B.C. shipyards being considered for smaller ferry

Following the recent announcement by B.C. Ferries in Canada that two European ferry builders, Flensburger Schiffbau of Germany and Aker Finnyards of Finland, are bidding for the $380million contract to build two new ferries, David Hahn, president and CEO of B.C. Ferries, said that local shipyards are in the running to build a new, smaller ferry. However, he also said that a Polish yard is being considered.

The contract would be for a ship to serve the Sunshine Coast and will be smaller than the ?super? C-class vessels that B.C. Ferries has already decided will be built at a European yard. That decision has angered British Columbian shipyard workers who have been campaigning for several weeks for the provincial government to force the ferry company to change the way it conducts bidding for new ships.

The ferry operator is in the process of developing a shortlist which includes a Polish shipyard and two B.C. shipyards, i.e. Washington Marine Group and Allied Shipbuilder. The new ship would be about the size of the current ?Skeena Queen? which measures 110 metre long and was built in Vancouver in 1996.