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Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 12, 2006 23:30:35 GMT -5
Fast ferry to replace 'The Cat' Earl Manmohan Scarborough
Friday, February 10th 2006
GOVERNMENT is to wet lease a five-year-old fast ferry from Austal PTY Limited of Australia to operate between Trinidad and Tobago from April when the six-month lease on The Cat expires.
The catamaran ferry by the name of Euro Ferrys Pilifica 101 is currently laid up in the Port of Ilge Ciris, Spain.
An Evaluation Committee of the Port Authority short listed the Austal ferry and recommended it to the Board of Commissioners, thereby ditching Incat Tasmania PTY Limited that built the two fast ferries currently operating on the route. A team headed by Port Authority CEO Rupert Mendes went to Spain to inspect the ferry and gave the thumbs up for the lease.
The authority first requested tenders for the wet lease of a fast ferry in November but when the Tenders Box was opened there were no bids. As a result, fresh tenders were invited and when bids were closed on December 23 four tenders were received. Austal and Incat were the firms submitting bids.
Austal proposed three high-speed catamarans: the five-year-old 101-metre to be leased, a nine-year-old 79-metre and an eight-year-old 82-metre.
Incat, a company, which had been recommended twice in previous attempts to procure a ferry, offered the Incat Hull 062, a new 98-metre catamaran that would be completed in April at its shipyard. Incat built The Cat and The Lynx that continue to perform with a high rate of success on the Tobago/Trinidad seabridge.
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