{"id":88403,"date":"2026-02-14T09:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T12:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/892363737"},"modified":"2026-02-14T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T12:15:22","slug":"shipbuilder-which-received-a6m-in-public-funding-for-papa-stour-electric-ferry-trial-enters-administration-with-all-jobs-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/14\/shipbuilder-which-received-a6m-in-public-funding-for-papa-stour-electric-ferry-trial-enters-administration-with-all-jobs-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipbuilder which received \u00c2\u00a36m in public funding for Papa Stour electric ferry trial enters administration with all jobs lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"The\"The
The E-Luv electric ferry was planned to undergo trials on the Papa Stour service. Image: Coastal Workboats Scotland Ltd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A shipbuilding firm which received millions of pounds of public funding to develop an electric ferry serving Papa Stour has entered administration.<\/p>\n

Coastal Workboats Scotland Ltd was behind plans for the E-Luv <\/em>boat, which was initially planned to trial on the west of Shetland last year.<\/p>\n

However, those plans were shelved as the company sought to explore the ferry\u2019s suitability on other routes.<\/p>\n

Now, it has emerged the Stornoway-based firm has collapsed with the loss of five jobs and with five vessels left unfinished.<\/p>\n

The UK government had awarded the company \u00a36.2m to build the UK\u2019s first fully electric ferry for inter-island routes.<\/p>\n

Highlands and Islands Enterprise also awarded the shipbuilders \u00a3167,000 to fund robotic welding equipment in support of the project.<\/p>\n

Administrators FRP Advisory said the company suffered \u201cfinancial challenges through last year, in part due to design issues and supply chain delays\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Michelle Elliot, partner at FRP and joint administrator, said: \u201cCoastal Workboats Scotland Limited operated in a highly specialised and capital-intensive sector and faced a combination of technical, commercial and funding challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur immediate priority has been to support affected employees and to maximise realisations from the Company\u2019s remaining assets in order to achieve the best possible outcome for creditors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the proposed Papa Stour trial, Coastal Workboats said the vessel would have run twice a day, five days a week, with each crossing taking around 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n

The company said the trial would \u201cprove their concept to the industry in a real-world application \u2013 electric powered boats are currently restricted to pleasure boats\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the trial was abandoned, people in Papa Stour expressed relief.<\/p>\n

The community had been against the trial with many folk saying the rough crossing between West Burrafirth and Papa Stour was not suitable for such a vessel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/b><\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.<\/i><\/h6>\n
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<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… . Image: Coastal Workboats Scotland LtdA shipbuilding<\/span> firm which received millions of … Islands Enterprise also awarded the shipbuilders<\/span> \u00c2\u00a3167,000 to fund robotic …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}