12 minute read
Vessel Report: People Movers
by WorkBoat
People Movers
After suffering from a year of dealing with Covid and low ridership, ferry operators are rebounding.
By Dale K. DuPont, Correspondent
The rarefi ed world of the America’s Cup provided inspiration for a ferry that is one of a growing number with low-emission, high-speed hybrid- and electric-powered designs. At the same time, the continued operation of two historic landmarks (see sidebar) is a nod to the past of a dynamic The Seastreak Commodore approaches the terminal at Highlands, N.J.sector that is gradually recovering from a steep Covid-19-induced passenger drought. Crew and commuters heading to work have been hard to fi nd. Ridership for many ferry operators was down 40%-50%, but things are getting better. And one new Staten Island ferry was fi nally expected to be in New York harbor this year.
COVID AND OTHER WOES
As summer began, passengers came fl ooding back “to the point we’re at pre-pandemic levels on most routes,” said Ian Sterling, spokesman for Washington State Ferries (WSF). A lot of the traffi c is due to tourism, since many offi ce buildings are not back to work yet.
As for crew, “we simply don’t have the number of people we need,” which has led to cancellations, he said. Normally, from February to June, they have
The 150-passenger, 98’x23’ electric hydrofoil fast ferry for Seattle would have carbon fi ber foils and hull with foam cores above the waterline.
An April engine room fi re sidelined Washington State Ferries’ 460’2”x90’x17’3” Wenatchee which was undergoing sea trials with rebuilt engines.
one or two cancellations a month. This year, they’ve already had 55-plus roundtrip sailings cancelled. While that’s just 1% to 2% of the total, it’s a problem for the passengers who count on the ferry. “We’re trying to address it as best we can. Just fi nding qualifi ed people is a challenge,” Sterling said.
Compounding WSF’s woes was an April engine room fi re that sidelined the 460'2"×90'×17'3" Wenatchee which was undergoing sea trials with recently rebuilt engines. The cause is under investigation. The Jumbo Mark II ferry that carries 2,500 passengers and 202 vehicles is one of the largest in the fl eet and one of three scheduled to be converted from diesel to hybrid-electric propulsion.
Across the country in June, a grounding on New York’s East River sidelined the Seastreak Commodore, the highest capacity Subchapter K fast passenger ferry ever built in the U.S. None of the 107 onboard was injured. The Atlantic Highlands, N.J.-based company said an issue caused the 150'×40', 600-passenger vessel to lose engine power and steering. The Coast Guard is investigating. According to The (Nantucket) Inquirer and Mirror, Seastreak announced the cancellation of all its ferry service from New York to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket until Sept. 3 due to the
Video image courtesy Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park
The Seastreak Commodore grounded in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y., where police and fi re vessels evacuated passengers and crew.
Commodore being out of service.
During the worst of Covid, Seastreak dropped from an average of 2,000 round-trip riders a day to around 50100, with most being essential workers who rode for free for several months, said James D. Barker, Seastreak’s director of business development.
Late this spring and early summer Seastreak saw huge gains in ridership to 50% or more of their 2019 numbers, and the company was expecting even more after Labor Day. The ferry operator was also expecting to take delivery in late July of the Commodore’s sister vessel, the 600-passenger, 148'×40' aluminum Seastreak Courageous, built by Midship Marine, Harvey, La.
ELECTRIC POWER
In Seattle, an electric hydrofoil fast ferry is moving closer to reality with public-private partnership funding for a project that began in 2018 after naval architect Paul Bieker of Bieker Boats moved back to the area and was struck by the traffi c congestion.
“The waterways are pretty clearly underutilized transportation-wise compared to land,” said Bieker, designer of the hydrofoils for the America’s Cup winning Oracle Team USA. “When you are engineering those boats, you have a sense of how magic they are. Following a race boat clipping along at 35-40 knots leaving a little spray, you realize that the race boat is doing that on 50-hp of energy” — a sea change in effi ciency.
HISTORIC FERRIES KEEP PLUGGING ALONG
Amid all the new, non-traditional designs, two historic ferries are still going strong.
In the midst of the pandemic, “we took a bad hit with a lot of people staying home. Business fell off really badly – about 75%-80% or more. Then we had a shot in the arm,” said Capt. Paul Anderson, who with his wife Deborah, owns Anderson Ferry, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. A truck collision on the I-75 bridge closed the Ohio River span for six weeks. “We had more business than ever before. We were more fortunate than a lot of businesses.”
By late this spring they were close to their normal load of about 500 vehicles a day from Hebron, Ky., to Cincinnati. They run year-round.
The service dates to 1817 when George Anderson got a license to operate the ferry, which was originally powered by two horses walking on a treadmill that turned the paddlewheels. A subsequent owner bought the operation in 1865 and built a steam paddlewheel boat, according to federal documents.
The fl eet includes the 78'x22'x4' Boone No. 8, built in 1952, which holds 10 cars, pushed by Little Boone, and the 80'x30'x4' Boone No. 9, built in 1977, which holds 15 cars, pushed by the Deborah A. Now, both Capt. Anderson, who bought the business in 1986, and a third vessel may be heading into retirement. The company will stay in the family, and he’d like to donate the 65'x23'x4' Boone No. 7, a small paddlewheeler built in 1937, to the Ohio River Museum in Marietta, Ohio.
Last of the side-wheel ferries on the Ohio, the Boone No. 7 is “pretty signifi cant,” said Jeff Spear, president of the Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen. “Anderson Ferry has a marvelous long history.”
