Post by ferryfast admin on Dec 13, 2007 12:23:57 GMT -5
New ferry to pay visit at Lions Gate around 12:30 p.m.
Jack Keating, The Province
www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=98974013-91d9-44cd-8c85-1969f296f58b
Published: Thursday, December 13, 2007
Vancouver residents will get a sneak preview of the Coastal Renaissance -- the first of three German-built Super-C Coastal-class B.C. Ferries -- when it sails under the Lions Gate Bridge at about 12:30 p.m. today.
The ship, which left Flensburg, Germany, on Oct. 27, will culminate its 48-day journey by circling Vancouver harbour before heading off to its new home at Departure Bay in Nanaimo.
The Coastal Renaissance and its two sister vessels, which are being built at a total cost of $542 million, will be draped with large-format photographs more than 10 metres tall and 152 metres in length.
B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall predicts members of the public -- including company president David Hahn, who will view the arrival from Brockton Point in Stanley Park -- will be impressed by their viewing of the new ship and "gorgeous" images promoting the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.
"It has the massive Olympic logos on it, with scenery and huge decals with Olympic athletes," said Marshall. "It's an invitation to the world to come to B.C. for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games."
The Coastal Renaissance, which has a capacity of 1,650 passengers and 370 vehicles, will be placed on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay run, starting in March next year.
The next two German-built ferries will be finished in mid-January and mid-May and are expected to be in service on the Duke Point-Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen runs next summer.
Critics of the government's maritime policy, including the head of the Shipyard General Workers Federation of B.C., say the vessels should have been built in B.C.
"Absolutely, they could have been built here," said federation president George MacPherson, who has called a news conference for this morning at the Maritime Labour Centre to discuss the ship's arrival and related issues.
jkeating@png.canwest.com