NORMAN ARROW PAYS A VISIT

Funnily enough, Norman Arrow has made a couple of visits to Dieppe since she left here yesterday, so maybe there's something in the offing after all......

Why was she replaced on the Dover run by a conventional ferry? I'm interested because our provincial government in British Columbia, Canada, built 3 fast cats a number of years ago that lasted about 12 months before being mothballed and eventually sold to the middle east.

Hi Andy, yes she made a quick turnaround within harbour and ran onto ro/ro ramp, presumably for berthing trial. Rumour has it that it may even run to Le Havre, with the present ship service to Dieppe ( 'SEVEN SISTERS' ). Time will tell, or watch this space etc!

At a rough guess, the "Cats" are not really a financially viable proposition to provide cross-channel services here because it seems they cannot cope with the rough seas which sometimes prevail here and the service is often cancelled.

Rob, there's much discussion of her replacement up at the Dover Ferries site (well worth signing up and taking a look) - at http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/index.php?sid=389715ff37693467e9e0ebb97c0ad27b

Lack of freight capacity, high fuel costs, 'politics'. Take your pick!

Andy

Andy, that's almost word for word the reaction to our fast cat debacle a few years ago which resulted in the demise of the provincial NDP government. During building by the BC unionised shipyards, the government tried unsuccesfully to have the internal supporting pillars in the cafeterias and public space made from local harvested lumber to please the forestry unions....you just had to shake your head. Having built them they tried using them on the 30 mile run between Vancouver (Horseshoe Bay) and Nanaimo (Departure Bay) on Vancouver Island but because of federal coastal speed restrictions they were only able to go full speed for about 15 miles in the middle of the strait. Also because of the spin off of the aforementioned forest industry there are numerous floating logs or 'deadheads' in the local waters which; of course; got sucked up into the intakes. If I remember correctly they were also unable to carry freight traffic. Having realised what a waste of money they were, they then mothballed them and tried to sell them to the US without realising that the US has a federal law that all public transportation 'vehicles' have to be US manufactured. This was about 10 years ago, they have just been sold and shipped to the gulf for a fraction of their build price.