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Post by Dane on Sept 26, 2008 10:08:54 GMT -8
Here is a youtube video I found on the SOBC from a passenger who was on the Aug 21st sailing when she had to go via boundary pass. It's like 13mins long. Karl, that's an awesome video find. Thanks for sharing! |
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Post by Nickfro on Sept 26, 2008 10:48:50 GMT -8
Looking at the tides for today, right now it's in the middle of a 7.5 ft tide change. I wonder if that's enough for the SoBC to travel around the south end of Saturna.
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Post by PCL Driver on Sept 27, 2008 7:15:39 GMT -8
Well the SoBC is down again today. The Queen of Vancouver is sailing today.
So much for the plan to have the SoBC sailing on the weekends.
Seems to me that BCFS would be better off just to tie it up, and run the Saanich more until the CC is online. Every time they bring the SoBC out it gets behind schedule.
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Post by Hardy on Sept 27, 2008 16:52:28 GMT -8
Well the SoBC is down again today. The Queen of Vancouver is sailing today. So much for the plan to have the SoBC sailing on the weekends. Seems to me that BCFS would be better off just to tie it up, and run the Saanich more until the CC is online. Every time they bring the SoBC out it gets behind schedule. I've been pushing that agenda as hard as I could. Hopefully saner heads will eventually prevail, as the whole escapade has been nothing but a folly! Especially if they are as hard up and trying to save fuel costs as it is. I think I've made my point about how completely nonsensical I think the SoBC issue is, so I won't rant and rave any more in this reply! |
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Post by Hardy on Sept 27, 2008 16:54:09 GMT -8
Looking at the tides for today, right now it's in the middle of a 7.5 ft tide change. I wonder if that's enough for the SoBC to travel around the south end of Saturna. It was, and they did, at least on one leg of the rounder. I looked at the CurCon that day, but forgot to screen capture it; one was a 2:25 crossing, so I imagine that was the long way around. The return was only 1:45. |
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Post by Ferryman on Sept 27, 2008 22:20:26 GMT -8
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Nick
Voyager 
Chief Engineer - Queen of Richmond
Posts: 2,080 
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Post by Nick on Sept 27, 2008 23:22:06 GMT -8
They go that way once in a while. It is totally up to the captain which way to go, most go the traditional way, around the north side of Piers Island, but some turn around in the bay and go by the south way of Colburne Passage. If they are a few minutes behind schedule they will go the south way because they can get up to full speed quicker, so it makes for a slightly faster crossing.
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Post by Hardy on Sept 28, 2008 1:17:55 GMT -8
Her Starboard prop was kicking up quite a bit of water. Funny how that side is the side that's gimped now  From those pics, I would not be at all surprised if there was a vibration in the shaft or a bent/damaged blade on the prop (which would in turn cause a shaft vibration) -- that chop is not normal under any stretch of the imagination, and would easily be caused by even a small vibration or "ding". |
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Post by PCL Driver on Sept 28, 2008 7:18:24 GMT -8
Here's a couple of pics of her back in May. She had just left the berth at Swartz Bay, but instead of heading straight out of the bay like a Spirit normally would, she did a hard to starboard turn, and went the opposite direction on the route the Spirits would take on the approach to Swartz Bay. Her Starboard prop was kicking up quite a bit of water. Funny how that side is the side that's gimped now   As I understand it, the Spirits will use that route when there are very low tides. And wouldn't it be possible that they have the startboard prop on full reverse to help with the tight turn out of Swartz Bay? |
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Post by PCL Driver on Sept 28, 2008 7:23:18 GMT -8
And speaking of tides, I noticed that the Queen of Vancouver is once again sailing in the #1 spot out of Tsawwassen this morning, with the SoBC pulling a trip at 11:30 (sounds like the long way around) and another at 4pm.
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Post by Hardy on Sept 28, 2008 8:29:04 GMT -8
It gets more interesting than that: the SoVI's 0700 out of SB which departed early at 0659 is STILL not at TSA at this hour (0927) and there is a service notice showing her 40 mins behind. 2.5 hours into her trip --she must be experiencing some kind of issues as well. I have not heard about "BCFerries vessel assists in marine emergency" or anything else like that to explain her delay. It is suspicious that the SN says 40 mins, as isn't that the added time that using the SOUTHERN route adds?
Did they rape the SoVI's engine room to try to fix the SoBC?
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Post by Canucks on Sept 28, 2008 10:00:41 GMT -8
The BCF site lists her delay as mechanical difficulties. Maybe we should change this thread name to Spirits of unreliability!  |
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Post by Dane on Sept 28, 2008 10:03:10 GMT -8
The Spirit of Vancouver Island left at 10:06, so she did make the standard trip time. It could likely be a random mechanical issue.
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Post by Political Incorrectness on Sept 28, 2008 11:19:44 GMT -8
The 1 pm from Tsawwassen has been canceled along with the 7 pm from Swartz Bay and will instead sail the SOVI on the even hours.
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Post by Hardy on Sept 28, 2008 12:15:35 GMT -8
SoVI now seems to almost be keeping her "modified" schedule - interesting how they "fixed" this by cancelling her remaining sailings and adding new ones ONE HOUR later. Service notice to this effect posted.
