Fueling of BC's Ferries

[lmtengs]

I've been pondering this for awhile now: How do they put fuel into ferries? Do they have a little gas tank hatch like most cars do, or do they drive a tanker on board and open up a hole in the car-deck, then drop a hose down into the engines, or what?

Could someone explain?

[Mirrlees]

Gladly Tanker trucks drive onto the car deck. They then connect the hose from the truck to a filler pipe in the casing. The fuel then fills the ship's tanks.

[Deleted]

Generally, they have fuel tanks in compartments below the main deck. There are fittings and piping from the main deck to the tanks for filling and separate pipes and plugs for sounding the tanks. Usually a tanker truck drives aboard, the hoses are connected and the tanks are filled by gravity or a pump on the truck. Most times, the fueling takes place overnight when the boat isn't running but on some smaller boats .... eg. Garibaldi II .... we fueled when we could in between trips, twice sometimes three times a week. With remote instrumentation in the Engine room and actual sounding with a tape, the Engineer has a pretty good idea how much fuel is needed. Lube oil is often brought aboard the same way. Of course nothing can be simple, there are lots and lots of rules, regulations, practices, procedures, and paperwork that must be followed if you don't want to spend the rest of your life in court in the event of a spill, or other such unfortunate event.

[ferryfanyvr]

I remember when I used to live in Nanaimo and would travel home on the last ferry of the night from HSB. On some nights there would be a Chevron tanker truck waiting on the terminal and as soon as the vehicles had disembarked the tanker would back onto the car deck for refuelling. I never hung around to find out how long it took though. The larger ferries must have quite a generous fuel capacity. I remember that summer in the early '90s when the two #1 vessels on route 2 sailed 24 hours a day from Thursday mornings thru to Monday nights. I thought it was amazing that they could sail for so long without adding fuel. And I don't think there's any way they could have topped up during their duties since they only operated with the usual 25-minute turnaround time.

[Nick]

I believe I heard from an ERA some years ago that the Spirits carry enough fuel to last them 10 days. However, in regular service they fuel up with a B-train 6 days a week.

[hullnumbers]

Ok, with so much going on with our ferries. I figure I add this. I feel that gas is one problem (I know theres more problems) for fare hikes rising but I'm going to the basic prob.

The first is the fuel our ferries run on. By the oldest ferries to the newer ferries, each one runs on different fuels. If anyone (that includes me) go on the ships can ask how much in total in liters the ferries run on. I do not need to know their refuel amount, I like to see total amount each ship can go till empty.

[Nick]

I'll try to answer this to the best of my abilities, but there is not a lot of available information on fuel tank capacities.

First, all BC Ferries burn what is called Marine Diesel Oil, or MDO. This is a diesel fuel that is less refined than "on-highway" diesel. It is actually very similar to home heating oil, which is also a diesel fuel. MDO tends to be higher in sulphur and other impurities than "regular" diesel, but it's also a fair bit cheaper since it's less refined.

As I said before, tank capacities are not numbers listed in anything other than the shipboard manuals for the particular vessel, so the only way you'd be able to find that out is by talking to the Chief Engineer or Captain. I know that the SOVI gets refueled 6 days a week and takes on a B-train each time, which is around 60,000L. I BELIEVE the Spirits can hold somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250,000L, but it could be significantly more. I have HEARD that they could in theory go a week without refueling, which doesn't quite match up with the numbers I've posted above. As for the other ships in the fleet I have no idea.