classic fast ferries classic fast ferries 2 / 2004 3 liv viking on the pad at ryde, isle of wight on...

M a y / J u n e 2 0 0 4

CLASSIC FERRIES

w w w . c l a s s i c f a s t f e r r i e s . c o m

Italian prototype modelers

22 CLASSIC FAST FERRIES 2 / 2004

NEWS AND ARTICLES ABOUT CIVIL HYDROFOILS, HOVERCRAFT & CATAMARANS nEDITOR/PUBLISHER : TIM TIMOLEON n ALL ARTICLES, LAYOUT & ARTWORK PRODUCTION,EXCEPT WHERE NOTED : TIM TIMOLEON n PUBLISHED IN PDF FORMAT nWWW.CLASSICFASTFERRIES.COM n SUBMITTALS OF MANUSCRIPTS AND PHOTOS, OLD ANDNEW, AND RELEVANT NEWS ITEMS ARE ENCOURAGED! n EMAIL TO : CFF @ EMAIL.DK n COPYRIGHT 2000/2004 CLASSIC FAST FERRIES.COVER PHOTO : BUILDING HYDROFOILS IS (BACK) IN VOGUE IN MESSINA, INCLUDING SCRATCH-BUILT MODELS. SEE PHOTO-REPORT ON PAGE 12–15 / ANTONIO DONATO photo

M a y / J u n e 2 0 0 4

CLASSIC FERRIES

The former DanishAP1–88/100 Liv Vikinghas been extensivelyrebuilt by Hoverwork onthe Isle of Wight andsold to the CanadianCoast Guard/HOVERWORK photo

H o v e r w o r k r e b u i l d s a n d s e l l s f o r m e r S c a n d i n a v i a n A P 1 - 8 8 i n C a n a d a

Further to our feature article on the SAShovercraft airport shuttle operation in the MayCFF, Hovertravel has announced that it has soldthe former DSØ/SAS AP1–88/100 Liv Viking tothe Canadian Coast Guard. The reborn craft made its last appearance outon the Solent in the afternoon on May 6, and satoff for Antwerp, Belgium under its own powerthe following day. It was loaded onto the carrierStar Grip on May 13 and left on the same daybound for Canada's Pacific coast where it isexpected to arrive in the second half of June. The last of the three former Scandinavian craftto be rebuilt, Liv Viking has been extensivelymodified and upgraded at Hoverwork's

St. Helens, Isle of Wight facility. Hoverwork is awholly owned subsidiary of Hovertravel whichhas been operating hovercraft across the Solentbetween Ryde and Southsea since 1965. All three ex-DSØ/SAS AP1–88s wereacquired by Hovertravel in 1997, whichcontinues to operate one of them, IslandExpress. The other was sold and shipped toKazakhstan in 2002. Most visible modifications made to Liv Vikinginclude a rebuilt superstructure with fewerwindows than on the commercial version and areshaped cockpit. It features variable pitchpropellers, comprehensive communications gearand three NightSun searchlights, which provide

& D E V E L O P M E N T S

CLASSIC FAST FERRIES 2 / 2004 33

Liv Viking on the pad at Ryde, Isle of Wight on May 2. Exteriorwise the most significant changes made to the hovercraft by Hoverworksince its days with SAS/DSØ are the reshaped cockpit and rebuilt superstructure /MATTHEW DAVIES photo

90 million candle power illumination fornight time operations. Keeping its name, Liv Viking is to operateout of Richmond, British Columbiaprimarily on search and rescue tasks. The hovercraft's high response speeds,up to 45 knots, are ideal for this and itsamphibious capabilities enable it to crossshallow water and drying areas, as well asbeing able to land on most shorelines,Hovertravel reports. Hoverworkpersonell will be on location to completethe trials and conduct training andfamiliarisation in the Vancouver area. Says Hoverwork Director Richard Box,"We are very pleased to continue the longassociation between the Canadian CoastGuard and the Isle of Wight hovercraftindustry. Liv Viking is similar to thehovercraft that carry passengers acrossthe Solent for Hovertravel, however it hasbeen substantially modified to the CCG'sspecification." The Canadian Coast Guard already hadthree hovercraft based on the AP1–88 aswell as an SR.N6. n

