CityCat goes to London

The Brisbane shipbuilder behind the original CityCats is constructing six ferries to operate on the Thames after striking a deal worth more than $20 million. The 38m catamaran ferries, being built by Brisbane Ship Constructions (BSC), will form the centrepiece of a dramatic expansion of London’s only riverboat service.

The contract, signed last year, helps to soothe the disappointment of losing out last month to Norman R Wright & Sons, a rival Brisbane firm, for the construction of the next CityCats. Managing director and owner Mike Hollis said that BSC was building the London vessels concurrently at its riverside Hemmant shipyard for delivery by the end of the year. He was confident of securing an option for a further two vessels, which would be ready to traverse the Thames in 2008.

Up to 300 people, including sub-contractors were engaged on the job, which represented the company’s biggest project. BSC delivered its first vessel to a Sydney Harbour cruise company in 1995 and has since built commercial vessels for a variety of customers, including Vietnam’s Department of Customs and the oil industry in West Africa. The first of its eight CityCats began plying the Brisbane River in 1996.

Production co-ordinator Tommy Ericson said that the project, which involved “the entire marine industry in southeast Queensland”, was further proof that the Queensland marine industry was internationally competitive.

“It came down to an extremely tight timeframe and we’ve got the proven record. We built the first six CityCats in six months.” The vessels, capable of seating 160 people and travelling at 27 knots, will be built to the design of a Cairns shipbuilder, NQEA, which has already constructed a vessel for the London business, Thames Clippers.

Thames Clippers was taken over last September by AEG Europe, part of the empire of Philip Anschutz, one of the richest people in the US and the owner of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, East London.