WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- When I first heard the
idea of a turntable ferry,

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I assumed it was an early design

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before anyone figured out
how to do ferries properly.

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A modern cross-river ferry
is built with the cabin at the side

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so cars can drive on and drive off
without having to awkwardly reverse.

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So, I figured a turntable
ferry like this one

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is going to be a prototype solution

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before anyone figured out how
to put the cabin at the side.

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Instead of having the cars reverse off,

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you turn the whole car deck around.

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And yes, that does happen here,

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but the real reason for the turntable
is more clever than that.

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And there's only one of them
left anywhere in the world,

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here in western Scotland,
over the sea to Skye.

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- There's been a ferry here
since the 1700s, people say;

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a vehicle ferry certainly since the 1930s.

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This particular ferry has
been here since the 1980s,

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and it was operated by a
man called Roddy MacLeod.

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And when the tolls were
removed from the Skye Bridge,

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he felt probably that the
ferry's time was up, really,

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'cause you could get across
the bridge for nothing,

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so who would pay to go on the ferry?

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So, the local community
banded together and thought,

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"We can't have this.

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"Not having the ferry
is a social experiment

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"we don't want to be involved in."

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So, a little group of folk got
together and saved the ferry

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and brought it into
community ownership,

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which it still is today.

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- There is quite a strong current.

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The current can be up to
nine knots in the strait,

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but that's exceptional.

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Current and wind together
can make things interesting.

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The ferry is very seldom

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pointing in the direction
it's actually going.

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Because of the wind and
because of the tide,

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we often have to set the boat
going in a different direction

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to allow us to get to where we want to go.

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- The water here is tidal
and the current is fast.

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Simple ferry designs are great

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if you've got steady water
that's always at the same height.

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Your boat arrives, puts
down a ramp to the shore,

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and the cars can drive on and off.

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But if the water's tidal, well,
that ramp could need to go

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three or four metres up or down

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depending on the time of
day, so the only way it works

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is if you build infrastructure
on the riverbanks:

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floating pontoons and large ramps

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that give the cars enough
room to drive up and down.

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That's far too big and expensive
for somewhere like this,

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so the obvious solution is a slipway:

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a boat ramp, a long gentle
approach to the water.

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In a lot of places, that does work.

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Sail up to the water's edge, drop a ramp,

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and everyone stays dry no
matter the water's height.

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But that means you need
a long, long slipway

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and, importantly, your boat
needs to be lined up straight.

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Here in this narrow channel,

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the current can be so
strong that isn't possible.

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Even if you could line up
straight reliably,

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you can only tie the
boat off at the front,

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so the back's probably
going to swing out a bit.

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So, what you want to do is
what a passenger ferry does:

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pull up alongside the slipway
and let people get off sideways.

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Great for people, not so useful for cars.

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And that's where the turntable comes in.

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- The turntable is a remarkable piece
of Victorian engineering.

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It was based on the old
railway turntable system.

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Cars could come onto
the boat from any jetty

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at any state of the tide
to then be turned round

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and be able to drive off.

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Usually, it's two, but
one person can turn it.

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A lot of oil and grease is expended

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in keeping it as
smooth as we can!

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The way that the boat is designed,

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it draws virtually no
draught at all forward

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and it's only four-and-a-half
feet at the stern,

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so it can come alongside
in very shallow water.

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That was the part of the design
that makes them so versatile.

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Very, very, very rare
indeed that we can't work.

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It would have to be an
exceptionally low tide.

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Before the invention of
the roll-on/roll-off ferry,

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these were the original
roll-on/roll-off ferries.

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- Now, there's been a
bridge across to Skye

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north of here since 1995,

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so these days this is
mostly used just by locals

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and as a tourist attraction in the summer.

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But if you are in this area, well,
I'd recommend taking a diversion

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and driving across this way

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because there's only
one place in the world

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where you can drive off
a turntable like this.

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Thank you very much!