Converting a fast ferry on a yacht?

Hi,

Any conversion is always a compromise at best.

If this type of vessel appeals to members you could save a lot of grief and no doubt money by having one built new.

Commercial yards can churn them out fast and to meet all class requirements.

If you can handle a high end Pax type interior then even more savings are available.

Footnote: By the time the companies that operate these type vessels sell them they have generally reached the end of their economic life cycle - not something you want to get involved in with your trousers around your ankles.

I was asked a few years ago to do a survey on what had originally been a Fred Olsen Fast Monohull with 4 x 20V 8000 MTU Engines and Kamewa's.

I got what was purported to be the service history and I was curious as to what if any work had been done to attend to the well known corrosion issues that plagued the early ones in the stern.

While making some class and MTU enquiries I found tat it had needed a lot of work done and was sold onto a less stringent flag operator, the next thing that rang big bells was the engines had supposedly been majored a few thousand hours previously and as they were knocking on 25,000 hrs this was significant in two respects.

MTU would not rebuild them after 20,000 hrs - The life cycle of the cylinder block.

I explained this to the Customer who seemed very offended by my refusal to waste his money by travelling to the vessel.

This would have been the second one I did for this guy and the first was far from normal too.

I have not been offered anymore by him but I am not overly worried as he was the type of Owner we will read about in the paper one day.

Our local operator, Condor Ferries, may be selling their InCat ferries (as pictured above) shortly. They run Paxman Diesels and the boats are getting towards the end of their economic lifecycle.

A new larger design is being looked at but work must be carried out on the docks to accommodate the larger vessels.

One of these ferries is what I sort of imagine the new 84m Echo Yachts trimaran will be based off of.

It's not a fast ferry, but the Mat-Su Borough (like an Alaskan county, with 90k people living in an area 5/6th that of Scotland) has an icebreaking SWATH/Barge transforming oviparouswoolmilkpig that they have been trying to sell for pennies on the US Navy's dollar. It's at the beginning of its service life. Like the fast ferries, it would be difficult to find a berth for it.

Thats a good one! I will use that line often.

Only in Alaska

It would be hard to sleep onboard with all the dockwalkers puking and laughing as they walked by the thing.

But, you have to admit, it was a good way to funnel federal dollars to some of the favored local pockets. They had to do something to make up for not getting their bridge to their logs and land development schemes on Gravina

The CNMI govt has been thinking about purchasing this vessel for inter island travel but it makes no sense.

With the right refit she could look alright, silver cloud doesn't induce great amount of laughter. Uncle Ted ["series of tubes" Stephens] did funnel a lot of money into this state. He was voted out 6 years ago when he was convicted of accepting a bribe after the prosecutor conveniently forgot to mention the evidence that showed he was not guilty. He was replaced by a politician who was the mayor of Anchorage at the time, and reneged on the agreement to build the terminal for this ferry on the Anchorage side of the Kinik Arm. As a consequence the 12 million dollar grant from the federal government to design the terminals and build some auxiliary buildings became a loan which the Mat-Su borough has to repay. They are really hoping to sell the $80 million dollar ship for a chunk of that loan money (which they got a collections letter on last week) so they can put the whole ugly mess behind them.

The takeaway message is that the only way you are going to get a ship for a refit for less than it's worth is if it's part of a big ugly mess that has nothing to do with the quality of the ship.

CNMI, what a scam that bunch of islands is.

I like the use of the word "purchase" ... The American taxpayer will completely overhaul the thing, pay to ship it on a foreign flag heavy lift ship to the islands and then pay every bill for the thing until it burns up or runs aground. Then we will pay for the environmental cleanup and scrap removal.

Did you know the average income of a CNMI government employee is twice that of the highest private sector average income on the islands?

That's funny. That monstrosity ain't no Silver Cloud by a long shot.

Ted got it for free and hoped to scam the taxpayers for the tens of millions it would take to build the landings. He died before he could pull off that heist and the fact that the thing has just been rotting away costing $90k a month says everything anyone needs to know about the validity of that pork barrel scam.

I think it is hilarious that the only "offer" for the thing is from another bunch of federal welfare queens.

Found this photo on a mate's FB page.