Liv Viking being lifted onto the carrier Star Grip at Antwerp, Belgium on May 13. The vesselleft on the same day and is expected to arrive in British Columbia, Canada sometimebetween the 22nd and 27th of June /HOVERWORK photo


A B O U T T H E A P 1 – 8 8 I N C L A S S I C F A S T F E R R I E S 1 – M A Y 2 0 0 4

R E A D


Another Hovertravel AP1–88 hovercrafthaving left the south of England during thepast six or so months is Double-O-Seven. The seventh hull – hence the name, andassumingly not without reference also to acertain Mr. Bond – to be laid down byFairey Allday Marine and BritishHovercraft Corporation, the craft wascompleted by Hoverwork and enteredservice on Hovertravel's Ryde–Southsearoute in July 1989. Originally fitted outwith 80 seats, passenger capacity has sincebeen increased to 98. Double-O-Seven was sold in November2003 to Diamond Airlines in Sierra Leone,West Africa which is operating apassenger service across Freetown Baybetween Lungi International Airport andFreetown. The hovercraft left the Solentfor Chatham, on the River Medway, onNovember 12 and continued to Tilbury,London a week later for shipment, asdeck cargo, to Sierra Leone. It enteredservice with Diamond Airlines in mid-December considerably cutting travel timebetween Freewtown and the airport to 25minutes. As part of the deal, pilots and engineersfrom Sierra Leone spent the summer(2003) training on the craft in the Isle ofWight and also Hovertravel personellwere in West Africa to support the initialphase of operation. & D E V E L O P M E N T S

A n o t h e r n o t s h a k e n n o r s t i r r e d h o v e r c r a f t d e a l

During an 18-month period in 1990–92Hovertravel in cooperation with ProvincialAir Services operated the first prototypeAP1–88/80, completed in 1983, in thesame location. While successful, thepolitical situation at the time halted theservice. With the recent sales (since 2002) byHovertravel, the operator now finds itselfleft with only two AP1–88s, Freedom 90and Island Express. These have both beenupgraded and re-engined, in 1999 and2001, and are now designated AP1–88/100S. Island Express is another of theformer Scandinavian craft, Freja Viking.The situation will be eased however withthe arrival in the summer of 2005 of acompletely new and larger hovercrafttype, the BHT 150, designed by andcurrently under construction atHoverwork. n

A B O V E + L E F T : AP1–88/100Double-O-Seven being lifted onto and

placed on the deck of the cargo shipat Tilbury, to be taken to Sierra Leone

in November last year/HOVERTRAVEL photo


Hovertravel currently owns and runs two rebuilt/re-engined AP1–88/100S hovercraft on the 4-nautical mile Ryde–Southsea route; one of theformer Danish craft and this, Freedom 90 /MATTHEW DAVIES photo


S p r i n g a c t i v i t y a t R o d r i q u e zThis photo was taken last week, on May 21st, and shows at least five hydrofoilsin the Rodriquez yard in Messina. From left to right are Siremar and Ustica LinesFoilmasters Tiziano and Adriana M, RHS 160Fs Masaccio and Aldebaran belongingto Siremar and Caremar respectively – and, partly hidden, one of the six newFoilmasters ordered by the Tirrenia group nearing completion. The (non-hydrofoil)patrol boats in the foreground, of the CP 200 class, belong to Guardia di Finanza.

ANTONIO DONATO photo


F F R s e l l s F l y i n g C a t 4 0 m i n S o u t h K o r e a

Norwegian operator FFR, FinnmarkFylkesrederi og Ruteselskap, based inHammerfest in the country's extremenorth, has sold its sole Kværner FjellstrandFlyingCat 40m catamaran Vargøy to acompany in South Korea. It left Norwayfor the last time on March 25 setting off

for Hamburg where it was loaded onto aship bound eastward. The 230-seat Vargøy was delivered toFFR in 1994, but had been leased toReederei Speedways Fast Ferries inHamburg, Germany for its summer-onlyservice to the island of Helgoland since

1997. The vessel was last operated bySpeedways in 2002. In addition to its activities in northNorway, FFR is also part of Nordic JetLine which operates a pair of KF JumboCat 60m car/passenger catamaransbetween Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn,Estonia since 1998. n

