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The FastCat Fiasco or Fast Ferry Fiasco was the name given to a political scandal in the Canadian province of British Columbia in the 1990s relating to the construction of a fleet of high speed ferry vessels.
High Speed Ferries
The provincial government at the time, led by New Democratic premier Glen Clark, decided to use provincial Crown corporation BC Ferries to advance its economic (and political) goal of supporting British Columbia's shipbuilding industry by creating a fleet of custom-designed high-speed catamaran passenger/vehicle ferries for BC Ferries, with the eventual goal of exporting additional vessels on the international market. The vessels were to be built by local shipyards under the overview of a new provincial Crown corporation to be called Catamaran Ferries International Inc. (CFI).
It is presumed that the Government of British Columbia was attempting to emulate the success of Australian shipbuilders such as Incat Tasmania and Austal Shipbuilding in the global fast ferry market.
Pacificat Fleet
The vessels built for BC Ferries were intended to improve ferry service between the mainland terminal of Horseshoe Bay (in West Vancouver) and the Vancouver Island terminal at Departure Bay (in Nanaimo).
The three vessels were built between 1995-2000 and were named as follows (with commissioning dates):
- PacifiCat Explorer (1998)
- PacifiCat Discovery (1999)
- PacifiCat Voyager (2000)
The vessels had a service speed of 37 knots (68 km/h) and a capacity for 250 car-equivalents and 1000 passengers.
Due to various blunders by the government, BC Ferries, design bureaus, and the shipyards, the cost of the program almost doubled from $210 million ($70 million/vessel) to almost $460 million ($150 million/vessel) and final delivery was almost 3 years behind schedule.
The ferries also had the following problems:
- Extremely high fuel consumption. The four 8,375 brake horsepower engines (33,500 BHP) driving waterjets required an inordinate amount of diesel fuel.
- The waterjet impellers for the engines were constantly being damaged by ingesting flotsam. BC coastal waters are awash with stray logs from the lumber industry.
- When operated at full speed, the Pacificat fleet created large wakes which damaged waterfront wharves and property in coastal areas near the 2 terminals. This required that the ferries reduce speed when not operating in open seas (up to 1/3 of their route), thus their speed advantage was negated.
- Size and vehicle capacity. The Pacificat vessels were small by most standards of vessels used on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay route and in addition, they could not carry trucks.
- International fast ferry standards did not permit anybody to stay on the car deck. This meant all passengers had to move up to the passenger deck.
- The air on vehicle decks became uncomfortably warm, either from the heat of the vessel engines or lack of air circulation. This made some people wary of bringing pets aboard the Fastcats, however, the ferries had kennels at the bow and stern of the vehicle decks which increased air circulation thus providing a cooler environment.
Following various problems with the design and operation, as well as bowing to political pressure, the government auctioned off the Pacificat fleet on March 24, 2003 for $19.4 million ($6.5 million/vessel) to the Washington Marine Group. The same group had offered close to $200 million for the vessels prior to the auction, which was yet another source of contention.
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