Incat Tasmania ferry offers speedy service
An 110m vehicle/passenger ferry has been launched from Incat Tasmania’s shipyard in Australia to commence sea trials before delivery to her owner Virtu Ferries for service between Malta and Sicily.
Wave-piercing catamaran HSC Saint John Paul II will be the 15th fast ferry Virtu has acquired and the largest highspeed catamaran in the Mediterranean. With a service speed up to 38 knots it will complete the crossing from Malta to Sicily, berth to berth, in around 90 minutes.
Speaking about Virtu Ferries, Robert Clifford, chairman of Incat Tasmania, said: “Virtu Ferries were looking for increased reliability, sea keeping, passenger comfort, capacity and economy with less operational downtime, and it is a pleasure to welcome them to the Incat family of shipowners.”
Extensive testing
Work commenced on HSC Saint John Paul II in 2017, with a design modelled by Revolution Design and Seaspeed Consulting and then extensively tank testing and optimisation at QinetiQ, the tank and aerospace testing facility in the UK.
For Virtu Ferries this new vessel provides a significant increase in capacity, the 490 truck lane metres offering 43% more truck capacity, with 15% more passenger capacity and 7% more car capacity than their previous craft.
Incat has two 111m vessels currently under construction. Now that the shipyard’s drydock position has been vacated, the next ship has been moved down through the shipyard into its final construction area where it will be assembled during the first half of 2019.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
