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January, 2005 • MarineNews 19 Passenger Vessel Annual terson, La. Gulf Craft, known best for their crew/supply boats, had their Aus- tralian designer, Crowther Multihulls design a 300-passenger 351-ft. passenger ferry for Key West Express, Ft. Myers, Fla. Key West Express has a fleet of three fast ferries serving Key West, Fla. from a terminal in Ft. Myers year around and Marco Island in season. The 34-ft. wide Big Cat Express was delivered in January 2004 and makes the trip in 3-3.5 hours at a top speed of 38 knots. Gulf Craft called on their experi- ence as a builder of fast crew/supply boats using the same engine setup used on many of their oil field boats. A pair of Cummins KTA50-M2 engines are mounted in each hull of the catamaran driving Hamilton HM-651 waterjets through NICO offset reduction gears. Total horsepower is 7,200. Two Cummins engines also power 75 kW generators one mounted in each hull. The vessel is designed with a partially enclosed main cabin that can seat 150 pas- sengers. This space also holds 24 gaming machines and a snack bar. The second deck has enclosed seating for 80 persons in a VIP business class arrangement aft of the pilothouse and an open second deck area with 104 seats. The upper sun deck has seating for 44 passengers. There are five 48-in. plasma televisions onboard with digital satellite reception. The company also operates the Big M casino boat out of Ft. Myers with a com- plete array of casino games. Two daily cruises are offered. High Speed Passenger and Vehicle Ferries As noted in the intro of this story, 2004 was the year that large high-speed passen- ger and vehicle ferries were introduced for the first time in the U.S. Two ferries were introduced this summer on Great Lakes routes and the early returns shows that one was mostly a success while the second was a complete flop. First the bad news. The $42.5 million vessel Spirit of Ontario built in Australia to run across Lake Ontario from Rochester, NY to Toronto, Canada. sus- pended service after three months of ser- vice awash in red ink. The December issue of Marine News chronicles this debacle with an interview with the driving force behind the venture. Now for the relatively good news. Lake Express, a U.S. flagged vessel built by Austal USA, Mobile, Ala. (ironically the parent company Austal Ships of Australia built the Spirit of Ontario) ended its 2004 service two months early but met its pas- senger projections, according to ferry spokesperson Jeff Fleming. The 192-ft. by 57-ft. all-aluminum cata- maran began its 76-mile trans Lake Michigan route between Milwaukee, Wisc. and Muskegon, Mich. on June 1 and halted service at the end of October. The service is expected to resume April 30, 2005. "We failed to market the availabili- ty of service to the end of the year," said Lake Express President Ken Szallai. "The popular assumption is that Lake Michigan service is only offered in the summer and fall and we did not do enough marketing to counter this idea," Szallai added. As a result ridership was projected to down sig- nificantly the last two months of the year. Even so, the Lake Express got rave reviews from tourism officials during it first season of operation. "Now that we understand its potential, we can move for- ward to a fantastic season in 2005," said Cindy Larsen, president of the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce. The vessel, that has a capacity of 253 passengers and 46 vehicles, carried more than its goal of 100,000 passengers in spite of a five-month rather than a seven- month season. Powered by four MTU 16V 4000 M70 engines, the Lake Express is capable of a speed of 34 knots using Kamewa 80 SII waterjets, allowing the ferry to cross Lake Michigan in under 2.5 hours. Next season the vessel will offer upgrades in both facilities and on-board amenities. Traditional Ferries The Alaska Marine Highway System (AHMS) made big news this year with the introduction of the fast passenger/vehicle ferry Fairweather on the Sitka- Juneau route. Its quartet of MTU 16V595TE70 engines drive the ferry to a top speed of 43 knots and a cruise speed of 32 knots. The vessel has a length of 235 ft. and a 60-ft. beam. Passenger capacity is 250 people, small for a boat of this size but the AMHS decided not to make the decks of the ves- sel "wall-to-wall seats. Rather the vessel has lounges and other passenger hospital- ity areas. Not as well publicized, but equally valuable to AMHS was the slower speed passenger/vehicle ferry Lituya. The steel- hulled vessel more resembles an offshore supply boat than a traditional ferry with an open main deck and a center island with a passenger lounge topped by a pilothouse. It was a case of form following function, according to Tom Atwood, an AMHS manager and on site construction manager as the vessel was being built at Conrad Industries, Morgan City, La. The vessel shuttles between the main- land port of Ketchikan and the tiny island of Annette, home for the Metlakatla Indi- an tribe. "Rough weather is often encountered on this route and since this is 24-hour a day service, we needed a vessel that can han- dle rough seas and can shed water quick- ly," said Atwood. "A supply boat design is proven to handle those conditions," Atwood added. The 181-ft. Lituya has a 50-ft. beam and is powered by a pair of Caterpillar 3508B engines rated at 1,000 hp. This propulsion power setup is the same as many similar- sized supply boats. A 200 hp Thrustmaster bow thruster completes the propulsion system. Top speed of the ferry is14 knots and passenger capacity of 149 passengers with a crew of five. In spite of her supply boat look, the Lituya is a Subchapter T passenger vessel for Lakes, Bays and Sounds under 100 gross tons. MN JAN05 2 (17-24).qxd 1/4/2005 2:37 PM Page 19
