# First trip for ex-navy ship ferry (BBC News)



## SN NewsCaster (Mar 5, 2007)

A former peacekeeping ship once used to deliver aid to East Timor sets sail on its maiden voyage from Dorset as a car ferry.

More from BBC News...


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## chadburn (Jun 2, 2008)

It will be very handy if the Falklands needs some support.


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## alastairrussell (Jun 19, 2007)

*What is a Maiden Voyage?*

*Question: How many maiden voyages do British cruise ships and passenger ferries have in their lifetime? I was always under the impression that if one used the words ‘maiden voyage’ this could only refer to the ships very first voyage after commissioning!*

With regard to HMAS Jervis Bay, we do not have a naval fleet auxiliary as such out here in Australia. I am not sure why exactly, but it might be the expected operational problems when manning the ship with members of the left wing Seaman’s Union of Australia (SUA now amalgamated with the MUA). As a consequence, all fleet support ships here are now commissioned as naval warships and manned only with military personnel. 

The Australian designed, built and owned high speed wave piercing catamaran ferry was built by Incat in Tasmania in 1997 under the name Incat 045. The aluminium ship is powered by four V16 Caterpillar diesels driving four kaMeWa waterjets. 

The ship was built on spec. by the builder and this vessel was bareboat chartered by the RAN for two years starting in May 1999. In June 1999 she was commissioned as the warship HMAS Jervis Bay and was used to provide logistic support to the Australian led INTERNET Peacekeeping force in East Timor. She was the first RAN vessel into the capital Dili when she landed soldiers to secure the area. 

During the two year charter she mainly operated between Darwin and Dili, being capable of doing the 430 sea miles at an average speed of 45 knots. She carried 20,000 passengers, 430 vehicles and 5600 tonnes of freight. The cost of the 2 year charter was 16 million au dollars and Jervis Bay has very recently been awarded the battle honour ‘East Timor 1999---2000’.

As a result of the very successful operation of the Jervis Bay during this period both the Australian companies Incat of Tasmania and Austal of WA are now building aluminium high speed multihull logistic ships for the US Navy both here and in the US.

Note: The above information is mainly sourced from Wikipedia


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## Oceanspan (Mar 4, 2006)

This, as I am sure most people will know, is the ex SpeedFerries catamaran Speed One. She ran a low-cost service from Dover to Boulogne between 2004 and 2008. This was very popular with ex-pats in France and for daytrippers to Boulogne. 

There was a successful free-advertising campaign using the slogan "Fight the Pirates" emblazoned on the side which was supposed to refer to unfair competition from the big boys.

The service never made any money and was always living on borrowed time, selling tickets in advance. Eventually rising fuel prices were the straw that broke the camel's back and the company went under owing a fortune in berthing fees to the ports of Dover and Boulogne, plus large sums to suppliers.

Speed One was laid up in Tilbury at the end of 2008 and has recently been acquired by Condor to become the Condor Rapide. 

http://www.doverferryphotos.co.uk/Vessel/speedone.htm


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## alastairrussell (Jun 19, 2007)

Thanks Oceanspan for your information and also the link to her Cross Channel history. 

The original Incat 045 has definitely experienced a few tricky times in her rather interesting career so far and we can only hope that her future service with Condor Ferries will not be so eventful. 

My sources of information have her, being fitted out with four Caterpillar 3618 diesels and not Ruston’s and her being purchased by SpeedFerries in 2004 and not chartered.

Alastair


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## Oceanspan (Mar 4, 2006)

Hi Alastair

I believe that she is fitted with Rustons and that a lot of work was performed on them during her service Dover-Boulogne. I recall Curt Stavis, the head of the company, going ballistic when it was suggested that she seemed to make an awful lot of smoke. Certainly, every time she departed from the Western Entrance, it was in a great cloud of black smoke. Presumably this was due to the engines still warming up after the short passage from the berth? Curt was obviously incensed because he was spending a fortune on diesel to power her unlike the heavy fuel burnt by the conventional ferries, and he must have been aware that this was going to bring his baby down.

Regarding ownership, believe she was originally obtained on very favourable charter rates direct through Incat. When this initial period expired, they were forced to take out a marine mortgage through the Bank of Scotland. The company itself would not have had the financial muscle as it was just a bunch of Danish friends collected together by Curt.


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## alastairrussell (Jun 19, 2007)

*Black Smoke!*

Oceanspan,

Thanks for all the info

With some turbo charged diesel engines it takes a wee bit of time for the turbos to spool up to the revs required to start pumping in enough air to stop the black smoke!! Maybe it was the wallah on the bridge playing silly buggers with the bridge control lever who was to blame! It some cases turbo-charged engines also suffer from turbo-blower surge when they are depowered too quickly. This is when the load on the exhaust gas end and the air end get out of balance and this then creates a horrible noisy type of wailing from the turbo-blowers. 

I feel sorry for your Chris Stavis and his friends because they would have been doing alright now that the EU has moved over to burning lower or zero sulphur oil in all ships trading in the EU. The EC appears to have jumped the gun and brought in the new rules before they have been approved by IMO! 

This means to me that the wave piercing cat ferries and the slower displacement conventional ferries must be now operating on the same fuel which is the relatively expensive zero or low sulphur marine diesel oil (MDO).

Maybe this is why the Condor Company has bought our ferry?


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