Post by ferryfast admin on Jan 31, 2008 10:27:26 GMT -5
The CAT Turns 10
Written by Jeff Walls
ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12487&Itemid=85
Thursday, January 31, 2008
BAR HARBOR — Ten years ago, the original incarnation of The CAT, the high-speed catamaran ferry, made its maiden voyage from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, replacing the venerable Bluenose. It was a 91-meter vessel constructed by Incat of Tasmania. The CAT was North America’s first high-speed ferry.
The CAT was built in Australia in 1997. In its infancy, the original CAT, known as the Devil Cat, traveled the longest ferry run in the world, between Port Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia to George Town, Tasmania, until it was acquired by Bay Ferries Ltd. of Canada. The vessel was renamed The CAT, and was put into service running between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor in May of 1998.
In 2002, Bay Ferries traded in the original vessel and acquired a 98-meter design, the largest and most modern vessel ever built by Incat at that time. The new vessel cost $50.2 million. The CAT is one of the most technologically advanced ferries in the North Atlantic.
The ferry ran a six-month schedule, from May through October, out of Bar Harbor, which allowed the ferry to operate an opposing schedule in the Bahamas in the 2003-2004 season, and to Trinidad and Tobago in the 2004-2005 season.
The company had a three-year agreement with the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago to run The CAT.
“It was so successful that they got two of their own. So we kind of did ourselves out of a job,” said Annette Higgins of Bay Ferries. “We still do management and maintenance for them so we still have personnel down there.”
In 2006, The CAT began making runs from Portland to Yarmouth on weekends when the Scotia Prince, a conventional ferry run by a competitor, ceased operations form that port.
The crossing from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor was handled for more than 30 years by the Canadian government-run MV Bluenose. It offered an alternative to driving around from Nova Scotia to Maine. When Canada put on a push toward privatization, Bay Ferries acquired the ferry service from Caribou, Nova Scotia, to Wood Islands, from the Canadian government and made it profitable. The company had similar plans for the ferry runs from Yarmouth and Digby, Nova Scotia. The CAT figured prominently in those plans.
The CAT ferry service runs at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour across the Bay of Fundy; it completes the journey in two hours and 45 minutes. The Bluenose, in comparison, would take about six hours to travel the same distance.
Festivities celebrating the 10-year anniversary are being planned for near the beginning of the 2008 season. Ferry service resumes June 2.