what happened to high speed ferries?

[saaby93]

Following on from the couple of hovercraft threads what happened to the high speed ferries?
Who can remember Mr T Wogan and co reporting on the ferries that could cross the Irish Sea in any weather but had to stay in port whenever the sea became a mill pond

Whats the best way of sea crossing today?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaCat



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_Sea_Servi...

[347Andy]

The running costs were horrendous !

[williamp]

A bit like Concorde: the time saved is not worth the aditional cost and complexity.

[Chrisgr31]

williamp said:

A bit like Concorde: the time saved is not worth the aditional cost and complexity.

Possibly not helped by reliability issues and competition. On the short crossing the Tunnel was an obvious game changer as it was a more expensive faster crossing and in direct competition for the high speed ferries. The High Speed ferries offered little advantage over the tunnel, the traditional ships offering better quality, seating, food etc.

[jamesbilluk]

We travelled on this last year to France, impressive bit of kit, rather choppy on that day though...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_Normandie_Expr...

[AW111]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Still do the Channel Isles, and Melbourne to Tasmania IIRC.

Melbourne - Tasmania is now conventional only.

Plane is much quicker, conventional ferry is cheaper, and carries freight as well.

Sea-cat was caught in the middle, taking 6 hours and frequently delayed or cancelled due to bad weather ( Bass strait can be very rough).

[Riley Blue]

I used to use SpeedFerries' Dover-Boulogne fairly frequently, sometimes once or twice a month; block booking tickets meant it was always the cheapest way of getting across the Channel. They were fun, quick, sometimes exciting when the sea was choppy and apart from having to dodge burning tyre barricades a few times in Boulogne I never encountered any problems. The seats, once they put in a 'Club Lounge', were OK and the coffee (free) was drinkable; I never needed much else on a short crossing.

[matchmaker]

347Andy said:

The running costs were horrendous !

That's what I heard.

Wikipedia said:

The reasons cited for the replacement by conventional ferries were decreasing passenger patronage, coupled with escalating fuel costs. A report in International Freighting Weekly following the withdrawal stated that Stena Discovery operation on the North Sea route was using more fuel than Stena's seven other conventional ferries on the North Sea put together. Fuel costs for the HSS were noted in the article to have risen 40% from 2004–2005 and again by another 15% in 2005 - 2006, something that was "unsustainable".

A shame, but understandable.

[Hub]

As well as cost and reliability, they can only run in decent conditions. The Condor ferry serving the channel islands is always being cancelled. It is also often full of people chundering.

[loafer123]

I had a terrible experience on the Condor to the Channel Islands.

My wife was crying having just finished the book Saving Private Ryan but everyone thought that she was crying because I had done something bad.

Ferry was quick, thankfully...

[Riley Blue]

Hub said:

As well as cost and reliability, they can only run in decent conditions. The Condor ferry serving the channel islands is always being cancelled. It is also often full of people chundering.

They weren't known as the 'Vomit Comet' for nothing...

[Blib]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Still do the Channel Isles, and Melbourne to Tasmania IIRC.

I prefer the Old Skool Cool of the Fethiye / Rhodes smoke belching Hydrofoil !
The Flying Poseidon !

Edited by Paddy_N_Murphy on Friday 18th November 22:48

We took one of those last summer from Pireaus to Aegina. It was called a Flying Dolphin. It was loud, rattly and smelly. But the journey was 30% quicker than the standard ferry.

[mcelliott]

Riley Blue said:

Hub said:

As well as cost and reliability, they can only run in decent conditions. The Condor ferry serving the channel islands is always being cancelled. It is also often full of people chundering.

They weren't known as the 'Vomit Comet' for nothing...

I think the vomit comets were the hydrofoils that we used in the 60s and 70s, awful things. These days we have got the Condor Rapide (first picture) which operates from Guernsey to France, it's actually a very good boat for this route - fast and pretty reliable; however for the Guernsey Poole route they operate the new Condor Liberation. A total turd of a boat, totally unsuited to the open seas, and cannot dock in St Peter Port in anything above a force 5. We still use traditional ferries, just today I got back using the Condor Clipper, Portsmouth to Guernsey, nearly 8 hours.

[anonymous-user]

A few in the med

Gibraltar and Algeciras to tangiers for instance

[MarshPhantom]

williamp said:

A bit like Concorde: the time saved is not worth the aditional cost and complexity.

How very unlike HS2.

[uncinqsix]

jamesbilluk said:

We travelled on this last year to France, impressive bit of kit, rather choppy on that day though...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_Normandie_Expr...

I went on that a few times when it was The Lynx on the Wellington-Picton run. What killed it was the speed restrictions in the Marlborough Sounds, put in place due to wake damage on the shoreline. By the end, it was only 45 minutes or so faster than the conventional ferries (3 hrs vs 3.45). Shame, because it was a good service when it started.

[MarshPhantom]

Used to use The Speedferries boat to Boulogne quite often. Gutted when they stopped that service.

[Johnnytheboy]

mcelliott said:

Riley Blue said:

Hub said:

As well as cost and reliability, they can only run in decent conditions. The Condor ferry serving the channel islands is always being cancelled. It is also often full of people chundering.

They weren't known as the 'Vomit Comet' for nothing...

I think the vomit comets were the hydrofoils that we used in the 60s and 70s, awful things. These days we have got the Condor Rapide (first picture) which operates from Guernsey to France, it's actually a very good boat for this route - fast and pretty reliable; however for the Guernsey Poole route they operate the new Condor Liberation. A total turd of a boat, totally unsuited to the open seas, and cannot dock in St Peter Port in anything above a force 5. We still use traditional ferries, just today I got back using the Condor Clipper, Portsmouth to Guernsey, nearly 8 hours.

I work for Condor from time to time (go on the Clipper, might be on the Liberation soon ).

The boat most of the crew seemed to rate was the Condor 10.

Don't seem to remember crew describing the Vitesse as reliable.

[matchmaker]

uncinqsix said:

I went on that a few times when it was The Lynx on the Wellington-Picton run. What killed it was the speed restrictions in the Marlborough Sounds, put in place due to wake damage on the shoreline. By the end, it was only 45 minutes or so faster than the conventional ferries (3 hrs vs 3.45). Shame, because it was a good service when it started.

A bit like the HSS on Stranraer-Belfast. Couldn't use full power in Loch Ryan in case any small boats or people on the shore got swamped

[Riley Blue]

mcelliott said:

Riley Blue said:

Hub said:

As well as cost and reliability, they can only run in decent conditions. The Condor ferry serving the channel islands is always being cancelled. It is also often full of people chundering.

They weren't known as the 'Vomit Comet' for nothing...

I think the vomit comets were the hydrofoils that we used in the 60s and 70s, awful things.

Google says otherwise: https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=opera&q...