Spirit Class and Coastal Class upper car deck

[queenofcowichan]

Hear is something I was pondering about last nite, In 1990-1991 The Queen of New West was Lifted with a greater clearance for overhights on her upper car deck as opposed to other ships with a upper car deck.

In 1993 and 1994 the Spirit Class ships were built and put into service and soon we have the Coastal Class.


Now why are they building the new ships with a lower ceiling on the Upper Car deck and not buid them with the same clearance as per the Queen of New West ?

[Dane]

queenofcowichan said:

Now why are they building the new ships with a lower ceiling on the Upper Car deck and not buid them with the same clearance as per the Queen of New West ?

Because it's not needed. Cheaper to build it lower, as well as the lower the car decks the "easier" it is to optimize stability.

[Doug]

Yeah...the purpose of the New West's high clearance on the upper deck is for commercial use, maybe to accommodate small cube vans. How much weight does an extra foot of steel around the perimeter and to the bulkhead add to a ship...?

[Mirrlees]

It makes sense to keep the heavier loads on the bottom deck vs. the top deck. Like Dane said, it interferes with the ship's center-of -gravity.

[Northern Exploration]

Under the Renaissance thread Wet Coast Kid told us the second car deck had a height of 2.9 meters. So vans, the smaller cube vans, and smaller Class B and C motorhomes should fit as well. Maybe Herr Brinkmann or someone from BC Ferries can confirm.