FlyingCat 40m catamaran Vargøy as deck cargo in the Swedish port of Uddevalla en route to South Korea on April 1 /MAREUD/ROLF SKIÖLD photo

. . . a n d S t a v a n g e r s k e s e l l s F R P s a n d w i c h c a t a m a r a n

PÅL R SKJOLD photo


. . . and alongside in a ratherfoggy Dover on the following day,May 1 /MATT SUDDERS photo

D o v e r - B o u l o g n e b y c a r ( a n d w a v e p i e r c e r )

R I G H T : Speed Ferries'Incat Tasmania 86m

wavepiercing catamaranSpeedOne testing the berth at

Boulogne on April 30 . . ./MICHEL PRUDHOMME photo

Ten daily single crossings are beingoperated, with the first departing Doverat 07:45 and the last leaving Boulogne at00:30. Journey time is 50 minutes. Nowalk-on passengers are accepted how-ever; initially it is a cars-only service.Something which has not been entirelywelcomed by everyone, especially thetourist trade, shop keepers, restaurants

A new cross-Channel fast ferry serviceopened on May 19 when an Incat 86mwavepiercing catamaran, SpeedOne,entered service between Dover andBoulogne with Speed Ferries. Thecompany was formed early last year andwas originally to have introduced an Incat91m wavepiercer already on May 2,2003, later postponed to late March thisyear. SpeedOne, built in 1997 and originallynamed Incat 045 (referring to the yardNo.), last operated in Italy betwenGenova and Sardinia for a few months in2002 and had been laid up in the UKsince. The vessel made its first appearancein Boulogne in the evening on April 30,having arrived on a test run fromPortland, Dorset.


P A G E 6 : CIRR 27P catamaran Hidlein Stavanger awaiting shipment to Croatiaearlier this month /PÅL R SKJOLD photo

A company in Croatia has acquired the sole CIRR 27P catamaran built, Hidle,from Norwegian operator Stavangerske. A fibre reinforced plastic sandwichdesign, the vessel was developed and builtin Norway by Cirrus and Brødrene Aa

and originally entered service with SaltensDampskipsselskap as Helgelandsekspressenon the country's longest fast ferry routebetween Bodø and Sandnessjøen in 1985. It was sold to another company in early1995, Sørlands Cruise, and renamedRisørjenta and later still aquired byRogaland Trafikkselskap, which has sincetaken on the classic corporate name ofStavangerske.

The 184-seat vessel has an overall lengthof 27m, beam of 9m and is powered by apair of MTU 12V 396 TB83 diesels. It has aservice speed of 27 knots and max speed of30 knots, similar to the Westamaran 86catamaran of which several have previouslyfound their way to the east Adriatic. As thisissue closed for press the catamaran had stillto be shipped to its new owners. n

etc. in Boulogne which fear the car peoplewill drive right on to and off the motor-way system without spending any euros inthe city. The 800 passenger/200 car wave-piercer features air-conditioned lounges, acafeteria, coffee and wine bar, shop,children's play area and a spacioussundeck. n


and sophisticated commercialhydrofoil design featuring, among other things, afully submerged automatically controlled foilsystem saw the light of the day thirty years agowhen in April 1974 the prototype Jetfoil 929–100, very appropriately named Jetfoil One, wasofficially rolled out at the Boeing Marine Systemsfacility at Renton/Seattle, Washington, USA.The keel had been laid down in January theprevious year. But the 110-ton Jetfoil did not come out ofthe blue. The gas turbine, waterjet-poweredtwin deck craft was based on more than tenyears of developing and building experimentalhydrofoils for the non-commercial market – andof course Boeing's long history in the aerospaceindustry before that.

