Ferry Mcferryface

[Dane]

mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-13/sydney-ferry-will-actually-be-called-ferry-mcferryface/9146446?pfmredir=sm

Ferry McFerryface to be name of new Sydney ferry after public vote

Run a competition asking Sydney to name a new ferry, expect the outright silliest name to win.

Ferry McFerryface is now officially the name of the last ferry in a new fleet of inner harbour vessels.

The name was voted on by hundreds of Sydneysiders in a competition which allowed the public to be part of maritime history.

However, the most votes actually went to the name Boaty McBoatface, the notable title Brits voted to call a new research vessel last year.

But Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said they wanted to avoid a double up.

"Given Boaty was already taken by another vessel, we've gone with the next most popular name nominated by Sydneysiders," Mr Constance said.

"Ferry McFerryface will be the harbour's newest icon, and I hope it brings a smile to the faces of visitors and locals alike.

More than 15,000 suggestions were made in the Name Your Ferry competition and three of the six new ferries have already been picked by voters: Victor Chang (Australian heart surgeon), Fred Hollows (ophthalmologist) and Catherine Hamlin (obstetrician).

The suggested names were considered by a four-person panel comprising of Australian National Maritime Museum director and chief executive Kevin Sumption, former NSW Volunteer of the Year Patrick Dodd, NSW Young Australian of the Year Melissa Abu-Gazaleh and Australian Museum director and chief executive Kim McKay.

When voting opened Mr Constance urged the public: "Let's really generate some of the best names possible."

The new fleet has capacity for about 400 customers, improved accessibility for people with disabilities, wi-fi access, luggage and bicycle storage areas and charging stations for electronic devices.

The Boaty McBoatface legacy has spread worldwide, with an express train in Sweden named Trainy McTrainface earlier this year and a team at Sydney's Warwick Farm racecourse naming their horse Horsey McHorseface last year.

[Neil]

Nov 13, 2017 17:20:55 GMT -8 Dane said:

mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-13/sydney-ferry-will-actually-be-called-ferry-mcferryface/9146446?pfmredir=sm

Ferry McFerryface to be name of new Sydney ferry after public vote

Run a competition asking Sydney to name a new ferry, expect the outright silliest name to win.

Ferry McFerryface is now officially the name of the last ferry in a new fleet of inner harbour vessels.

The name was voted on by hundreds of Sydneysiders in a competition which allowed the public to be part of maritime history.

However, the most votes actually went to the name Boaty McBoatface, the notable title Brits voted to call a new research vessel last year.

But Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said they wanted to avoid a double up.

"Given Boaty was already taken by another vessel, we've gone with the next most popular name nominated by Sydneysiders," Mr Constance said.

"Ferry McFerryface will be the harbour's newest icon, and I hope it brings a smile to the faces of visitors and locals alike.

More than 15,000 suggestions were made in the Name Your Ferry competition and three of the six new ferries have already been picked by voters: Victor Chang (Australian heart surgeon), Fred Hollows (ophthalmologist) and Catherine Hamlin (obstetrician).

The suggested names were considered by a four-person panel comprising of Australian National Maritime Museum director and chief executive Kevin Sumption, former NSW Volunteer of the Year Patrick Dodd, NSW Young Australian of the Year Melissa Abu-Gazaleh and Australian Museum director and chief executive Kim McKay.

When voting opened Mr Constance urged the public: "Let's really generate some of the best names possible."

The new fleet has capacity for about 400 customers, improved accessibility for people with disabilities, wi-fi access, luggage and bicycle storage areas and charging stations for electronic devices.

The Boaty McBoatface legacy has spread worldwide, with an express train in Sweden named Trainy McTrainface earlier this year and a team at Sydney's Warwick Farm racecourse naming their horse Horsey McHorseface last year.

Call me Grumpy McGrumpface, but a joke like this only works once. Second time, it's just stupid. And this isn't even just the second time...

[Dane]

I was reading on an Australian site that there was actually a registration issue because there was a Ferry Mcferryface already registered. While it does make me chuckle a bit still it isn't hilarious like the first time... I agree with Neil. No more Namey Mcnameface, please!

[northwesterner]

Nov 13, 2017 22:04:05 GMT -8 Neil said:

Nov 13, 2017 17:20:55 GMT -8 Dane said:

Call me Grumpy McGrumpface

Can we file this name away for future use?

[jwjsamster]

Still better than the Coastal class naming scheme...

[Starsteward]

Nov 14, 2017 11:10:18 GMT -8 jwjsamster said:

Still better than the Coastal class naming scheme...

     While I like the attention you drew to this inane naming contest, I think you're stretching the comparison just a fathom or two but it's a close race.
     Naming a vessel Inspiration, Celebration or Renaissance, without the 'Coastal' prefix makes more sense to me.
     What 'is' a "Coastal Inspiration"....really? The two words are not complimentary.
     I feel sorry for the "Island Sky"....whatever that is, I happen to be aware that it is a ferryboat but for those not familiar with BCFS vessels?
     The Salish class vessels almost get the vessel naming process back in order, but 'group-class' names shouldn't include more than two or three
     vessels because more vessels within the same naming class lose their 'identity'.
     And then there's our little 'Northern Sea Wolf'.....another miss not only in name but also in suitability for the expected type of traffic on the resurrected Route 40.
   
