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Post by Ferryman on Dec 23, 2005 10:46:43 GMT -8
That's a pretty neat site. It hasn't been updated for 6 years, but that's ok. It's pretty funny because they only show all of the good news in the beggining with the Fastcats. The intro was pretty neat as well, but the sound effects got annoying after a while, but that's ok. Thanks for pointing that site out.
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Doug
Voyager 
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Dec 23, 2005 18:47:39 GMT -8
I may be wrong, but weren't they created by the government to design the Pacificats, and no more? They claim they are world leaders in fast ferry designs...very odd.
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Post by Retrovision on Dec 25, 2005 13:02:31 GMT -8
That's a pretty neat site. It hasn't been updated for 6 years, but that's ok. I may be wrong, but weren't they created by the government to design the Pacificats, and no more? They claim they are world leaders in fast ferry designs...very odd. one of the last times that I was doing a photo shoot of the fastcats on the north shore, I noticed, about a block up the hill from the entrance to where the fastcats are docked, a weather beaten sign on an old door to a run-down building; the faded sign said 'Catamaran Ferries International' and had that same corporate logo. Let's just say that it didn't look like they had been in (operational) buisness for a long while. |
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Post by NMcKay on Dec 27, 2005 8:18:33 GMT -8
some of the vessels. especially the smaller ones. could have worked better. to have a new dock space, and new layouts. the smaller 95m Wave Piercer would have worked more efficently, and of course 6 of them would have worked better than 3 pacificats.
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Post by Retrovision on Dec 27, 2005 18:09:07 GMT -8
I guess that if that design worked - then why not a bigger - longer version of it - Hey we can dice & slice Ferries - we are world leaders in this black art - so let us lose on the Fast Cat design.... lol. ------------------------------------------------------------------- A very simple thing like a basic tank test would have proved the point about the longer vessel - given the weight problem - Bow doors ect... So who canceled the Tank test and why ? ... the fastcats could have worked. if the ndp was still in power they would not have been sold off for such a cheap price. this was just an example of one gov't trying to make the previous gov't look bad I know this province (born and raised), and I know its politics... and I honestly wouldn't be surprised at just about any tactics I hear being used in BC's political mud-wrestling-ring. --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a real question; Couldn't BCFC have simply run them the best that their mutilated designs allowed them to be run... as conventional ferries? (just as WMG is proposing) |
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Post by NMcKay on Jan 4, 2006 7:22:03 GMT -8
a catamaran ferry's most efficient speed would be 17 knots. just like our boat, when shes running at 17 knots shes burning the least amount of fuel per knot. and then it all goes down hill from there.
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Post by Dane on Jan 8, 2006 0:33:42 GMT -8
2 engines, 20 knots, no weight reduction.
That's the current plan.
I'm not sure I understand your March 2006 comment, all that's happening then (+/- a month) is the WMG announcement on whether they'll actually go ahead with this plan.
After that they'll need all sorts of things to be done, most notably and even more difficult/costly than crews will be the cost of designing a terminal and then getting enviromental studies to come out positivily, with all this hanging on the City's willingness to rezone the land.
I think if it's run smartly, it will make money. But the level of pay will have to be prety damn close to what BCFS is offering crews right now, and I'd suspect they'd have to lure at least a few people that were involved with the project over from BCFS. They've already tried LOL
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Doug
Voyager
Lurking within...the car deck.
Posts: 2,213
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Post by Doug on Jan 9, 2006 16:34:22 GMT -8
So Cascade, you seem to know a bit about terminal construction. What is a "side loading system"? Is that the berth? How much would a five acre terminal cost approximately to BC Ferries' standard (with a double ramp, foot passenger ramp, etc.)?
Five acre terminal is pretty small...Tsawwassen would be well over 80.
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Post by Dane on Jan 10, 2006 23:44:14 GMT -8
Dane, Where they want to sight there terminals - well they don't need more than 5 acres - and a side loading system, which is cheap to install. As for the rest of the studies - don't think so. On the terminal side of things I can see that been sorted in a few months. They have the land on the North Van side, and can try and get access, like you've said on the forums previously to BC Ferry terminals on the Island. The engineering and crew training that will take a more than a few months, plus getting Transport Canada clearance - as these are older vessels - so checks will have to be made. [/qupte] I've heard less then a month to get the ships themselves ready to go, and I would err on the side of believing that b/c it's from ex-BCFS crews that worked on the currnetly defunct vessels. March 2006 is not very far away - so that is time for them to either put into plan of drop it. I wonder which way they will go. We have heard about this in April 2005 trade press that they wanted to try and run the FastCats - again we think it is more of a sales decoy than anything else. But I could be totaly wrong... I didn't believe it at first, but I kind of hope it's true now. It wouldn't be a bad thing at all for there to be an alternate service. Plus, to me, it's quite clear BCFS doesn't have the ability to meet a quickly growing demand (in terms of deck space) on their major routes. |
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