New high speed ferry service between Canada and USA

[electricron]

New high speed ferry service between Portland Maine and Yartmouth Nova Scotia to lease "USNS Puerto Rico" (ex-Hawaii Superferry "Alakai") as Bay Ferries "The Cat".
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...ar24-1.3505585
Bay Ferries will take possession of the ferry on or just before April 1. Before it's put into service, it will head to a shipyard in South Carolina to prepare it for service. According to a government statement, the ferry service is scheduled to begin on June 15 and run until Sept. 30.
Some alterations will be made to the Yarmouth terminal, namely the construction of a new car-loading ramp. In comparison to the Nova Star's international crew, core positions on The CAT will be manned by Americans due to the terms of the charter.

Image from same CBC link


Deck Plans as MV Alakai can be viewed at
http://www.oahutomaui.com/images/ship-passengerdeck.gif

I hope this ship has finally found a home where it will be wanted and useful.

[mhays]

We also have a few services in the Northwest. The Victoria Clipper runs from Downtown Seattle to Downtown Victoria, which are two or three hours based on which boat you take, last I heard. The Washington State Ferries also runs car ferries from Port Angeles to Victoria. You could also count the 200 cruise ships that go from Seattle to Alaska every year, which have to stop in Canada along the way since a foreign-flagged vessel can't go between two US ports.

There must be some examples in the Great Lakes too?

[electricron]

Originally Posted by mhays

We also have a few services in the Northwest.

Are they a "new high speed" ferry service?

Moving 866 passengers and 282 cars at 35 knots is quite an accomplishment.
There may be larger ferries in North America, but I doubt they are just as fast.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mhays

There must be some examples in the Great Lakes too?

None that I'm aware of.

The vast majority of ferry routes in the great lakes serve islands in the lakes. And American islands are exclusively served by American ferries and Canadian islands are exclusively served by Canadian ferries.

There are two cross-lake ferry routes on lake michigan, but lake michigan is 100% American and as a result they travel between Wisconsin and Michigan. The other 4 great lakes are shared by the US and Canada and I'm not aware of any cross-lake ferries on them.

Bridges between the US and Canada at Sault St. Marie, port huron/sarnia, detroit/windsor, buffalo, and Niagra Falls seem to offer enough cross border access points to make cross-lake ferry routes untenable.

[Crawford]

There was a Toronto-Rochester ferry a few years ago, but no longer in service. That's the only Great Lakes international ferry I can think of.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There was a Toronto-Rochester ferry a few years ago, but no longer in service. That's the only Great Lakes international ferry I can think of.

And believe it or not was ran by Bay Ferries, the same company selected to control this new ferry. I'm not sure if the ex-Lake Ontario ferry was subsidized, but this new ferry will be by Nova Scotia for at least two years.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There was a Toronto-Rochester ferry a few years ago, but no longer in service. That's the only Great Lakes international ferry I can think of.

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I remember that one.

Do you remember how long it ran for? My memory tells me that it didn't last very long.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I remember that one.

Do you remember how long it ran for? My memory tells me that it didn't last very long.

The Spirit of Ontario I only provided ferry service between Toronto and Rochester for two summers, 2004 and 2005.

More details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_Dolphin_Jet

The vessel was built by Austal Ships in Perth, Australia. It was delivered in 2004 and christened Spirit of Ontario. Canadian American Transportation Systems (CATS) operated it during the summer of 2004. CATS declared bankruptcy in the fall of 2004 and Spirit of Ontario I was arrested by the United States Marshals Service for resale to pay creditors.

On February 28, 2005 at the bankruptcy auction in Rochester, the winning bidder was the "Rochester Ferry Company LLC", a subsidiary of the city of Rochester. Rochester Ferry Company LLC announced in April 2005 that Northumberland Ferries Limited, the parent company of Bay Ferries Limited, was selected to manage and operate the ferry service and vessel. High-speed ferry service between Rochester and Toronto was restarted on June 30, 2005. On January 10, 2006, newly elected mayor of Rochester Robert Duffy announced that the city government would not be approving the ferry board's request for additional funding for the city's subsidiary Rochester Ferry Company LLC so that the service could resume in the summer.

The vessel was sold in April 2007 to the German company FRS for a ferry service between Tarifa, Spain and Tangiers, Morocco. The vessel was renamed the Tanger Jet II.

In July 2012 the ship entered traffic between Kalundborg and Aarhus in Denmark for Kattegatruten, and was renamed the Dolphin Jet. After only 24 days of service the vessel was laid up in Aarhus.

I hope this helps.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There was a Toronto-Rochester ferry a few years ago, but no longer in service. That's the only Great Lakes international ferry I can think of.

The prospect of visiting Rochester didn't exactly get the local populace excited.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

None that I'm aware of.

The vast majority of ferry routes in the great lakes serve islands in the lakes. And American islands are exclusively served by American ferries and Canadian islands are exclusively served by Canadian ferries.

There are two cross-lake ferry routes on lake michigan, but lake michigan is 100% American and as a result they travel between Wisconsin and Michigan. The other 4 great lakes are shared by the US and Canada and I'm not aware of any cross-lake ferries on them.

Bridges between the US and Canada at Sault St. Marie, port huron/sarnia, detroit/windsor, buffalo, and Niagra Falls seem to offer enough cross border access points to make cross-lake ferry routes untenable.

I'm rather surprised there isn't any ferry service from Chicago to the various Michigan coastal towns. Yea, there is multiple-daily Amtrak service to many of those places for cheap but it isn't really the same experience. You'd think Chicago and Navy Pier would be big enough to support some service.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by isaidso

The prospect of visiting Rochester didn't exactly get the local populace excited.

Well I don't think these are usually tourist ferries. Or are they?

In any case, I can't imagine that ferry had a business model of appealing to tourists.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I'm rather surprised there isn't any ferry service from Chicago to the various Michigan coastal towns. Yea, there is multiple-daily Amtrak service to many of those places for cheap but it isn't really the same experience. You'd think Chicago and Navy Pier would be big enough to support some service.

The Michigan coastal towns are very close to Chicago, and you can get from those towns to Chicago in little over an hour. No need for a ferry. If you wanted to travel without a car, you could take the Indiana commuter line practically to the Michigan border. The Chicago-centric beach towns in MI are right over the Indiana border.

[202_Cyclist]

The summer of my senior year in college, I took one of these fast catamaran ferries (with my car) from Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia. I think the trip took about three hours.

[maybetoday]

Originally Posted by mhays

We also have a few services in the Northwest. The Victoria Clipper runs from Downtown Seattle to Downtown Victoria, which are two or three hours based on which boat you take, last I heard. The Washington State Ferries also runs car ferries from Port Angeles to Victoria. You could also count the 200 cruise ships that go from Seattle to Alaska every year, which have to stop in Canada along the way since a foreign-flagged vessel can't go between two US ports.

There must be some examples in the Great Lakes too?

The Port Angeles/Victoria ferry is a private car ferry line. WA State Ferries runs a car ferry between Anacortes and Sidney, BC (half hour north of Victoria) during the summer months.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Well I don't think these are usually tourist ferries. Or are they?

In any case, I can't imagine that ferry had a business model of appealing to tourists.

It didn't have a business model that appealed to anyone. If the US side were heavily populated, it might have worked.

[electricron]

Initial sea trails video for the MV Alakai (USNS Puerto Rico and soon to be "The Cat" ferry).
https://youtu.be/g3DXflnmpF0

Up to 42.5 knots and over 40 knots for 4 hours during the high speed test. 42 knots is equivalent to 48 mph, or 77 km/hr.

That's fast!