They were waiting for the state’s OK to accept the ferry, which would be displayed in the water like the 103-year-old, 179' W.P. Snyder Jr., from Pittsburgh, the nation’s last intact steam-powered, sternwheeled towboat and a National Historic Landmark. The Boone’s hull is “better than the original. She has a little bit of a hint of Art Deco to her,” Spear said. “She needs to be saved. That’s kind of what we’re in the business of – saving river history.”
Another noteworthy vessel is the S.S. Badger — the last remaining example of the Great Lakes rail/car ferry design and the last coal-fi red passenger steamship in operation in the U.S. – designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016 and under new ownership since December.
The 394'x60'x20' Badger began daily service on March 21, 1953, crossing Lake Michigan between Ludington, Mich. and Manitowoc, Wis. The vessel briefl y left active service in the early ‘90s. Originally designed primarily to transport railroad cars, the ferry returned to carry 620 passengers and 180 vehicles.
In 2014, the Badger’s combustion control system was overhauled to reduce coal ash and comply with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate. Powered by two Skinner Unafl ow four-cylinder marine steam engines rated at 3,500 hp at 125 rpm, the Badger’s propulsion system is designated a mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Interlake Holding Co. late last year bought the assets of Lake Michigan Car Ferry Co. and Pere Marquette Shipping Co. that includes the Badger and the articulated tug-barge Undaunted-Pere Marquette 41.
Any plans for the Badger? “We are looking at all aspects of the ferry to understand how we can make it better for our customers for the long term, but do not have any specifi c projects that we can speak to at this time,” an Interlake spokesman said. — D.K. DuPont
Photo courtesy of Vic Canfi eld
Anderson Ferry would like to donate the 65'x23'x4' Boone No. 7, a small paddlewheeler built in 1937, to the Ohio River Museum in Marietta, Ohio.
Having spent the last 20 years designing performance yachts, Bieker knew ferries were in a different world, especially when it came to regulations. So he approached Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering rm Glosten with the ferry concept.
The 150-passenger, 98'×23' design calls for carbon ber foils and hull with foam cores above the waterline. “High performance, high temperature cured carbon ber composite structure is pretty similar in strength and stiffness to high strength steel,” Bieker said. It’s also just one- fth the weight. Carbon ber also is about one half the weight of aluminum.
High-speed ferries have signi cant power requirements. “The faster you go, you need exponentially more power,” said Matthew Lankowski, the program manager at Glosten. “The only way to go fast and have zero emissions is to drastically reduce your resistance.” Hydrofoils, which cut resistance 60-70% “don’t need batteries, but batteries need hydrofoils.” The ferry would have a range of 1520 nautical miles and go about 30 knots. Lighter weight hydrogen power would be the choice for longer ranges.
They’re now working on the preliminary design, which Lankowski expected to be done by mid-September, and a business model likely nished by year’s end. Estimated cost is $20 million or less for a functional design and pilot program, which could be operational in 2023.
The funding announced last summer includes about $612,000 in federal and local money. The public-private partnership includes Kitsap Transit, Bremerton, Wash., which in 2019 launched the Glosten-designed Waterman, a 150-passenger, 70'×26' aluminum catamaran – the rst hybrid-electric passenger ferry in Puget Sound.
The federal share was $372,910. More
would be welcome.
“Creating a carbon-free maritime industry is an unprecedented challenge that creates a unique opportunity for U.S. technology developers. If this is our goal, time is of the essence,” Glosten president Morgan Fanberg told a House committee in April. “We will soon lose to foreign competition that is better funded and better prepared to lead the maritime industry toward decarbonization.”
Citing the foil ferry project, he said, “By comparison, a UK-based developer of a competing design was awarded a $45 million (USD) government grant to complete and build their design.”
Battery power is definitely attracting attention. Following last fall’s debut of the two Maid of the Mist Niagara Falls all-electric tour boats, Ed Schwarz, vice president of marine systems, ABB Marine & Ports, Miramar, Fla., has received inquiries mostly from ferries and other passenger vessels that go from point to point.
“It’s a really a perfect segment for zero emissions,” he said. ABB designed the electrical propulsion systems with lithiumion batteries for the two that are the first new, all-electric zeroemission passenger vessels built in the U.S.
Ferry operators considering newbuilds are looking seriously at hybridization, he said. As more choose that option, economies of scale kick in and the cost of materials goes down. And batteries are getting smaller and cheaper.
While owners may see a 5%-20% increase in the cost of the vessel, they may also see the same percentage decrease in
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operating costs, Schwarz said. “Hybridization usually pays for itself in four to eight years.”
ABB is providing the propulsion system for a new diesel-electric hybrid ferry for Casco Bay Lines, Portland, Maine. The 599-passenger, 15-car, 164'×40'×12' double-ended ferry designed by Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) will cost an estimated $14.2 million and is expected to be in operation by early 2023.
The ferry operator said the technology will eliminate up to 800 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually on the yearround Peaks Island route.
“We are also in the midst of signifi cant renovations to our terminal and marine infrastructure,” said Casco Bay general manager Hank Berg. “These renovations are necessary to accommodate the rapid growth in passenger, vehicle and freight traffi c we experienced before Covid.”
Ridership of 1.1 million in 2019 dropped to 630,770 last year. “However, largely due to our decision to ‘platoon’ our crews early on in the pandemic, there have been no disruptions in service,” he said. “This is critical as we are literally the lifeline for those who live on the islands we serve.”
And summer staffi ng has been harder than in the past. “The majority of our crew are longtime employees,” Berg said. “We’re exploring ways to incentivize these folks to refer seasonal employees for the busy season.”
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