TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT LaboratoriUm voor ScheepshydrOmechafliCa Archief Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Deift let.: 015- 766873 - Fax: 015-781836
A GREEN FIELD SITE
Establishing a New Ferry Service
over an
Old Established Route mindful of today's Complex Legislation
Paul V. Townsend Marine Director, Cowes Express Limited
Paul Vincent Townsend
Paul Townsend has spent a life time's interest in matters marine from building his own British Moth at age 13 to Consultant to the Al-Sabah family of Kuwait.
After serving his apprenticeship with the Clan Line he gained his Master's Certificate at Southampton University then worked for the old Sthampton Harbour Board until establishing his own Marine Consultancy - combining his hobby of sailing and small craft. He was trials crew in the 1962 British America's Cup Challenge.
He joined Sealink 10W Service with the advent of high speed ferries which has extended through to the vessels now known as Surface Effect Ships. He was co-Founder and is Marine Director of Cowes Express a leading SES Operator in the world today. Capt. Townsend has conducted feasibility studies into establishing cross-Channel routes and is working in conjunction with amongst others
-Austal Ships, Western Australia, Polyship Belgium and SEC Italy in the development of SES craft for a wide variety of applications worldwide.
Page 1.
IDENTIFYING THE NEED FOR A ROUTE/SERVICE
It all started in 1986 whilst working for the "old" Sealink under the James Sherwood Ownership - we had introduced the 32 metre Incats Lady Pamela and Lady Patricia and, believe me, that was a hard sell. Three letters a week in the local Press condemning them - Bring Back the Southsea Action Groups.
Living on the Island made it worse. I digress.
I was requested by the Management of Sealink to investigate the use of Cowes Harbour by other Ferry Owners other than Red Funnel. Several approaches to use the facilities of Red Funnel Fountain Pier Cowes for the "Southsea" as a cruising pick-up and set-down had been rejected with cries by Red Funnel Management of "The Union won't agree".
As we are all aware, some Ports are private, others are Trust and others Very Private Ports.
It was soon established that Cowes, a Trust Port,
was open to other traders provided berthing facilities could be located.
One of the objects was to investigate the possibility of a service between Cowes and Portsmouth which,
incidentally, is approximately the same distance between Cowes and Southampton.
One of the major problems was the all weather berthing at Ryde Pier Head so other locations needed to be
looked at.
For various reasons following a market investigation and the immotive subject of a Pierhead Railway it was decided not to proceed.
At the same time a group of Island businessmen were looking at the possibility of purchasing Red Funnel. I was invited to join the working party i.e. Sunday afternoons in one of Cowes renowned Yacht Clubs where
the Share List, Assets and Labour Force of Red Funnel were analysed.
Page 2.
At about this time Sally Line made a hostile bid to which we lent our support. It amazes me that Red
Funnel remained left alone for so long. Prior to Red Jet i the last new building was 17 years before.
The High Speed Service did not operate in the
evening, no parcels service, no wheelchair facilities. The service was frequently suspended by bad weather
or fog. The majority of their shareholders were
elderly people many retired to the Isle of Wight who were more interested in a good dividend and subsidised
fares, rather than a progressive new building policy for which they would not benefit through their life time.
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Page 3.
SEARCHING THE WORLD FOR SUITABLE CRAFT.
Being Island based we immediately turned to local
I builders and their wealth of knowledge.
Westlands, B.H.C., Saunders Roe - truly a pedigree A mixture of High Speed Boatbuilder, Seaplane Builder and Aircraft Builder. Examples are the S.R.N. 4's
introduced in 1968 and I believe still to be operational in 1992.
The High Speed Boatbuilding industry and classification society in general could well take a leaf out of
Westland's book and apply more attention to stress analysis and aleviate some of the horrendous problems of fracturing aluminium that I certainly experienced in the early days and I believe others are continuing to experience.
We rejected the AP1-88-lOO at the design stage purely on size.
The Red Funnel hydrofoils capacity is 67. Wightlink Incats capacity 350+. Market research indicated we needed about 260 + seats, allowing for expansion,
agressive marketing and acraft life span of ten years. Indeed we have filled our craft to capacity on many occasions already.
