Slipping - Press Release

  • MAID TO BE HIGH & DRY FOR FIRST TIME IN 25 YEARS
  • MAID OF THE LOCH, Loch Lomond’s Paddle Steamer, will be hauled out of the water on Tuesday 27 June as a test of the rebuilt slipway.
  • Tied up at Balloch Pier since her withdrawal from active service in 1981, this will be the first time she has moved since then – 25 years ago.
  • “This is a really major step forward for us”, said Colin Paterson CBE, Chairman of the Loch Lomond Steamship Company, the Maid’s owners. “Although we have spent 10 years refurbishing the Maid and opening her as a visitor attraction, this is a key milestone. The Maid will dwarf everything in the area and will be a sight to behold. It will be spectacular!” he added.
  • This dramatic achievement has been possible thanks to a £620,000 funding package from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scottish Enterprise Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire Council, and LLSC. The project started last September and its official opening will not take place until the internal refurbishment of the winchhouse, a visitor interpretation facility and external landscaping have been completed. This slipping is part of the rebuild contract and will be carried out by the contractor, Heritage Engineering Limited.
  • “There is huge excitement in the area for this, and we are keeping everything crossed that all goes according to plan”, he added. “The significant point is that the Maid continues to make progress. We now have the facility to repair and upgrade the ship to make her sail again and we are confidently working on our plans to achieve that”.
  • Mr Paterson said that the Maid would be closed for business on Monday in order to prepare her for the slipping process, such as disconnecting mains’ services and securing crockery and stores.
  •                                                                                     Ends 23.06.06
  • NOTES TO EDITORS
  • 1. This is a test exercise being carried out as part of the slipway rebuild contract. Total control of the exercise is by Heritage Engineering Ltd., the contractor for the rebuild.

    • 2. The exercise is very weather dependent – the Maid can only be slipped under calm conditions. If conditions are not suitable, the slipping will be postponed. This could happen on the day itself.

    3. It will take several hours for the slipping to be complete. The Maid will start to be moved from the pier around 9am. It may take some time to line the Maid up correctly on the submerged carriage, and the winch moves slowly at 1 metre per minute. She should start to come out of the water around 11am, with the slipping complete around 1pm. She will be held on the slipway for an hour, and then put back into the water.

    4. The Maid will be brought out of the water, put back into the water and tied up at the pier on the same, or following, day. No work will be carried out to the Maid as this is a test run as part of the slipway rebuild contract.

    5. Maid of the Loch is the last paddle steamer to be built in Britain, and the last steamer on Loch Lomond. She was built in 1953 and withdrawn from service in 1981. She has remained moored at Balloch Pier ever since, and is now a visitor attraction, café, bar and restaurant.

    6. The Loch Lomond Steamship Company is a charity registered in Scotland, formed to ensure the future of the Maid. Our aim is “to return the Maid to steam operation on the loch as soon as funding allows”.

  • Colin Paterson, Chairman, and John Beveridge, Director, will be available on the day for interview. There will be plenty of opportunity for photographs of the Maid coming out of the water for the first time (but we regret there can be no access to the slipway complex during the slipping process).