FastCats could compete with B.C. Ferries

[no1important]

FastCats could compete with B.C. Ferries

A teaser:


The company that bought the three controversial fast ferries has confirmed it's considering putting the catamarans into service between North Vancouver and Duke Point on Vancouver Island.

Washington Marine, which owns the shipyard where the ferries were built, bought the ferries back from the province for about $20 million in 2003. [/end of teaser]

Interesting. Is there enough ferry traffic for this type of competition?

 

[bevvyd]

I love competition, give the people a choice, an option what have you. I hope this works out, BC Ferries has had the Islanders and everyone who goes over there by the short and curlies for way too long. A little healthy competition never hurt anyone.

 

[the caracal kid]

competition is good. the whole fast-ferries fiasco is so sad, it would be good if the people that paid for them ended up actually getting to use them.

 

[talloola]

so unfair

it's just too bad that Glenn Clarke had to be badgered and beaten down by the, then, so called up and coming Gordon Campbell.

The liberals did everything, "illegal" to bring him down, and he had done nothing wrong. They were
responsible for turning the "fast ferry" situation into a huge scandel, and the people got sucked in and
dragged along with the scandel.

Those ferries had some gliches at the beginning, but with a little patience and adjustments, they would
have been fine. And, now if the company who built them bring them back and run them as they were
originally meant to run, it will be a laugh in the face of Gordon Campbell, who, rather than put them
into service, sold them back for "nothing", or else he would have admitted that they were OK to begin
with, and Glen Clarke had done something constructive and good for b.c.

I hate our premier, he is a liar, and a drunk, and he succeeded in destroying the premiership of a good
man in Glen Clarke. Campbell should have left him alone, and ran against him in an honest way, but
he might have lost again, and he just wouldn't have "that", so he lied, got the police to show up at
clarks house, and trumped up a big fake scandel, it was disgusting.

 

[Kreskin]

The wake of these ferries were causing shoreline problems in the Straight. They had to slow them down to the speed of the old dinosaurs. It was like buying sports cars that could only travel in school zones. How would a new owner make any difference?

I thought they were godawful. The most uncomfortable seating imaginable.

 

[talloola]

The wake of these ferries were causing shoreline problems in the Straight. They had to slow them down to the speed of the old dinosaurs. It was like buying sports cars that could only travel in school zones. How would a new owner make any difference?

So they said, but if this company brings them here and runs them efficiently, then that means that
there was a way, just had to find it If they had to be slowed down a little, then so be it, it is still
better than giving them away.

It was all politics.

I thought they were godawful. The most uncomfortable seating imaginable.

I travelled on them twice, didn't mind the ride, or the seating, but the vehicle area was too stuffy,
and I travelled with dogs, and there wasn't efficient air for them in the vehicle enroute.

But, those problems could have been fixed, there was too much money invested to just scrap them,
that was ridiculous, I have watched other documentaries from other parts of the world who use
them, and they are quite fine.

We are now going to have new ferries at a very high cost, and those ferries were almost given away,
such a waste, the campbell government convinced people that they were "useless", wrong., with
some intelligent managing, they could have been used.

 

[#juan]

The words that best described our woe begotten fast ferries are "too much", and "too little". They had too little room to carry trucks. They didn't carry that many cars. They burned too much fuel. The wave they made was too big.. The whole story was of excess. How many expensive(at the time)LCD monitors were on those boats to tell us how fast we weren't going. In a word, too many. The fast ferries were unreliable fuel hogs that we are better off without.

 

[talloola]

we'll see

I am interested to see how the company "which built them" manage to use them in our waters.

They won't do it unless there is a workable answer.

Is there any more news on this possibility, or was it just a rumour.

 

[Tonington]

My home town is the place where North America first saw the use of the high speed catamaran ferries. The Cat runs from Bar Harbour,Me and Portland,Me to Yarmouth. The trip is incredibly fast. You can hear the ferry before it enters the harbour. The waves it makes are incredible. The first summer we had the ferry, a few of my buddies and I were at the local teenage hang out spot, killing soem brain cells. The Cat comes in, and we run down to these rocks which go out to a little lighthouse in the middle of the harbour. As it passes by, one of my buddies says, we're gonna get wet, I told him he was crazy. The other two fellas had allready gone back to the parking lot. We watched this boat pass th ecat in the harbour, thats when I realized how big the wake was. I yelled and started running along the rocks. My other buddies were screaming at us, they had a front row seat for the action. I made it back in time to look back, and see my friend running along the rocks with a 5 foot wall of water behind him. It was quite a site, and he made it out ok.

