Post by ferryfast admin on Jun 22, 2012 12:41:30 GMT -5
June 23, 2012 03:39am
Incat floats fast-ferry plan
HANNAH MARTIN | June 03, 2012 12.01am
BASS Strait could be transformed into a highway, with a new ship capable of completing the crossing three times a day.
Tasmanian shipbuilders Incat are proposing to build a ship that could make the journey in less than five hours.
It could carry 2000 passengers, 500 cars and 100 trucks on each trip.
It would potentially facilitate travel for 6000 people each day.
Incat owner Robert Clifford believes the 150m-long vessel, worth about $200 million, would be the largest passenger ship ever built in Australia.
He said it would be cheaper to run, resulting in lower passenger and freight costs.
The idea was raised after criticism last week of rising costs and lack of space for motorhomes on existing ferry services.
He said the carbon tax and new international fuel emission regulations that come into effect in 2015 would further blow out operating costs for the Spirit of Tasmania.
"I'm of the opinion that [in] between two and five years there will be a need for replacement ships for Bass Strait," he said.
"They can be ships like they are today, with different types of engines and different types of fuel burns, or they can be completely different boats."
Mr Clifford said his company could build a new ship in three to five years that would run on an environmentally friendly liquid natural gas.
It would be a "mini cruise ship" with theatres, restaurants, shops and rest areas. The ship would weigh 25,000 tonnes.
"To get that into perspective, that's double the size of the Empress of Australia that used to come into Tasmania. She was only 12,000 [tonnes]," he said.
Mr Clifford said it would be up to the ship's operator to decide how many crossings they wanted to do each day.
"In off peaks, it might only do two crossings a day. But whatever ship they buy should be capable of doing more in peak periods," he said.
Incat is yet to present a proposal to the State Government.
"We will be approaching the [TT-Line] operators some time in the future," Mr Clifford said.
"But our argument is it can be built in Tasmania. It can be built here as quickly as anywhere else in the world.
"There will be approximately 1000 people employed through the construction of the ship and obviously a lot of that money stays in Tasmania."
It's not the first time Mr Clifford has suggested the use of a catamaran to cross the Bass Strait.
He has floated the idea a number of times since their failed use more than 10 years ago.
Incat catamarans were introduced to the Bass Strait run in 1997, but proved unsuccessful in rough seas.
During one of their final seasons in 2002 there were seven cancelled sailings in a period of just two weeks.
Mr Clifford said the vessels were too short, at about 80m, to handle Bass Strait.
The latest proposal involves a ship eight times the weight of earlier models.
Incat floats fast-ferry plan
HANNAH MARTIN | June 03, 2012 12.01am
BASS Strait could be transformed into a highway, with a new ship capable of completing the crossing three times a day.
Tasmanian shipbuilders Incat are proposing to build a ship that could make the journey in less than five hours.
It could carry 2000 passengers, 500 cars and 100 trucks on each trip.
It would potentially facilitate travel for 6000 people each day.
Incat owner Robert Clifford believes the 150m-long vessel, worth about $200 million, would be the largest passenger ship ever built in Australia.
He said it would be cheaper to run, resulting in lower passenger and freight costs.
The idea was raised after criticism last week of rising costs and lack of space for motorhomes on existing ferry services.
He said the carbon tax and new international fuel emission regulations that come into effect in 2015 would further blow out operating costs for the Spirit of Tasmania.
"I'm of the opinion that [in] between two and five years there will be a need for replacement ships for Bass Strait," he said.
"They can be ships like they are today, with different types of engines and different types of fuel burns, or they can be completely different boats."
Mr Clifford said his company could build a new ship in three to five years that would run on an environmentally friendly liquid natural gas.
It would be a "mini cruise ship" with theatres, restaurants, shops and rest areas. The ship would weigh 25,000 tonnes.
"To get that into perspective, that's double the size of the Empress of Australia that used to come into Tasmania. She was only 12,000 [tonnes]," he said.
Mr Clifford said it would be up to the ship's operator to decide how many crossings they wanted to do each day.
"In off peaks, it might only do two crossings a day. But whatever ship they buy should be capable of doing more in peak periods," he said.
Incat is yet to present a proposal to the State Government.
"We will be approaching the [TT-Line] operators some time in the future," Mr Clifford said.
"But our argument is it can be built in Tasmania. It can be built here as quickly as anywhere else in the world.
"There will be approximately 1000 people employed through the construction of the ship and obviously a lot of that money stays in Tasmania."
It's not the first time Mr Clifford has suggested the use of a catamaran to cross the Bass Strait.
He has floated the idea a number of times since their failed use more than 10 years ago.
Incat catamarans were introduced to the Bass Strait run in 1997, but proved unsuccessful in rough seas.
During one of their final seasons in 2002 there were seven cancelled sailings in a period of just two weeks.
Mr Clifford said the vessels were too short, at about 80m, to handle Bass Strait.
The latest proposal involves a ship eight times the weight of earlier models.