ON THE WAYS CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AT WORKBOAT YARDS
BC Ferries takes delivery of fourth Salish-class LNG ferry
BC Ferries
The Salish-class vessel names and artwork are intended to recognize and honor Coast Salish people as the original mariners on the Salish Sea.
W
ith its March arrival from Poland, the Salish Heron became the fourth and final vessel in BC Ferries’ new Salish class. The first three, the Salish Orca, Salish Eagle and Salish Raven, all went into service in 2017. All four were built by Remontowa Shipbuilding, Gdansk, Poland, under design/build contracts and Lloyd’s classification. The 107-meter (351') steel ferries can carry up to 138 cars and trucks and 600 passengers. Three of the Salish-class ships run between the south end of Vancouver Island and the southern British Columbia mainland through the Gulf Islands. A fourth Salish class operates farther north and connects Comox on the island with Powell River on the mainland. All routes include crossing the Strait of Georgia, which means at least 15 miles of open water. Because of difficult sea conditions, each end of the doubled-ended boats is protected with a curved visor that rotates up on arrival for unloading, and down when running to prevent spray from hitting the car deck. The ferries are all powered by trios of Wartsila 8L20 dual-fuel engines (6,000 hp total). The Salish class was the first in the BC Ferries fleet of 35 vessels to be powered by LNG. Jamie Marshall, vice president of shipbuilding and innovation, said that LNG made sense environmentally and economically. “There’s a huge reduction in NOx and SOx emissions from LNG, compared to even the cleanest diesel, 28
which we use,” said Marshall. “And a 100 percent reduction in particulates.” On the financial side, Marshall said the bottom-line cost of LNG is about half that of diesel. The success of the LNG-powered Salish-class boats inspired BC Ferries to convert two larger, Spirit-class ferries to dual-fuel LNG during their recent midlife overhauls. “When we converted the Spirits to LNG, we went from a million dollars fuel cost per month per ship to half of that,” he said. BC Ferries partnered with FortisBC, a subsidiary of Newfoundland-based power company Fortis Inc., to establish an LNG fueling program. Fortis operates two natural gas liquefaction facilities in British Columbia. One is in Delta, just north of the U.S. border and adjacent to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, and the other is on Vancouver Island. Both facilities have trucks to take the super-cool liquid gas to the vessels, either at Tsawwassen on the mainland or Comox on the island. A single wheelhouse in the center of the boat looks down at two passenger decks with seats, benches and tables outside. Below that the open car deck is fitted with MacGregor hydraulic hatches that open to allow access to a lower garage deck with 9'6" clearance. With the hatches closed, other cars and trucks drive over them when getting on or off the ferries. “This is a European innovation that they’ve been using for a long time,” said Marshall. Of the www.workboat.com • MAY 2022 • WorkBoat