Following extensive trials for six months startingin July 1974 and carried out in the Puget Soundand straits of Juan de Fuca as well as the Pacific,the vessel entered service in Hawaii with PacificSea Transportation in 1975, as Kalakaua, alongwith two more Jetfoil 929–100s. The company,trading as SeaFlite, had opted for a low-densityseating for 190 passengers, reflecting the touristmarket the service was aimed at. In a commuterconfiguration up to 300 passengers could beaccomodated on the two decks. When the inter-Hawaii service closed downthree years later all three Jetfoils were acquiredby Far East Hydrofoil in Hong Kong. Recon-figured with 292 seats and renamed Flores, theformer Jetfoil One was put into service on theinternational route between Hong Kong and

The overall lenght was 27.4m and maximumbeam 9.5m. The foils were retractable; theforward T–foil retracted forward and wouldposition above the waterline, the aft full-widthfoil rotated aft to lie behind the transom underthe stern overhang. Retraction/extension of thefoils could be done while underway in hullbornemode, up to a speed of approx. 5 knots. Propulsion consisted of a pair of DetroitDiesel Allison 501-K 20A gas turbines rated at3,700 hp each and Rockwell Rocketdyne mixedaxial-flow waterjets. Design cruising speed was43 knots and maximum speed 46 knots.

the Portuguese territory of Macau. Havingoperated surface-piercing hydrofoils built in Italyand Japan by Rodriquez and Hitachi since 1964,FEH already had two 929–100s which had beenordered by the company and introduced in April1975. Flores has remained with the operator tothis day, which is now known as TurboJETfollowing a merger of FEH's parent companyShun Tak Enterprises and CTS Parkview FerryServices five years ago. A total of 20 civil Jetfoils were launched byBMS during 1974–81 before the companydecided to step down from the commercial

A new

Jetfoil hull # 001, JetfoilOne, being launched at

the Boeing MarineSystems plant at Renton,

Seattle, Washington inMarch 1974

/BOEING MARINE SYSTEMSphoto

J E T F O I L T U R N S 3 0


market scene in 1985 instead focusing on itsmilitary hydrofoil program including the PHM(Patrol Hydrofoil Missileship) design, the first ofwhich had also been launced in 1974, and thenon-ferry Jetfoil 929–119/120. Of the civil Jetfoils ten were Block I 929–100craft with the other ten being of a modifiedBlock II series designated 929–115 introducedin 1977. In addition to the US built Jetfoils, from1989 onwards Kawasaki Heavy Industriesproduced the 929–117 ferry version underlicence in Japan. Two units of a slightly different

appearance based on the Jetfoil and designedand built by China Shipbuilding in the People'sRepublic of China, the PS–30, were built forFEH in 1994–95. Over the years, apart from the above, Jetfoilshave operated in a number of locations such asCanada, the English Channel, Spain, LatinAmerica, Japan and elsewhere. The biggestconcentrations of Jetfoils these days are found inHong Kong and Japan, whereas, for instance, inEurope only two remain in service. n

One Jetfoil service that never took off was a planned operation in Germany using a pair of 929–115s previously owned by Belgian RMT andoperated across the English Channel 1981–97. The above view shows the vessels after having been acquired by the German owner andrenamed Adler Blizzard and Adler Wizard. Both craft were subsequently returned to their native USA in 1999 /CHRISTIAN ECKHARDT photo

T h e J e t f o i l a t i t s b e s t ! P r i n c e s a D a c i l , d e l i v e r e d i n 1 9 9 0 , i s o n e o f t w o K a w a s a k i

b u i l t J e t f o i l 9 2 9 –1 1 7 s o w n e d b y S p a n i s h o p e r a t o r T r a s m e d i t e r r á n e a . I t i s s e e n

h e r e a t L a s P a l m a s l a s t O c t o b e r c u t t i n g i t s w a y t h r o u g h t h e w a t e r l i k e a k n i f e/ O D D G E I R R E F V I K p h o t o


Who saida princess has tobe pretty?

The last of the US built Jetfoils left Europeanwaters five years ago. And it was twenty-sevenyears ago this spring that the first of themarrived in the continent.

he seventh Jetfoil 929–100 built, Flying Princess waslaunched at the Boeing Marine Systems facility atRenton, Washington in the summer of 1976. The sixhulls before it having been delivered for operations inHawaii, Hong Kong and Venezuela. In Europe several companies showed interest inintroducing one or more Jetfoils across the EnglishChannel around this time, including British Rail/Sealink and RMT/RTM, the Belgian state-owned ferrycompany, and the Danish shipping group J. Lauritzen,all of which had a London to Oostende, Belgium routein mind. But it was P&O Ferries which became the

first to introduce a Jetfoil in revenue service inEurope – although initially on an experimental basisand with a chartered craft operated and maintainedby BMS crew and team. Before this came about however, the 224-seatFlying Princess was leased by a Canadian company,Georgian Gulf Cruises, for six weeks in September–November 1976 to operate an international testservice between Seattle and Victoria on VancouverIsland, British Columbia, Canada. Only one dailyround trip was operated, the journey taking 1 hour50 minutes each way, but with more than 18,500


