Dakota Creek Shipyard delivers another fast ferry

Dakota Creek Industries (DCI) in the USA recently delivered the latest version of its aluminum-hulled fast ferry to owners in the San Francisco area. The $8 million, 300 passenger Solano left the shipbuilders Anacortes shipyard after successfully completing performance testing and final adjustments.

The 41.5 metre long, 12.3 metre wide hull and superstructure are entirely of aluminium and twin diesel engines provide the power for a water jet propulsion system capable of generating a maximum speed of 38 knots and 34 knots when loaded. The control system is digital, with the helmsman making direction and power adjustments with a joystick instead of a wheel. The newbuilding is the third ferry built by DCI for the city of Vallejo in California which is about 20 miles north of San Francisco on San Pablo Bay. Vallejo’s Baylink Transit authority will use the new vessel to increase daily passenger runs to San Francisco and the Marine World amusement attraction by about 30% in an effort to further reduce traffic on the I-80 motorway corridor between the two cities.

Dakota Creek has now constructed six of the advanced lightweight, high-speed ferries which are all based on the same twin-hulled catamaran design originated by Advanced Multi-hull Designs of Australia for which Dakota Creek has the West Coast licence.

The Solano includes two notable improvements over the earlier fast ferries from DCI, i.e. an upgraded, passenger-liner-quality heating and cooling system made by a division of electronics giant ABB and a main engine exhaust treatment system by Steuler Industries in Germany. The latter system uses state-of-the-art selective catalytic reduction technology to substantially reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants from the boat’s diesel engines, and the Solano is one of the first vessels in the world to carry it.

In addition to the three sales to Vallejo, DCI has delivered one of the fast ferries to the city of San Francisco and sold two to Washington State Ferries.