     
      

[FNS]

Nov 13, 2017 22:42:32 GMT -8 northwesterner said:

Nov 13, 2017 22:04:05 GMT -8 Neil said:

Call me Grumpy McGrumpface

Can we file this name away for future use?

You can save that for a grumpy day, indeed.

Cute name those Aussies chose.

If they haven't done so, I'd like to see one of their ferries named MV SYDNEY SWAN after their Australian Rules Football team. 

In that "Rough and Tumble Sport Down Under", you try and kick the ball through the middle slot of the four poles.  That's a Goal (6 points).  If your kicked ball goes through between the outer poles, that's a Behind (1 point).  If your ball goes outside of the four poles, it's a Miss and you get some sorry commentaries from the broadcasters.

They brought these games and teams up to BC Place Stadium some time ago and I loved watching them!  They sprayed water on the green artificial turf so the players didn't get burned sliding on it.  They're used to playing on real grass.

[Low Light Mike]

It turns out that "Ferry McFerryFace" didn't actually receive the most votes in a "name the ship" contest.

It only got a few votes, and an insider committed ferry-naming-fraud.


Here's how the Washington Post described it:

Last year, the Australian government announced the results of a competition to pick the names of six new ferries that would enter into use in Sydney. Five of the names picked were of prominent Australians, including doctors and indigenous leaders, but when it came to naming the final ferry, things went another direction — and the boat ended up with the name Ferry McFerryface.

Justifying the decision, New South Wales Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance admitted that it was an odd choice but said it was what the people wanted.

It is not everyone's cup of tea, but the people voted for it so we listened.

However, new information reported by Australian media outlet 9 NEWS this week suggests that Ferry McFerryface did not come close to winning the public vote. And even though it cost 100,000 Australian dollars ($81,000) to hold a competition that was in part designed to weed out ridiculous names, the local government ignored the results and chose Ferry McFerryface.

Worse, the scandal may not stop there. After the local government announced that the name of the ferry would be changed to that of a children's author, May Gibbs, on Tuesday, another report quickly suggested that that name was also ineligible under the rules of the competition.

Sydney locals had first been called on to help select the ferry names in 2016. Voters were asked first for nominations in three categories (arts and culture, connections to Sydney Harbor or science, environment and innovation), which would then be sent to a honorary panel that would recommend names. The general public would then be asked to cast their votes on the nine names suggested by the panel, using the Name Your Ferry website and the social media hashtag #yourferry.

Yet when the time came to announce the name in November, Constance said Sydney residents had not picked the panel's suggestions and instead voted for another name: Boaty McBoatface. That name had won a similar 2016 vote held in Britain for a polar research vessel just two months before the Australian vote had opened.

The British government later overturned that decision and instead named the vessel after naturalist Sir David Attenborough. However, Boaty McBoatface sparked a global trend in names around the world, with names such as Trainy McTrainface becoming a regular occurrence in naming contests. The British government eventually saw the funny side and gave the name Boaty McBoatface to a subsea research vessel on the Sir David Attenborough.

Constance said that as that name was already taken by the British vessel, his government had no choice but to go with the second most popular name. “Ferry McFerryface will be the harbor's newest icon, and I hope it brings a smile to the faces of visitors and locals alike,” Constance said in a statement.

But not everyone was amused. A representative of the union whose members were due to staff the ferries said that workers were frustrated by the decision. “The Transport Minister is demonstrating here that he treats public transport as a joke,” Australian Maritime Union's Paul Garrett told 2GB Radio.

The name became a political issue, with an opposition leader pledging to “dump this silly name” if his party came to power in the next election in New South Wales, due be held in early 2019.

On Tuesday, 9 NEWS reported that documents it acquired through a freedom of information request revealed not only that Ferry McFerryface had been ineligible for the competition, but also that the name had attracted 182 votes in the final round of voting. Instead, the clear winner was Ian Kiernan, the founder of environmental organization Clean Up Australia, with 2,025 votes.

After the 9 NEWS report appeared this week, Constance told reporters that the name was “only a bit of fun with the kids” and that his government would now be renaming the boat after Gibbs, a beloved author of books for children. 9 NEWS subsequently reported that Gibbs was also ineligible as she was not in the winning category of science, environment and innovation.

Constance has justified his decision to use the Ferry McFerryface name by arguing that the name had received a larger number of nominations in the first round of the multistage naming competition. However, the complicated naming process had been chosen specifically to avoid a repeat of the Boaty McBoatface controversy in Britain: When the contest was first announced in 2016, the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that a name like Ferry McFerryface was “unlikely to make it past the government's handpicking four person panel.”

“They've been very stupid,” Kiernan told reporters Wednesday. “I won on the votes. But it's been a political hijack.”

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended Constance the same day, telling a news conference that “from time to time we can look back and think we could have handled things differently or better, that goes without saying.” However, ABC News reports that despite facing about a dozen questions from reporters on the issue, Berejiklian avoided two words in all her responses: Ferry McFerryface.

From HERE

Meanwhile, we have Island Sky...