 

[talloola]

wow

that is very scary, was that a much bigger "Cat" or the same size as the ones we had, if the same then it's

too risky, as people's lives would be in danger, I didn't realize the wake was that big.

What's the point, why would they have agreed to something that hazardous.

Seems like poor planning, surely someone explained the "wake" problem before the fact.

 

[Tonington]

That was our first Cat, which was smaller than the new one. The wake being that size though is more of a cause of the harbour slope, and the close vicinity we were in to the Cat. It was very close, perhaps like standing at home plate and the relation to the centerfielder. Also, since that year the speed limit was reduced inside the harbour. A fisherman in thick fog in the wee hours of the morning thought he had time to make it across in front of the Cat, tragically he didn't and the boat was run over. The fishermen onboard died.

 

[talloola]

That was our first Cat, which was smaller than the new one. The wake being that size though is more of a cause of the harbour slope, and the close vicinity we were in to the Cat. It was very close, perhaps like standing at home plate and the relation to the centerfielder. Also, since that year the speed limit was reduced inside the harbour. A fisherman in thick fog in the wee hours of the morning thought he had time to make it across in front of the Cat, tragically he didn't and the boat was run over. The fishermen onboard died.

Oh, I understand now, didn't realize you were that close, makes sense. The fisherman's death is tragic,
but seems he made a tragic error, and caused his own death.

The Geogia Straits have lots of open space once ferry gets away from harbour, seems to me that the
Cat should perform efficiently here, I think they just didn't get all the kinks out of them in the
beginning, didn't give them a chance to settle in, and didn't do the necessary adjustments needed.

I'm sure the Liberal Government will do all they can to prevent the "original" company who built the cats,
from bringing them to our area, as they probably know that it will make them look ridiculous when
the "Cats" run well and are successful.

I'd love it., as, What goes around comes around..

 

[#juan]

Oh, I understand now, didn't realize you were that close, makes sense. The fisherman's death is tragic,
but seems he made a tragic error, and caused his own death.

The Geogia Straits have lots of open space once ferry gets away from harbour, seems to me that the
Cat should perform efficiently here, I think they just didn't get all the kinks out of them in the
beginning, didn't give them a chance to settle in, and didn't do the necessary adjustments needed.

I'm sure the Liberal Government will do all they can to prevent the "original" company who built the cats,
from bringing them to our area, as they probably know that it will make them look ridiculous when
the "Cats" run well and are successful.

I'd love it., as, What goes around comes around..

What you are missing, is that the catamaran ferries that B.C. Ferries had were unreliable, and they burned half again as much fuel as the bigger, older, ferries that we had, that could carry more cars and trucks, and were reliable as well.. The whole "fast ferry" project was poorly thought out, and unGodly expensive. The regular ferries were in the region of 12 -15 million dollars each. The three "fast ferries" cost the taxpayer close to 600 million dollars.

 

[Kreskin]

The "fast ferries" were also suppose to be .5 hour faster service thereby with more and shorter run times they would move more people. Because of the high fuel costs and the wake problems they went the same speed.

If the new owners want to run it they'll have the same issues to deal with. It seems there's always a new private operation starting up between the Island and Mainland but they usually don't last long.

 

[talloola]

no kidding

that's incredible, what were they thinking

I guess they thought they would make it up by moving faster, thus more passengers and more trips, but
obviously that theory went right out the window.

The people who are considering running them here again are the same people who built the ferries, so
perhaps they have done some revamping of their own, (just guessing), as I'm sure they aren't going
to repeat what has allready happened.

That kind of cost was totally unacceptable, as B.C. wasn't in a position to put out that kind of cash
without guarantee of good return.
Too bad, guess glen clark was listening to the wrong people, but, he still got screwed by Gordon
Campbell and his cronies, who set him up for a big fall, but in the end, (as I predicted at the time)
he was found innocent, but too little too late, because noone cared any longer, and Campbell was happy
and on his way "up", and the rest is history.

I detest campbell for what he did at that time, and if Glen Clark was the one in Hawaii getting drunk,
campbell would have had him thrown out of office, as he would have taken it to the limit, till he had
his way, as it turned out, we had to listen him sniffle and suck up to everyone, and act as though he
is just the same as everyone else, and lots of people thought that was OK. Disgusting.