Jetfoil 929–100 FlyingPrincess alongside atCopenhagen shorlty

after arrival here inMarch 1977

/SØREN STRUNTZE photo

passengers carried the trial service was considereda success. Prior to the lease of Flying Princess by P&O,which was signed with BMS in February1977 for aJune 1st commencement, it was decided to takethe Jetfoil on an extensive promotional tour ofnorth-west Europe and the British Isles for sevenweeks. The hydrofoil left the Pacific Northwest asdeck cargo in mid-February bound for Copen-hagen, Denmark where it arrived on March 11.From here it was taken on a nearly 7,000 nauticalmile spin to twenty-six ports in Denmark, Sweden,Germany, Norway, Scotland, England, France andBelgium. The ambitious program makes interestingreading even today. For instance, the vessel,typically cruising at 42–43knots, would travelfrom Kiel, Germany to Copenhagen in just under4 ½ hours, Copenhagen to Gothenburg, Swedenin 3 ½ hours, Gothenburg to Frederikshavn,Denmark in only 75 minutes and make thecrossing of the North Sea between Stavanger,Norway and Aberdeen, Scotland in 6 3/4 hours. The demonstration tour was concluded on May2 on which Flying Princess was taken to Oostendefor final preparations and route proving. Europe's premiere Jetfoil service, marketed asP&O Jet Ferries, was inaugurated on June 1.Linking central London and Belgium, P&O hadchosen Zeebrugge as its continental terminalrather than Oostende as it was already presentthere through one of its associated companies.With a scheduled journey time of 3 hours 45minutes for the 136 nautical mile route one dailyround trip was operated, leaving Zeebrugge in themorning and returning from London in the mid-afternoon. Fares for traveling on the Jetfoil werelower than those by air and higher than byconventional ferry.

By that time however the company hadannounced it was to introduce two secondgeneration Jetfoil 929–115s of its own betweenLondon and Oostende. The first of these would bedelivered in time for the 1979 season but sinceP&O did not want a one-craft operation thecharter of Flying Princess would be extended untilthe second 929–115 would become available inMay 1980. Due to, in part, delays related to therelocating in London, from St. Katherine's Dock toa site next to Tower Bridge, the opening date waspushed to, first, September and then February1980. With no employment for Flying Princess on theLondon–Oostende route for some time, anothernewly established cross-Channel Jetfoil operator,Jetlink Ferries, accepted an offer by BMS to leasethe hydrofoil as a back-up for its own 929–115,which had suffered a malfunction, as well as extracapacity on the Brighton–Dieppe SeaJet serviceduring the 1979 high season. The P&O Jet Ferries London–Oostende servicefinally got underway in late February 1980 withthe first of the company's 929–115s and FlyingPrincess. The second new craft entered service inJune by which time three round trips a day wereoperated. But only seven months after the servicehad been launched P&O decided to close downthe route and put its two 929–115s on themarket. In the meantime Flying Princess had beentransferred to the Canary Islands to operate withTrasmediterránea, as Princesa Voladora, betweenLas Palmas, Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz,Tenerife pending the delivery, in 1981, of thecompany's first own Jetfoil 929–115. At this point BMS had found a buyer to FlyingPrincess. Renamed Urzela the vessel enteredservice with Far East Hydrofoil between HongKong and Macau later that same year. The Jetfoil was badly damaged and thirty-threepeople were injured, five of them seriously, in anaccident in the evening of October 23, 2002 asthe vessel came to a sudden landing approximatelyten minutes before arriving in Macau. Aninvestigation carried out by the Hong Kong MarineDepartment showed that causing the incident wasa failure of the king post in the strut of the bow T-foil due to metal fatigue. n

As had been stressed by P&O from the start, the London–Zeebrugge Jetfoil service using the leased Flying Princess was an experminetal one. Still, the suspension of the route on September 25, 1978 was some- what earlier than intially planned.

