Scotland's west coast ferry operator CalMac is to conduct trials of a large ferry from the Isle of Man on its Arran route with a view to possibly chartering the vessel.

MV Ben-My-Chree, owned by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, is currently used as a back-up vessel after a new ship the Manxman entered service last year.

The ship is due to arrive to Scotland later this week for berthing trials at Troon on the mainland and Brodick on Arran.

CalMac said it was working on back-up plans as it faces a difficult winter with some vessels out of service and others undergoing scheduled maintenance.

CalMac interim chief executive Duncan Mackison said: "We are being proactive in identifying options to add resilience and capacity to the network during what will continue to be a challenging winter.

"This vessel is larger than those currently serving Arran and would add capacity to that service whilst freeing up a vessel to move elsewhere.

"This is just a trial, and a full charter will be subject to agreement from multiple parties. Should this be reached, we will review and publish a plan on wider vessel deployment."

Ben-My-Chree - which means "girl of my heart" in the Manx language - is 125m (410ft) long and wider than the CalMac vessels that normally serve the Arran route.

Since its launch in 1998 it has primarily served the Heynsham-Douglas route, but was replaced by MV Manxman late last year.

A service agreement means it must remain available as a back-up vessel for Isle of Man services at certain times of the year.

CalMac is anticipating a difficult winter season and is looking at options to maintain services.

The main Arran ferry, MV Caledonian Isles, has been out of action since February and repairs to a new fault with a gearbox are expected to take at least another fortnight.

MV Hebridean Isles is due to be retired next month as it needs recertification and it is not economical to maintain the ship any longer.

The dual-fuel ship Glen Sannox, being built at the Ferguson shipyard, was due to be handed over two weeks ago, but a revised delivery date has yet to be confirmed.

CalMac will then have to carry out crew familiarisation trials and the new ship is booked in for two weeks of annual maintenance inspections in December, so Glen Sannox is unlikely to be in service before January.

Other large vessels in the CalMac fleet will also have to be withdrawn for scheduled annual maintenance over the winter.

CalMac is already chartering one vessel, the catamaran Alfred, to maintain services to Arran, at a cost believed to be £1m per month.

The state-owned ferry operator has only received one new large vessel, the Loch Seaforth, in the past decade, and many of its 10 largest ships are now beyond their expected service life.

A teenager has been taken to hospital after being rescued from the Firth of Clyde after going overboard from a ferry near Gourock.

Police Scotland were called after a report of a male youth falling from a Western Ferries service between Gourock and Dunoon at about 09:25.

Western Ferries confirmed an incident occurred on board one of their ferries which resulted in services being suspended for a short time.

The boy was rescued by a police boat and taken to Inverclyde Royal Infirmary.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “About 09:25 on Tuesday, 29 October we were called to a report of concern for a male youth who had gone overboard from a ferry near to Gourock.

“Emergency services attended and he was recovered from the water."

A large emergency service presence was visible at the scene with members of the Coastguard, RNLI, a Police Scotland vessel and an ambulance in attendance.

The HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter also offered support.

Two Caledonian MacBrayne vessels and a yacht were also diverted to the area to provide assistance.

Western Ferries managing director, Gordon Ross, thanked those who attended the scene and confirmed their service has returned to normal.

A huge newly-constructed ship is to be mothballed in Edinburgh as result of a "ferries fiasco" on the other side of the world.

The 212m-long (695ft) Spirit of Tasmania IV will be stored at Port of Leith because it is too large to fit the existing berths in the Australian city of Devonport.

The ferry has been built at a shipyard in Finland but it has to be moved out before winter because it could be damaged by pack ice.

A new berth to accommodate the ship in the island state of Tasmania will not be ready until late 2026 or 2027.

The ship - and its sister vessel Spirit of Tasmania V, which is still being built - had previously been described as a "game changer" for Tasmania's tourism industry.

But construction delays, rising costs and the problems with upgrading existing infrastructure have turned it into the state's biggest political scandal in a decade.

Australian media have described it as a "fiasco" and "debacle" while opposition leader Dean Winter called it the "biggest infrastructure stuff-up", external in the state's history.

The cost of building the two LNG dual-fuel ships has risen by A$94m (£47.5m) from A$850m (£430m) when the contract was signed in 2021 - while port upgrade costs, originally estimated at A$90m (£45.5m), have more than quadrupled.

