My Favourite Vessels

[Harry]

Hi, I am 12 and I live in Vancouver, I am visiting at Brentwood Bay now.

My Favourite Vessels in order best to last are:

1, Quinsam, because I rode it on a bike ride trip.

2, Mill bay, because she is the oldest and looks like a good vessel.

3, Spirit of Vancouver Island, because it (and it's sister) are the largest ferries in the fleet.

4, Queen of Saanich, because I got to see the engine room.

5, Skeena Queen, because of it's shape.

6, Queen of Capilano, because of the modern look and the shape of it.

post your favourites (here!) and tell me why you like them.

Harry (Author of this Thread)

[Koastal Karl]

Queen of Saanich, Cumbie, SOBC, SOVI, Cowichan, Coquitlam, and the Nanny!

I like them all the same, no specific order.

[Balfour]

My favourites are Queen of Saanich, SOVI, SOBC, Nanny , Cow, Coq, Burn, Vancouver, Esquimalt, and Skeena Queen, and Queen of Tsawwassen.

[Curtis]

Im putting mine in 3 groups of 3.
The rankings are Major 200-470 Intermidiate80-192 and Minor 16-70
Major routes:SoBC, Queen of Surrey, Queen of Coquitlam
Intermidiate Vessels: Queen of Burnaby, Queen of Tsawwassen, Queen of Capilano
Minor: Powell River Queen, NIP, Tenaka
Those are the creem of the crop but I like all the ships

[Sandi]

My favourite is the Queen of Burnaby!

[Harry]

Why the mill bay-brentwood bay run is losing money, is because nobody is using it because of the malahat highway, maybe keep it running, then have M.V Elizabeth (new ferry service suggestion) could run along with the mill bay when the malahat closes in the winter.

[cascade]

Harry,

The problem as to why the Mill Bay - Brentwood is losing money - is that she can only hold 16 cars, plus she only does 9 round trips per day - plus it takes 25 mintues per each trip.

The way that BCF keep records for this route is puzzling. There are two crews of 4 people, which work 4 days on and 4 days off. Therefore you have 8 people classed as pure operational staff. Now it depends on who you ask or talk to - but BCF are showing that there is either 11 or 15 people assigned to this route - Ferry. So where do they work? HQ ? The terminals are un-maned - so not there? Marketing - ticketing - well they only take cash - and a Deckhand does that on the way across. BCF does very little - if none at all with regards to marketing this route - so I guess it's down to people in the HR - Payroll dept. (Fuel is a very small amount - also the lub's - as mentioned on this link she has very small engine)

Add in to all of this - she goes off line for about 6 weeks each year - so loss of possible income. On pure Income in 2004 she made $846,000 - but her maint'ce and running cost eat into that - with crew wages the greatest amount.

To keep this route afloat - open BCF claim to pump into Route 12 about $1.4M. I for one would really like to know where this "pure" cash goes.
They also claim to write off a lot. But this is a joke - she is 50 years old - how much more can be written off? In 2001 BCF spend - or claim to have spend around $3M on dock upgrades and general Maint'ce to the Mill Bay.
So I guess she has "Gold" tap's in the engine room - and a marble floor on the Bridge - with state of the art gear. yea like get a life BCFS.

[Harry]

Well you are right there actually, but the mill bay should maybe operate only in the summer then in the winter months when the malahat closes, have a vessel like klitsa and the mill bay should move to klitsa's route or have a vessel like quinsam and have them run in tandem.

[Curtis]

Only Problem no overhight allowed if the truck want to go to Victoria or up the Island this they need to take the Malahat they need to increase the ramp load limit so the trucks can take it if the trucks want to take it

[Balfour]

or if the Malahat is closed.

I think the Mill Bay route should only be used when the Malahat is closed, like when there is a nasty crash or if there is a big snowstorm or something. It should be free and run by the Ministry of Transportation.

[cascade]

I guess you all know me by now - I must be it's only cheer leader for keeping the Mill Bay route. I like the feed back - exchange of ideas ect...

I have been looking at this route for a very long time - many , many years - use to ride her to school - Brentwood College. So I do have true soft spot for her.

There needs to be a new vessel on this route - but I can think of a few other routes - where I quesation as to why they are there..... so

[Harry]

let's just get talking about you're favourite vessels (BCF or not)

[sean08]

My favorite vessels would have to be , Nanaimo ;D,kahloke ,pender,(retired)saanich,vancouver,newwestminister,burnaby,klitsa,esquimalt,sidney.(nanaimo is first but all others aren't in any order)and,I absolutely hate the "C" class because they are soooo ugly.

[Koastal Karl]

No way man! The C class are the best! Along with the Spirit class.

[newwest]

1.Nanaimo
2.New West'r
3.Vancouver
4.Burnaby
5.the North
6.Tsawwassen
7.Esq
8.Saandwich
9.Surrey
10.Coquitlam.

**NOTE** how most of these ships has NOT had the big refit yet

[Ferryman]

Well Coquitlam was near the top on my list but when I went on her last week, she didn't seem so new anymore. Like at both fronts of the ship where the seats are along the front windows, people have been resting their feet on the window sills and the walls and marking them up really badly. Also the seats have stains on them from people spilling their food and what not on them. But here is my top 10 list...

1. Oak Bay
2. Surrey
3. Vancouver
4. Newwest
5. Tsawwassen
6. Capilano
7. Tenaka
8. Quinsam
9. Klitsa
10. Burnaby

[Doug]

Ferryman said:

Like at both fronts of the ship where the seats are along the front windows, people have been resting their feet on the window sills and the walls and marking them up really badly.

Exactly why BC Ferries doesn't have nice cloth seats like Harbourlynx: durability before quality.

[Doug]

1. Queen of Coquitlam
2. Queen of Cowichan
3. Queen of the North
4. Queen of Surrey
5. Queen of Oak Bay
6. Queen of Alberni
7. Queen of New Westminster
8. Queen of Vancouver
9. Queen of Burnaby
10. Queen of Tsawwassen

I've been on all of these plus the Quinitsa (sorry Quinitsa, just prefer enclosed ferries ). I probably would of included one of the "S" Class, but unfortunately I've never been on them. I could be going on them multiple times this summer.

[NMcKay]

K class
Lynx.
quinsam
quinitsa
cumberland
chilliwack
capalino
chilliwack

nuff said

[Koastal Karl]

When I was on the SOBC I saw some markings on the railings already where people have written stuff and messed up the nice paint jobs they do.

[Balfour]

I see waht you mean and I think it's unacceptable. I would never deface property like that, especially when it is new like that.

[NMcKay]

well...you cant truly enjoy a ship until you put the first scratch/dent in it.

[nolonger]

If people knew how much their graffitti and deliberate damage, and scooping extra condiments added to the cost of their fare....... well, they would stop.

[cascade]

Are they using this new self polishing paint - the brand new stuff - that you can just wipe away - felt pen marks ect... It works well in salt water.
The paint company tried it in the Med on a lot of floating Gin Palaces - but found that the salt content in the Med was to low - Like a lot of things - you design it for one thing - which doesn't work but hey presto it works great in something else.

I heard / saw that SF are using it for there Bay - Waterfront Transit Ferry scheme.

Could be expensive also - hence I doubt that BCF would invest any funds to try it out.

[Koastal Karl]

Mine would be SOBC, SOVI, Queen of Cumberland, Saanich, Coquitlam, Cowichan, the Nanny, Alberni.