O P P O S I T E ,M a i n p h o t o :Boeing Jetfoil 929–100 Flying Princess

toured north-westEurope and Britain

before enteringservice with P&O Jet

Ferries betweenLondon and

Zeebrugge on June 1,1977

I n s e t : The forwardT-foil and aft full-widthfoil are retractable on

the Jetfoil/SØREN STRUNTZE

photo, both


ur two talented modelboat builder friends in

Messina, AntonioDonato and EnzoAnnuario (see pastissues of CFF), each

have recently completedyet another hydrofoil

scale model.Antonio is responsible

for the RodriquezRHS 160 Donatello

pictured here andopposite, and Enzo has

built the early PT.50,Flecha de Oriente, on

page 14–15. In theirfull scale versions

Donatello was deliveredto Siremar in Sicily in1980 and remains in

service with thecompany, whereas the

Italian prototype modelers

PT.50 Flecha de Orienteand RHS 160 Donatellowere built to a scale of1:100. Here the charmingmodels pose in front ofthe considerably largerPT.50 Freccia d'Oro (1:20scale)/ANTONIO DONATO photo

ANTONIO DONATO photo


PT.50 was the first ofthe type built, in 1959,

and no longer exists. Both models are builtfrom scratch to a scale of

1:100, however usingdifferent techniques, and

are non-operational. Coming attractions

from the duo include thePT.20 and RHS 160F

hydrofoils. n

s c a l e

B O T H P H O T O S : A N T O N I O D O N A T O


Flecha de Oriente was one of four hydrofoils, twoPT.20s and two PT.50s, delivered to Venezuela byRodriquez in 1958 and 1959. It was the first PT.50built by the yard and entered service with Navecaout of Caracas in 1959. It later returned to Italy having been acquired byRodriquez's operating company Aliscafi SNAV, wasrenamed Freccia di Messina and put into service onthe company's route network in Sicily. In June 1986 shortly after having left Milazzo in

Sicily for Lipari in the Eolian Islands, a fire broke outin the engine room on Freccia di Messina. Of the 57passengers and six crew on board 60 people wererescued by assisting boats and helicopter while threeelderly passengers died. Thirty people sufferedminor injuries and were taken to hospital. The vesselitself did not sink and was towed back to Sicily. Thesubsequent inspection showed that the damageinflicted on the PT.50 was of such proportion that itwas decided not to refurbish it and to write it off. n

The real Arrow of the Orient

B O T H P H O T O S : E N Z O A N N U A R I O


C O L O R P H O T O S : E N Z O A N N U A R I O

s c a l e

See more of the work of these two model builders in the April(3), June (5) and December (9) 2003 CLASSIC FAST FERRIES.Also, further photos of the full scale Donatello and details on theRodriquez RHS 160 design appeared on the back cover of CFF5/2003 and in CFF 6/October 2001, which also had a shortreport on another model of Donatello. n

T

IM T

IMO

LEO

N p

hoto


SHOT

: W H E N

: W H E R E

: W H Y

: W H O

We didn't move locations since last month's Classic Shot ... but then Bergenalways was one of the most active fast ferry ports in the world with a huge

selection of fast ferries of all types.Above is one of the lesser known ones, a 37m monohull built locally by

Bergens Mekaniske Verksteder and delivered to Fylkesbaatane i Sogn ogFjordane in 1971. The 171-seat 28-knot vessel, Fjordprins, was based on a

standard marine design and built from steel, contrary to the aluminum usedfor hydrofoils (except the foils) and the Westamaran 86 catamaran, the firstof which did also appear that same year and entered service with FSF. TheW86 and, three years later, W95 designs became success stories, whereas

only the one BMV monohull was built in its civil version.In the mid-80s, with fuel prices not getting any cheaper, FSF found Fjordprins

being too expensive to operate compared to its other fast ferries. Afterhaving been kept as a reserve craft for some time, it was sold in early 1986

to an Italian company, Ultramar, and renamed Freccia d'Argento.

Bergen, Norway

Early 1980s

Ole Kristian Knutsen photo

classic fast ferries classic fast ferries 2 / 2004 3 liv viking on the pad at ryde, isle of wight on...

Documents