ShipBuilding FERRiES smoothly because of its simplicity—a well proven, simple design that doesn’t even have any heads onboard—the road for the Wabanaki has been far more winding. “The Wabanaki is a very complex boat, by comparison,” says Blount. “ We ’ r e a b o u t t h r e e months into the build,” says Blount Boats vice president Bob Pelletier, “after the Coast Guard approved the drawings.” Making the project perhaps just as challenging, says Pelletier, is that the ferry is being built with funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). That in and of itself makes the project far more complex because with the federal funding comes the “Buy America” provision. The provision requires that infrastructure projects involving construction, alteration, maintenance or repair of public buildings or public works must be accomplished using iron, steel and manufactured goods produced in the United States. There are exceptions. For example, if: 1. It is inconsistent with the public interest; there are insufficient or reasonably unavailable quantities of domestic products or their quality is unsatisfactory; or 3. It is likely to increase the cost
Island, Little Diamond Island, Great Diamond Island, Diamond Cove, Long Island, Chebeague Island, Cliff Island and Bailey Island.
of the overall project by 25% or more. Everything down to the nuts and bolts has to be made in the U.S. “There are very few exceptions,” says Pelletier. “I can see it because it is taxpayers’ dollars, but we have to keep all of the hardware, nut and bolts separate from what we use on other vessels to make sure there are no errors.” The Wabanaki is designed by Seaworthy Systems, a Rolls Royce company, Essex, CT, as a 399-passenger Coast Guard Subchapter K vessel. Based on that of the Aucocisco III, the Wabanaki will replace the aging Island Romance. Casco Bay Lines is the lifeline for residents of the islands of Casco Bay off the coast of Maine. Casco Bay provides year-round passenger, car and freight ferry service from Portland, ME, to Peaks
WSF ready to take the plunge into LNG Washington State Ferries, the Washington State Department of Transportation, Seattle, WA, recently issued a Request for Proposals for the conversion of its six Issaquah Class ferries to burn Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Why is the WSDOT Ferries Division considering switching to LNG? Simple economics and the environment. As of mid-August, the WSDOT said the cost of the price of a gallon of ultra low sulfur fuel was $3.98 per gallon. The WSDOT Ferries Division says the fuel cost savings switching from diesel to LNG would be about 40 to 50% based on current pricing.
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WSDOT says the delivered price of LNG by tank truck to the ferry has been quoted as $0.85 to $1.32 per gallon. By comparison, the delivered price of diesel fuel, which uses a 1.7 multiplier, costs $1.45 to $2.24 per gallon. Burning LNG instead of diesel would cut NOx by 90 percent, virtually eliminate particulate matter and SOx, and reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent. Here’s some sombering numbers from the WSDOT: WSF burns over 17 million gallons of fuel each year; fuel now represents 30 percent of the system’s operating budget up from 12 percent just a dozen years ago; and the
US FAB TEAMS WITH NICHOLS BROTHERS AGAIN Over 3,000 miles away in Seattle, WA, US Fab, Seattle, WA, a subsidiary of Vigor Industrial, has selected Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, WA, to build the superstructure for Washington State Ferries’ second 144-car Olympic Class ferry. Nichols Brothers Boat Builders teamed with US Fab on the construction of the first in the class. Construction of the superstructure for the second 1,500 passenger, 144-car Olympic Class ferry will start in December 2012, following the delivery of the superstructure for the first ferry. Nichols Brothers will be responsible for fabrication of the superstructure to include the Grand Block consisting of all structure above the lower vehicle deck, including the ramps of the upper vehicle deck, and outfitting of the pilothouse. Nichols Brothers will deliver the Grand Block on a barge to US Fab for final assembly in November 2013. ML
WSF’s fuel budget is $67.3 million, which is $51.7 million more than it was in 2000. As we reported back in the July 2012 issue of MARINe LOG (WSF unveils more details on ferry conversion to LNG,” p. 12), WSDOT projects that the cost savings on fuel would equate to $195.5 million from when the
first converted LNG ferry goes into service in 2015 to when the last converted vessel retires in 2042. All six of the ferries were built in the 1980s to carry 1,200 passengers and 100 vehicles. In the 1990s, all of the ferries except the Sealth were converted to carry 130 vehicles.
OCTOBER 2012 MARINE LOG 33