MV Jupiter

MV Jupiter arriving at Dunoon in late 2007
Career (UK)
Name:	MV Jupiter
Operator:	Caledonian MacBrayne
Port of registry:	Glasgow
Builder:	James Lamont & Co, Port Glasgow
Yard number:	418
Launched:	27 November 1973
Maiden voyage:	19 March 1974
Identification:	IMO number: 7341051 MMSI Number: 232003367 Callsign: MRVX8
Status:	in service
General characteristics
Tonnage:	849 GRT; 203  tons deadweight (DWT)
Length:	66.45 metres (218 ft)
Beam:	13.8 metres (45 ft)
Draft:	2.41 metres (8 ft)
Depth:	4 metres (13 ft)
Installed power:	2 x 4SCSA 8 cylinder diesel engines, 1000 bhp each
Propulsion:	2 Voith Schneider propellers, one at each end of the hull, on the centreline
Speed:	approximately 12 knots
Capacity:	531 passengers, 38 cars
Crew:	10
Notes:

MV Jupiter is a ship in the fleet of Caledonian MacBrayne. She operates as a car and passenger ferry in the Firth of Clyde area in Scotland. MV Jupiter is currently the oldest major vessel in the CalMac fleet, having been in service since 1974. She is the third River Clyde steamer to bear the name 'Jupiter'.

Layout

Jupiter incorporates a large open car deck towards the stern, with enclosed passenger accommodation and services towards the bow across three decks. The design is of the roll-on/roll-off type, with cars driving on via either the stern ramp or via one of the ramps amidships that lower to port and starboard respectively.

The ship houses two passenger lounges, one with a cafeteria, with crew accommodation on the upper deck.

The ship sports a “flying bridge”, an additional deck directly above the main bridge with platforms extending to port and starboard to allow crew better views of the ship’s approach to piers during docking manoeuvres. The flying bridge was not an original feature of the Jupiter; it was an innovation integral to the design of younger sister ship MV Juno (launched in September 1974) that was felt so useful it was retrofitted into Jupiter during her first annual refit.

Service

MV Jupiter was the first of a new generation of car ferries built in the 1970s to serve the routes on the Firth of Clyde. These ships came to be nicknamed the "Streakers" because of their greater speed (compared to what had served the area’s routes previously) and superb manoeuvrability (due to her novel propulsion units, which greatly reduced loading and unloading times at each end of her route).

Jupiter has primarily operated the Gourock – Dunoon crossing on the upper firth, (for much of her first decade of operation, the phrase "Gourock-Dunoon Ferry" was emblazoned on her hull), but has also operated the Weymss Bay – Rothesay route slightly further downriver from time to time. Alongside her younger sister ship, MV Juno, and the third “streaker”, MV Saturn, Jupiter has operated these Upper Firth routes for the last 34 years.

As well as normal car ferry duties, Jupiter has also undertaken many special, passenger-only cruise voyages to various locations in the Firth of Clyde and surrounding areas. In the 1980s and 1990s such cruises were regular occurrences in the summer months, with destinations such as Largs and Tighnabruiach seeing visits from Jupiter or one of her sister ships.

Replacement

The era of the Streakers is coming to an end. Just as the 1970s saw them replace an earlier generation, so they in turn are being replaced by a new generation of CalMac ferries designed for the Upper Firth, with MV Argyle and MV Bute now in service. As of Spring 2009, MV Jupiter remains on her traditional Gourock – Dunoon route.