The proving ground

The 900 passenger, 96m Incat wavepiercer Avemar, delivered to Buquebus Espana SA at the end of August, is the first of Incat`s Evolution 10 class. Incat`s ten years` experience of building wavepiercing catamarans has produced a bigger, faster vessel capable of carrying a full freight mix. Several new features allow it to carry a significant number of heavy vehicles, and the vessel is almost capable of carrying its own weight. This equates to approximately 675t of deadweight which can be carried as a broad mix of light and heavy road freight.

Vehicle deck capacity totals 300 truck lane metres 2.7m wide, 4-4.3m clear height, plus 425 car lane metres at 2.3m wide.

The vessel operates between Barcelona on the Spanish mainland and Palma on the main Balearic island of Mallorca, a 120 mile voyage which takes 3.5 hours. In the summer it operates four sailings each from Barcelona and Palma daily. During the winter the service is reduced to twice a day in each direction.

Three hours a day is allocated to regular servicing of the vessel, plus a longer period on Saturdays, when the fourth sailing each way does not operate. Guillermo Oliver, commercial director at Buquebus Espana says since the vessel has been operating, no sailings have been lost either to mechanical problems or bad weather. Significant wave height for Avemar is 5m.

Since introduction of the vessel, the total volume of passengers carried has increased by 50 per cent, and cars by 30 per cent compared with the same period last year, says Mr Oliver.

The first year of service

The first commercial fast ferry to be delivered by French builder IRIS Catamarans has now been in service for just over a year with ferry operator TMCA, Guadaloupe.

The 42.8m IRIS 6.1 catamaran TMC Archipels which has been operating a 50 nautical mile daily shuttle service between the islands of Point-a-Pitre and Marie Galante since August last year, is fitted with a single deck, 240 passenger two-compartment cabin.

It achieves its fully loaded cruising speed of 29.9 knots from two 1,740kW (2,332 bhp) MTU 12V 4000 M 70 diesels, each connected to a Lips LJ 76 DL water jet. The vessel can operate in a significant wave height of 2m. So far, only one sailing has been lost due to swell generated by a hurricane in mid-September.

The vessel operates three sailings a day each way, and since it entered service, the vessel has not lost any sailings from mechanical problems, the only work which has been done, other than regular maintenance, is to increase the effectiveness of the air conditioning system by adding some additional split units.

TMCA says that it, will carry out the annual ten-day check up, as recommended by IRIS, during the low season.

The owner`s overall impression of the vessel`s performance is that it has been reliable and comfortable for passengers. “The vessel is exactly what was promised,” a spokesman for TMCA says.

Recent deliveries

July saw the delivery of Austal`s twelfth Auto Express vehicle-passenger catamaran, and its first to the South American market.

The 86m Carmen Ernestina has entered service with Venezuelan company Conferry on the route between Puerto La Cruz on the mainland, and Punta De Piedras on Margarita Island. The service will be extended to La Guaira (near Caracas) and Punta De Piedras in the near future.

There is a drive through arrangement on the main vehicle deck, which has a height of 4.4m. Nine main deck lanes and six mezzanine deck lanes carry a total of 200 cars, or up to ten buses and 125 cars.

800 passengers are acommodated on two decks, 655 on the main deck, and 145 on the bridge deck.

The 40 knot cruising speed is achieved via four Caterpillar 36l8 diesels, each driving a Kamewa 112 SII waterjet through a Reinjtes VLJ6831 gearbox.