Both the ferry company TT-Line and ports firm TasPorts are state-owned, and in August the infrastructure minister, Michael Ferguson, and TT-line chairman, Mike Grainger, both resigned.

In recent days it has emerged that the berth in Devonport - that was supposed to be built by now - would not be completed until October 2026 at the earliest.

TT-Line chief executive Bernard Dwyer said with pack ice expected in the Finnish shipyard town of Rauma in late November, it was important to move Spirit of Tasmania IV to another location.

"To ensure the vessel’s safety and preservation, we will temporarily relocate it to Leith, Scotland, where conditions are more suitable," he said.

"This move is necessary, as the vessel is not designed for the extremely low ambient temperatures anticipated in Rauma."

He said the firm was looking into whether it might be possible to lease out the vessel.

But it is understood that more work would be required before that could happen because the original construction deal involved some final fitting out work being completed in Australia.

The size of the ships means it is unlikely they could be used in Scotland, despite the west coast ferry operator CalMac being in desperate need of new vessels.

The story has a number of parallels with Scotland's own "ferries fiasco" where state-owned ferries company CMAL ordered ships that were too large to fit existing infrastructure.

The LNG dual-fuel ships Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, still being built at Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow, are meant to sail from Ardrossan to Arran but are unable to use the mainland port because of delays to a planned redevelopment.

Then Transport Minister Humza Yousaf announced the Ardrossan upgrade in 2018, but deadlock between its private owner Peel Ports, the local council and the Scottish government over costs means there is as yet no timescale for the work.

Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa will instead have to sail from Troon initially, meaning a 20-minute longer journey and fewer daily sailings, and there will be no dedicated fast refuelling facilities for the LNG.

A plan to charter a large ship from the Isle of Man to help relieve pressure on Scotland's west coast ferry services this winter has been abandoned.

Ferry operator CalMac carried out a berthing trial with MV Ben-My-Chree on its Arran route but confirmed it had been unsuccessful.

The ship, which is owned by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, managed to berth at both Troon and Brodick but safety margins at Brodick were too tight to proceed with the charter plan.

CalMac had hoped to hire the ship to improve resilience this winter when a number of its large ferries could be out of service for repairs or scheduled maintenance.

Ben-My-Chree - which means "girl of my heart" in the Manx language - is currently used as a back-up vessel for Isle of Man ferry services after a new ship, the Manxman, arrived last year.

The 125m (410ft) ship is available for charter to other operators subject to a service agreement which means it can be recalled with four days' notice in emergencies.

But Ben-My-Chree, which is wider than CalMac ships that normally operate on the Arran route, had some difficulty berthing at Brodick.

CalMac's interim chief executive Duncan Mackison said: "Whilst the vessel berthed successfully, we were at the very edge of the limits it was safe to operate to, and we’d be relying on completely benign conditions to berth regularly.

"Given the conditions at this time of year it is not safe, or sensible, for the service to try and operate this way.

"Preliminary work indicated the vessel may be suitable for Troon-Brodick and eliminated all other routes. But the only way we could know with certainty was to carry out these trials."

CalMac said there was "no immediate negative impact" on it services as a result of the trials not working out, and it would continue to explore options for chartering extra ferry capacity.

CalMac has said it faces a very challenging winter, and a charter of Ben-My-Chree would have freed up a vessel from the Arran route to maintain services elsewhere.

The main Arran ferry, MV Caledonian Isles, has been out of action since February and repairs to a new fault with a gearbox are expected to take at least another fortnight.

MV Hebridean Isles is due to be retired next month as it needs recertification and it is not considered feasible to maintain the ship any longer.

Other large vessels in the CalMac fleet will also have to be withdrawn for scheduled annual maintenance over the winter.

The dual-fuel ship Glen Sannox, being built at the Ferguson shipyard, was due to be handed over two weeks ago, but a revised delivery date has yet to be confirmed.

The first of four new ferries being built in Turkey has also been delayed and will not arrive until next February.

The last time a new large ship was provided to CalMac by ferries procurement firm CMAL was in 2015, when Loch Seaforth was delivered.

Many of the ships in the CalMac fleet are now well beyond their expected service life. In some cases they are so old that spare parts are no longer available and have to be specially manufactured.