Western Ferries operation from McInroy’s Point to Hunter’s Quay has been operating for over 40 years providing privately owned competition to the state owned Caledonian MacBrayne service on their Gourock – Dunoon service.

The company have operated several second-hand ferries over the years from British, Dutch and Swedish operators but today operate a fleet entirely of purpose-built vessels. Two built on the Clyde and two built on the Mersey.

The route is quite a way away from the towns of Gourock and Dunoon and as such its principle trade is cars and their passengers whereas the Calmac route operates from the heart of each town and carries foot passengers only connecting with the adjacent railway system at Gourock.

At peak times all four ships are in operation with two link spans available at each terminal. As one ship leaves another comes alongside the adjacent link span to load up meaning there is a ship at each end virtually constantly so waiting times are kept to a minimum apart from during exceptional times when I’ve seen traffic backed up for quite some distance down Cloch Rd.

The current fleet are all fairly young ships. The elder pair were built at Ferguson’s on the Clyde and are named Sound of Scarba and Sound of Sound of Shuna, the former was built in 2001 at a cost of £2.5 million and the later was delivered in 2003. The have a capacity for 45 cars and a crew of 4 and 220 passengers which is broadly a similar number to the passenger ships operated by CalMac. They have 2 x Cummins KTA 19 M3 600 BHP @ 1800 rpm, a length of 49.95m and a beam of 15.01m.

The second pair were built at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead with both Sound of Seil and Sound of Soay being delivered in 2013. This pair are essentially the same as the first with similar engines but are 497GRT compared to 489GRT for the Scottish pair.

They are the only car ferry company in the Uk now operating a fleet or entirely British built and registered ships and the operation is very successful as they should be with a monopoly and four modern ships.

The operation runs like clockwork with a three ship service at less busy times with the spare vessel retreating to a small jetty in the adjacent Holy Loch for lay up. This vessel is joined by a second ship overnight.

Travelling with Western Ferries is a simple affair, the majority of people stay in their cars with some getting out to use stretch their legs and catch some air and the foot passengers have their own side lounge to sit in. There are rest room facilities all very clean and modern but nothing else and in truth for a 20 minute sailing that’s all their needs to be.

The service is efficient and it does all that it needs to but the ships lack the character of the CalMac fleet but from a commercial perspective character doesn’t matter as long as the ships do their job. And they do. Very well indeed.