Scotland’s ferry crisis has left a rugby club thousands of pounds out of pocket after bookings were cancelled.
Clubs from across Scotland had booked travel from Oban to Mull for the annual sevens tournament yesterday. But after forking out £12,000 on its main fundraising event of the year, Mull Rugby Club began receiving calls saying CalMac had cancelled their bookings.
The turmoil is a result of this month’s deployment of the main Isle of Mull ferry to help out in South Uist and Barra. That left smaller boats, Coruisk and Loch Frisa, unable to cope with demand on the busy Oban to Mull route.
James Greig, director of Mull RC, said: “We’ve had calls from clubs who have had bookings cancelled and are expecting more clubs to get these messages from CalMac, so we’ve been in limbo.
“We are going to go run something as we’ve some teams coming as foot passengers and have spent £12,000, including food and equipment, so we have to do something to recoup costs. It’s to generate income for the club for the year.
He added: “We have had no senior management engage with us.”
A woman in her 80s, who did not want to be named, said she had to cancel an Oban dental appointment due to lack of ferry space. Her son said: “It’s a pretty poor show.”
The uncle of musician Hannah Fisher travelled more than 360 miles to Mull for his 80th birthday – but was stranded in Oban until today, after his birthday. Hannah tweeted: “Priority should be given to elderly locals.”
CalMac has also cancelled coach tour bookings, affecting day trippers. But tourists can still take the return trip from Oban – without visiting the island. Claire Mackenzie Noble, of Tobermory, whose bakery trade is down 30-40 per cent due to lost coach trips, said she faced a delay while travelling to a hospital appointment in Oban.
She added: “There were about 30 people on the ferry who had come over from Oban and were going straight back, literally without setting foot on the island. They need to prioritise islanders.”
Robbie Drummond, CalMac chief executive, said: “This is a challenging period for our customers and we apologise for the disruption. We made it a priority to find ways to increase capacity to and from Mull to cope with capacity constraints between May 13-27.”
Compensation paid to CalMac passengers rose to more than £450,000 last year as cancelled sailings reached a five-year high.
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