A modern-day ferry tale

ShuNews received from the office of MLA for Kootenay East, Bill Bennett, some rather spectacular photos of the first of the three Fast-Cat Ferries of the 1990’s scandal being loaded onto an enormous carrier in preparation for its journey to its new home in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Looking at them brings back lots of memories and we thought that a little trip down Memory Lane would be an appropriate, although belated, send-off.

Photos: — More fast ferry photos (courtesy of Bill Bennet MLA) — Pacific Voyager, one of the three catamaran ferries recently purchased by Abu Dhabi Mar, a United Arab Emirates company that builds yachts and remodels vessels, was loaded onto the Dockwise vessel Swift at an anchorage near Deep Cove on Saturday, August 22, 2009. In order to load the vessel, the Swift took on water ballast, allowing it to sink deep enough for the 1,500-tonne catamaran to be floated aboard onto customized cradles. The water was then pumped out and the vessel secured for its 45-day voyage to Abu Dhabi. The Swift and its cargo left port for its destination on Wednesday, August 26th.

Called the Fast Ferry Scandal, the Fast Ferries Fiasco and other not-so-flattering names, the story of the BC NDP Government’s misadventure on the not-so-high seas is a tale that has roused just about every emotion in the books in the tax-payers of British Columbia ever since.

The public who travelled on any sort of a regular basis between the mainland and Vancouver Island had been complaining for years about the traffic snarls at Horseshoe Bay Terminal as backlogs often blocked the access to the Sea-To-Sky Highway. They wanted fewer vehicles clogging residential streets upon arrivals of the ferries. And they wanted an end to noisy truck traffic in the village of Horseshoe Bay. All valid complaints, to be sure.

In response to these concerns, the government wanted to put in place a program that would have ferry travel times reduced by 30 minutes, ships with smaller capacity (250 cars instead of 365), move trucks from the terminals to an alternate route, and a system that would eliminate long line-ups. An ambitious program, but appropriate to the shortfalls of a worn-out system that wasn’t serving the citizenry.

But the NDP’s also had an even grander, more glorious agenda. They would rebuild the shipbuilding industry of British Columbia!

Being a coastal province, BC had seen a lively and prosperous shipbuilding industry in the early 1900’s, one which supported a booming fishing industry. During World War ll, ship-builders produced two 10,000-ton freighters per week. By the 1990’s, however, the industry was nearly dead. High costs of materials, labor disputes and competition from shipyards in the Far East were making it impossible to turn a profit.

Glen Campbell, the NDP premier of the 90’s, was going to bring back the glory days of the ship-building industry, which was, after all, practically an institution in the history books. At the same time, he would provide jobs for perhaps thousands of British Columbians and put BC on the marine map once more.

How would he do this? His government would use the Crown corporation, BC Ferries, to construct a fleet of high-speed ships, custom-designed, fast catamarans that would carry passengers and also vehicles across the waters! Eventually, these vessels would be so state-of-the-art that they would be coveted internationally and a highly profitable export business would be created. A new Crown Corporation called Catamaran Ferries International was instituted to oversee the project.

Well, we all know the rest of this sad story. Against the strong recommendation of BC Ferries, the government went ahead and committed itself to the project regardless of the outcome. Between 1998 and 2000, 3 vessels were built – the Pacificat Explorer, the Pacificat Discovery and the Pacificat Voyageur. Voyageur was christened but never commissioned because by the time it was ready to be put in service, the bottom had fallen out of the whole program. An industry which had formerly built fishing boats was unable to jump the chasm between small boats and ocean-going, special purpose vessels. Costs had more than doubled from $210m to almost $460m and delivery was 3 years behind schedule.

The two boats which actually went into service, consumed huge amounts of diesel fuel, debris was sucked into the impellers, causing breakdowns and cancellations, waterfront docks were damaged by the huge wakes the ships caused, passengers were complaining of the heat caused by lack of air circulation, outside decks for passengers were too little, interiors were cramped and there were balancing issues.

When a new Liberal government came into power, the boats were put up for sale auctioned to the highest bidder. As of July 2009, the tale of dreams dashed is ended. We paid $600,000,000 for 3 boats that didn’t work and caused all sorts of damage to the shorelines wherever they went. And they were sold for a tiny fraction of what we paid for them.

CVNews asked Deborah Marshall, Director of Media Relations about whether the situation had reverted back to the formerly unsatisfactory system in use when the NDP government had come into office. Had there been any improvements to the flow of traffic and the long wait times for passengers? She told us that things have improved greatly, with 3 new Super-C-Class ferries, purchased from Germany — on time and on budget! The truckers are happy now that they are once again back at Horseshoe Bay and there are no more complaints.

What Ms. Marshall didn’t say, however, was that the new Super C’s got off to a rather rough start. In November, 2002, the Liberal government, without legislature or public debate, re-invented the 40-year-old Crown corporation as a private company. The government still owns the company, BC Ferry Services Ltd. but the routes and the operations are now contracted out, much like the operation of an airport.

In December of 2007, the Coastal Renaissance, first of the three new Super C-class vessels, arrived from Germany. The total cost to the taxpayers of British Columbia was $542 million. The ships had a diesel-electric propulsion system that was said to be 30% more efficient than the ones on the older ships. And the company would be saving an estimated $5 million per year on fuel. Everyone looked with great anticipation toward a new era for BC Ferries.

Less than 10 months later, it was announced that the Renaissance would be tied up more than it was in use. It was replaced 4 days a week with the 32-year old Queen of Cowichan, which was reported to require 20% less fuel. It seems that there are major flaws in the design of the vessel. Perhaps the biggest one is something called cavitation, in which the propellors sit too high in the water, causing excessive churning of the surface of the water and resulting in increased fuel consumption.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Transportation/2008/11/25/GuzzleFerry/

In November 2008, the second ship, Coastal Celebration, carried its first passengers between Swartz Bay and Tsawassen. Immediately afterward, the ferry was in operation not more than 2 afternoons a week.

The third vessel, Spirit of BC, was sidelined with engine trouble in December of the same year, leaving only one ship working on one of the busiest routes for several hours while the Celebration remained tied at the terminal.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/12/04/Ferries/

Reading some blogs in response to one Tyee article, dated november 18, 2008, we see that

“…some waterfront residents are saying that the vibration from the new ferries is so bad that it is causing cracks to form in their homes foundations.”

“…are they ever fancy. A deluxe gift shop…..a trendy coffee house…. Just one problem: why do we need such a cavernous luxury vessel for a 95 minute crossing (2 hours in the case of Duke Point)? Most of us who use the ferry all the time would be happy with a barge, as long as the price was right. These are the fast ferries, built to neo-conservative specifications.”

When the BC Liberals restructured the ferry company in 2003, they apparently made it exempt from the province’s freedom of information laws. It would seem that BC Ferries tells us only what they want us to know. There doesn’t seem to be any public oversight and the taxpayers are footing the bill of $1.2 billion in long-term debt.

Is this to be the end of the tale? Hopefully it will, like all good “ferry” stories, have a happy ending. But don’t hold your breath, taxpayers.