The other local builder was F.B.M. Again a wealth of high speed boat and airframe building. Time was
marching on We needed a ready built craft. Most
builders were quoting an 18 month lead time. F.B.M. suggested the Fairey Marintekni}c catamarans from
Hong Kong - three were up for disposal. They were Red Ensign Hong Kong DTp. A truly Colonial clone of
our own service. Plans were exchanged, certificates were exchanged, log sheets and maintenance sheets were
exchanged - ah no They were not built in the U.K.
they do not comply. Talk of extra bulkheads, second shot CO2 systems, fire proofing of bulkheads. All quashed the idea of bringing back to the U.K. at great expense a craft to which we could not get a definite answer as to what we needed to do. At this point any thought of a foreign built craft was ruled out.
F.B.M. stated to me that in building the Red Jet i LX had been allowed for unknown factors of Government requirements.
Paqe 4.
Discussions continued between Cowes Express and F.B.M. regarding craft design. Several suitable designs were produced but alas funding was not available for such a fledgling Company.
We turned to Norway. The Cirrus 120P was well into production, one every three months off the line.
IS IT A CRAFT OR A HOVERCRAFI ? This was the question.
It was defined as a Hovercraft under the 1968 Hover-craft Act and re-affirmed under the I.M.O. Resolution A 373 (X) 1978 and incorporated into B.H.S.R. British Hovercraft Safety Requirements in 1979.
These excellent craft under the Norwegian N.I.S. flag were accepted into U.K. under Article 7 of the Hover-craft (General) Order 1972.
I must say here that Norway accepts the Api-88-100 of Scandinavian Airlines System under a reciprocal
arrangement. These Cirrus 120P obviously have a current Dynamically Supported Craft Construction and Equipment Certificate as required by I.M.0. A373 (X) issued by the Norwegian Maritime Authority. A
Certificate the U.K. Government has not ratified but is very keen to inspect and will not issue our C.A.A. Certificate unless the Craft Construction and Equip-ment Certificate is in place and in date.
Paqe 5.
CHOICE OF TERMINALS
CO WE S
We had the choice of two deep water sites within Cowes Town.
Shepards Wharf originally a British Road Services Cargo Wharf, a "U" shaped sheltered dock complete with Scotch derrick type crane.
This was not pursued due to dredging requirements, strength of wharf, sharp right angle turn cross tide to berth, slowing turnaround times.
I state here our passage time is 30 minutes berth to
berth. This is broken down thus:
Undocking 3 minutes Passage 15 Berthing 4 Discharge 4 Loading 4 30 't THETIS WHARF
Our first choice was Thetis Wharf a site steeped in history, site of an old drydock where Samuel White in 1864 drydocked the 1,000 tons Paddler he had just built for the P & O Group using the double diagonal planking method he had pioneered to replace grown oak frames of England that were in short supply.
This berth is parallel to the river, partially out of the tide but liable to siltation. The Cirrus slides into the berth with the minimum of effort. Coming off the berth we conventionally spring off against low
pressure Avon fenders. When the stern is in the tide, we spin the craft on cushion with the water jets.
At the outset our berthing times were 42 minutes without passengers.
Page 6.
CHOICE OF TERMINALS Cont'd: SOUTHAMPTON
Having located a suitable site in Cowes our attention turned to Southampton.
We commenced negotiations with Associated British Ports Owners of Southampton Docks, in April 1989 and finally
on 14 June 1989 we were advised we do not have a berth which could be made available in the Docks '.
We were invited by the Dunning Group to consider running from the Town Quay Southampton. They considered it would enhance their development and bring further pros-perity and passing trade to their retail development. Associated British Ports as the Landlords were consulted and as it was a commercial arrangement on the old
Southampton Town Quay their permission was required. In December 1989 the Dunning Group and Southampton Town Quay Development went into receivership. During this time Associated British Ports had acquired the Red Funnel Group and subsequently they bought back the leases for Town Quay during early 1990.
So, at this time January 1990 Associated British Ports have linked up the Eastern and Western Docks through the land purchase of Red Funnel land holdings and Southampton Town Quay. They also control the Ferry Company Red Funnel.
At present we are still operating out of a communal pontoon berth from Southampton Town Quay on a day to day basis.
The Office of Fair Trading requested the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to investigate the market for Cross Soient Ferries. We await the outcome of their findings.
Page 7.
HOVERCRAFT OPERATING PERMII TERMINALS
Our operators Licence No. 007 covers a specific route Terminal to Terminal, in this instance Cowes to
Southampton.
