Fastcats May Compete with BC Ferries!!

[cascade]

I think another problem which will take mega money to sort out is the wake/wave problem on the FastCats.

But - in theory - a run from Downtown Victoria to downtown Vancouver - would actually make sense - then the problems appear. First is the wake this thing makes - so to get the speed out of it - you need to by-pass the Gulf Island and go around the outside at speed - great sight - and then join the surf boarder riding the wake - when it hits the island.....

[BrianWilliams]

Perhaps not in the cards, but a possibility:

A run from Deltaport/Roberts Bank to Victoria has much high-speed potential. From Roberts Bank, skirting the E end of Saturna, a dog-leg to Stuart Island (USA), then a straight shot through Haro Strait. Berth at Laurel Point or Esquimalt, both close to downtown Victoria.

This route would follow the US/Canada boundary line.

[BrianWilliams]

Chris: thanks for posting the Alaska Ferry report. There's more real information in those 29 pages, than in 100 newspaper stories during the FastCat "crisis".

There has been SO much misinformation, from both sides, fuelled by politics and egos.

Example: in 2001, an otherwise-intelligent colleague of mine trumpeted "They can't even get the engines out for repair! The hatches are too small."

Well, yeah. Marine engines aren't lifted out like a Toyota V-6 for rebuilding. Major items like cylinder heads and crankshafts can be hoisted out for replacement, but the engine block is machined in place when necessary. At the end of a diesel's very long service life, the block is removed during a major refit. You cut a hole in the hull and swing it out.

Glen Clark, d*mn his ego, nearly wrecked BCF with this program; and Gordon Campbell (may the sandfleas of a 1000 beaches infest him) compounded the damage by refusing to try alternatives for these ships.

All the best to WMG. I hope the FastCats sail soon and successfully.

[cascade]

One thing we are all forgetting about this possible if and when ect... on the FastCats.

CREWS - where are they coming from ? Transport Canada will not allow the operational aspects of the vessels without trained crew - so has anyone seen newspaper reports about hiring crew for even one vessel? Given that it was a few years ago - crew will need time to be brought up to speed.

I think that WMG has opened the door to see where people in general want or even if they want the FastCats back - where to operate from. We are seeing the first signs - been talked about on Radio phone in shows....lets gage the response and see where it takes....smart move by WMG.

[Ferryman]

I wouldn't be suprised if any people that were part of the crews that worked on the Fastcats when they were in service with BC Ferries, but still work with BC Ferries on a conventional Ferry today, to go and drop their jobs with BCF and go with WMG. They still had crews to operate all three of them when they took the cats to Canada Place. I know they wouldn't of been full crews, but just enough people to operate the ships. I'm pretty sure the Fastcats evacuation equipment is almost the same as what they use on the C-Class that have already been through the Mid Life refit.

[Curtis]

BC Ferries's top enginier went to WMG according to CH news yesterday my guess more of the crew that worked on the Pacificats are going to be going to WMG as long as people have more sailings to Nanaimo my guess commercial vehicles will still travel with BC Ferries cause the cats have overhight restrictions since if it's liscesed for the road it can be driven on all BC Ferries if WMG doesn't find someone who can operate the Fastcats they will operate them here for sure

[Fenklebaum]

You've got to feel sorry for old Glen. Our ex-premier pushed this plan with only the greatest of intentions. Not only would the fastcats help 'save' BC Ferries, but they would also resurrect a dying shipbuilding industry. "Damn the torpedoes!" was his battle cry! "They said we couldn't stretch the C(V) class ferries", said he! And with a zeal even 'Flying Phil' Gaglardi would decry as 'lunatic', he went forth and DID.

Or rather, tried.

Seemingly contradicting the old maxim that 'you get what you paty for', the fastcats were a disaster. They cost too much to build, they cost too much to operate, they carry less people/cars, they're cramped, they're tacky, their wakes were, to say the least, destructive... The list goes on and on. The shipbuilding industry, so needing of a 'break', were granted no such reprieve, and plunged into even dire-er straights.

Forced to walk the plank from his own belov'd car'deck' (who gets that one?), Glen was in a terrible way. His good intentions having cost him his career, and what's more, his failures (all three of them) seemingly mocking him every morning as he looks out from his monolithic glass-walled prison, the den of his former enemy, over the failed shipyards that now harbour them.

A bitter pill to swallow.

But wait, there's more! After enduring the ignominy of watching his prides and joys being sold off at a fire sale, they're now going to be run in direct competition against the ferry service he tried to save with them! Taking more and more revenue from the newly privately-owned,-royally-screwed-over BC Ferries, his fastcats will drive his ex. Crown Corporation into the ground.

The universe has a sadistic side to it, I think.

[kylefossett]

the senior engineer was actually from the queen of cowichan and now works at vancouver shipyards. the fast cat ideas are still in the study phase. if they were to actually happen it would not be running until 2007

[Low Light Mike]

re Fenklebaum's quote "Forced to walk the plank from his own belov'd car'deck' (who gets that one?"

- that's a reference to Glen's cabin deck, in the okanagan, built for a very nice price by a friend who was looking to get a casino licence.

What do I win?

[Dane]

cascade said:

CREWS - where are they coming from ? Transport Canada will not allow the operational aspects of the vessels without trained crew - so has anyone seen newspaper reports about hiring crew for even one vessel? Given that it was a few years ago - crew will need time to be brought up to speed.

Well quite obviously there has been no adds, why would there be for a service that still hasn't even gotten company approval to go ahead yet...

They have tried to test the waters with BCF crews who eere involved with the FastCat project. A family friend was solicited but it sounded like a bad deal to him, plus his future prospects at BCFS are pretty good.

I would guess getting crews won't be too hard, but time will tell. Heck their two proposed terminal locations are 5 and 15 minutes away from the BCIT Marine Campus respectivly.

[cascade]

The newspaper article about the proposed startup of the Fastcats - mention that they didn't have insurance on the vessels. What they have is called "layed up - Hull & Machinery" only - which is based on the value of the vessels.

Given the history of these things - I would think that 2 months running insurance would cost them around $300,000 - given that the last Fastcat - blew up it's engines on sea trails - before it even / never entered service with BCFS - so most Insurance companies will be taking a very long and hard look at these crafts - plus given that they have sat idle doing nothing for years.

Crews - that will be a problem. Transport Canada is saying that Canada is short by 44,000 ticketed/license seafarers, so unless they pay over the odds and get some BCFS crew - where else are they going to get the trained up crew from? (China - now that would get the Unions blood boiling) But hey Seaspan has very close tie in with them - via there JV on the 13 massive container ships.