Back to the SoBC - she left 7 mins down on her first trip out of Tsawwassen, took the 'regular' route, but is showing a 2 hour transit time on her trip.
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Post by DENelson83 on Sept 29, 2008 12:27:16 GMT -8
Maybe she drank a bit too much spirits.
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Post by gordon on Sept 29, 2008 18:24:53 GMT -8
Queen Of Vancouver
Does she have the same service speed as the SofVI because according to the vessel location page she doesn't seen to get much above 17knots but she still seems to be able to stay on schedule?
When she is subbing for The Alberni they have put out an amended Schedule giving her 20 minutes extra sailing time?
Why can the Vancouver Stay ON the 1h 35m sched on Rt#1 but she needs an extra 20min added to her sailing time on RT#30?
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Post by Dane on Sept 29, 2008 19:20:15 GMT -8
Queen Of Vancouver Does she have the same service speed as the SofVI because according to the vessel location page she doesn't seen to get much above 17knots but she still seems to be able to stay on schedule? When she is subbing for The Alberni they have put out an amended Schedule giving her 20 minutes extra sailing time? Why can the Vancouver Stay ON the 1h 35m sched on Rt#1 but she needs an extra 20min added to her sailing time on RT#30? I don't have the numbers off hand but Rte 1 is the shortest of the three major routes but quite a bit - keeping the 120 minute turn around time isn't difficult. The Spirits (and I would imagine the Vs) often travel below 17 knots during the crossing. I imagine if they wanted to go as fast as possible a non-V could make it in 80 minutes even with Active Pass. |
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Nick
Voyager
Chief Engineer - Queen of Richmond
Posts: 2,080
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Post by Nick on Sept 29, 2008 19:39:56 GMT -8
The Vs have a service speed of around 18 knots, and the Spirits typically do about he same. The Spirits have a little bit more "reserve power" to make up time if necessary, but they rarely get above 19 knots.
On the other side, the Cs, including the Alberni, can work up to 21 or 22 knots. The higher speed is necessary to keep the schedule on route 30. The New West was re-engined in the early 90's because the Vs and Bs were not able to keep up.
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Post by gordon on Sept 30, 2008 9:44:01 GMT -8
Th QofV seems to be keeping on schedule (1:35) travelling at least 3 -3.5 Knots slower than the the SofVI is the Q of V's gps not registering her proper speed?
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Post by Dane on Sept 30, 2008 11:38:48 GMT -8
Th QofV seems to be keeping on schedule (1:35) travelling at least 3 -3.5 Knots slower than the the SofVI is the Q of V's gps not registering her proper speed? I haven't watched a full crossing on the vessel tracking before, but I generally disbelieve the specifics of the information on there. The average speed members have posted based on what they've seen on the website are inaccurate in some cases. I know this based on the lucky benefit of having traveled on Rte 1 several times (more than 10) on Rte 1 in the bridge of the Spirit of British Columbia. With the exception of e straight away to Galiano from Tsawwassen she isn't doing 19 knots; more realistically 15-16. |
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Post by chinook2 on Sept 30, 2008 14:49:43 GMT -8
The Vs have a service speed of around 18 knots, and the Spirits typically do about he same. The Spirits have a little bit more "reserve power" to make up time if necessary, but they rarely get above 19 knots. On the other side, the Cs, including the Alberni, can work up to 21 or 22 knots. The higher speed is necessary to keep the schedule on route 30. The New West was re-engined in the early 90's because the Vs and Bs were not able to keep up. Minor point: Route 30 didn't exist when the C's were built. They were in fact designed to maintain an hourly schedule on route two. Extra speed, double ended, no Hydraulic ramped platform decks. The "Sidney" and "Victoria" or "Stretch" class vessels previously used made the crossing on route 2 in 1 hr. 50; sailings were scheduled 1 hr 15 or 1 hr 20 minutes apart. On route 1 the V's can use the more direct approach to Swartz Bay between Piers and that other island which helps them keep up. |
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CFG
Deckhand
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
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Post by CFG on Sept 30, 2008 16:21:10 GMT -8
Another thing you need to consider is that the V's hold less cars than the Spirits. Therefore it takes less time to unload and load than a spirit. I know that they may single-lane-load the main car deck more often on the V's than the Spirits, but it is still a smaller ship.
Also, I know nothing about the maneuverability of the V's vs the Spirits, but the V's may be able to approach the berths faster than the Spirits. This is using the same logic, IE the bigger ship taking longer to do something.
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Post by gordon on Oct 2, 2008 9:36:33 GMT -8
The hoistable ramps on the Sof B.C. are apparently condemned ,when she is in drydock for her major engine overhaul why dont they repair them because in normal times route #1 needs all the capacity they can get?
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Post by ferrytraveller on Oct 2, 2008 14:25:27 GMT -8
gordon, it would be a huge cost and using the ramps takes lots of extra time for only 60 cars. We prefer to just pull cars up as close as possible and go as fast as we can, then we leave minimal cars behind. That way we keep to the schedule as much as possible.
1 other thing to keep in mind, one time this summer, there was a 1 sailing wait from tsawwassen for the 9pm sailing with possible of being 2 sailing wait. The SOVI used her ramps and took most of the people on the 9 pm sailing and the Sannich ended up with like 40% full when it was suppose to be a full load for the 10 pm sailing. so a little wastefull for the Sannich.
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