The pontoon size and fenderings are inspected, gangway widths and angles of incline are measured, we have a 4 metre rise and fall of tide, ability of handicapped persons to negotiate bends either on crutches or by wheelchair. All have to be in line with Air Port Terminal Regulations.
SAFETY
On covering this specific route, approximately 8.5 miles, there is full radar coverage V.T.S. from Southampton, full Channel marking with no deviation from the main Channel except authorised by V.T.S. on Channel 12. We have full Coastguard coverage on Channel 69. We have 24 hour helicoptor coverage approximately 9 minutes call out time, designated beach landings and sister craft transfers.
SAFETY VIDEO
All sections of the passenger and crew accommodation are fitted with T.V. monitors.
At the start of every passage our safety video is screened. I believe this was a first anywhere in the world.
This film was recorded during our emergency evacuation procedures during our proving trials for our Hovercraft Operators Permit. Since then we have a more sophisticated film taking our passengers through life jacket procedures and evacuation.
OPERATIONS MANUAL FOR CIRRUS l2O
This has grown from: 7 Pages in April 1989 18 Pages in September 1989 38 Pages in December 1990 112 Pages in December 1991
Page 8.
PLANNING CONSENTE
You may think that once you have located the berths, signed an agreement and paid some money that is the end - guite the reverse
I decided very early on that these sophisticated craft were to operate from pontoon berths at their own
embarcation levels. I had seen so much damage done to aluminium and GRP craft coming alongside fixed steel piers and jetties.
I was lucky to locate two excellent pontoons about the same size as the craft originally used for the Festival of Britain in 1951 in London. The gangways came from Aquilla Airlines old Southampton Flying Boat Terminal. We refurbished the pontoons and gangways in our own drydock at Britannia Wharf Cowes and then applied to the Harboür Authorities in Cowes and Southampton to place them in position. Approval had to be sought from seven Authorities each requiring six sets of Plans
We designed and built our own Terminals calling only on Engineers to calculate our load and stress factors for piling and gangway platform and also a Piling Company to drive the piles. Fabricating, fitting and welding was all done by our own Shipyard and ship's crews - a credit to them all.
I should add here that we are the only Solent operator with its own shipyard facility able to drydock our own vessels and carry out annual surveys.
After all our trials and tribulations at 0540 25 May 1990 SES Sant Agata left the pontoon at Thetis Wharf bound for Town Quay on the first commercial journey of Cowes Express - first passenger aboard
Page 9.
CERTIFICATE OF NON U.K. REGISTERED HOVERCRAFT.
I have a letter from the Department of Transport dated 24 December 1991 which reached my desk on 29 December stating that on 1 January 1992 the C.A.A. will hand over to the Department of Transport all new licencing of Non U.K. Registered Hovercraft. The Department
of Transport will treat them as ships I believe
this letter is unconstitutional and infringes all the rules as laid down in British Hovercraft Safety Re-quirements 1979.
Cowes Express are the only U.K. operators of side wall hovercraft and at this moment in time the largest
operator of hovercraft in the U.K. We were not con-sulted regarding this document.
To sum up - we can build in U.K. and register outside, it will be classed as a ship. We can build in U.K.
and register in U.K., it will be classed as a hovercraft. As many of you may be aware, Beliard Polyship, Belgium have commenced building S.E.S. to British designs, Lloyds lOOAl+ hull and machinery for the Solent and other routes. Cowes Express are to manage, operate, train crews, write operations and maintenance manuals and examine crews under our training Captain as
required by B.H.S.R. One of the loan conditions is that these craft are under the Belgian flag for a specified period.
Why are these hovercraft to be treated as ships by a "nearest Marine Office" when London has a specialised department working closely with the C.A.A.
The very essence of B.H.S.R. covers construction, maintenance, manning and crew training.
Having operated conventional ferries, high speed
ferries and now hovercraft and looking from an object-ive point of view the whole format of the hovercraft operation is light years ahead of conventional or novel craft standards.
Has all that has been learned from the aircraft industry and passed down to the hovercraft industry to be thrown away ?
Are we to return to the "ship" days allowing unskilled but professionally qualified officers to enter the flight deck and work all hours without type training ?
Page lo.
Are we to dispose of:
Craft type operating manuals servicing schedules
I' maintenance manuals
U service bulletins
rating certificates Annual assessments
Continuous training of pilots and crews Personal C.A.A. Flight Log Book listing
hours and types Limitation of hours
