resulted in an extended disruption to services. CalMac tried to arrange for a replacement vessel, however none could be found available for lease.Out of action for six weeks, the Clansman returned to service later in the summer. After running extra services in August to cater for the Barra Fest music festival, she broke down again en route to Barra after the port engine developed a fault. The repair was effected quickly but the event caused further disruption during the busiest time of the year. From 30 September to 17 October 2016, Clansman relieved on the Uig triangle in place of the MV Hebrides, after the Hebrides was sent to dry dock to repair damage sustained in a collision in Lochmaddy Harbour.

MV Coruisk is a Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ferry built in 2003, operated by Caledonian MacBrayne and serving the west coast of Scotland. Following her launch at Appledore's yard in early 2003, Coruisk left on her delivery voyage on August 2. She carried out berthing trials on the Clyde before taking over the Mallaig to Armadale route on August 14. She was officially named at Armadale by Baroness Ray Michie of Gallanach at a special ceremony. Initial technical problems required MV Pioneer to resume the service for some time. On 24 August, Coruisk lost power and struck a reef at the Mallaig harbour entrance, losing one of her propulsion units. She went to the Clyde for repairs and did not return to Mallaig that season. The following winter season at Dunoon was only slightly more successful, with slow berthing and many passenger complaints adding to her worsening reputation.Subsequent seasons have been less eventful. A temporary modification is made for the winter seasons to accommodate the gangways at Wemyss Bay and Rothesay. The design of Coruisk is unique.As well as bow and stern ramps, allowing drive-through operation, she also has a port side ramp, allowing side-loading on the Clyde in winter months. The bow ramp is protected by an open visor, similar to those found on Orkney and Shetland inter-island ferries. Clearance on the car deck is 5.1m. Above the car deck are two passenger decks, one containing the main lounge areas with toilets and a small shop/kiosk. A small external deck area on the same level, both fore and aft of the lounges, has stairways leading to the open deck above. Crew accommodation is on the upper deck. Sitting even further up, the bridge gives the master a view down over bow and stern. Schottel electric azimuth thrusters incorporate rotating pods protruding beneath the hull, with two propellers on each. Although similar to Voith Schneider units, the vessel proved much harder to control and manoeuvre. Until 2016, Coruisk was the sole vessel on the Mallaig to Armadale service in summer, relieving on the Upper Clyde in winter (when MV Lochnevis adds Armadale to her Small Isles roster). Since 2011, when the company's Dunoon service became passenger-only, Coruisk mainly relieved at Rothesay. During the winter period, Coruisk often provides a support service for the Argyll Ferries service from Gourock to Dunoon.In March 2014 she ran into the pier at Dunoon sustaining serious damage but managed to make her own way to Greenock to be assessed for repairs. In 2016, Coruisk became the second vessel on the Oban - Craignure route alongside MV Isle of Mull during the summer timetable period. She was replaced at Mallaig for the 2016 season by the much smaller MV Lochinvar and MV Lord of the Isles (in between the latter's Lochboisdale - Mallaig sailings). This reshuffling of the Mallaig fleet has been largely criticised by campaigners calling for Coruisk to remain at Mallaig with MV Lord of the Isles. In January 2017, it was announced that Coruisk would remain on the Oban - Craignure route for a second summer season: the Skye crossing being operated by MV Lord of the Isles and MV Loch Fyne until the new ferries for Arran and the Uig Triangle are due in service in 2019.