High Speed Vessels to Market: Comparative Case Studies in the Passenger Trade

摘要

The Volpe Center chose to study several existing catamarans and high speed monohulls in comparison to representative SWATH family craft, including the SLICE 400 (passenger) and SLICE 600 (passeneger/90 car) variants, the former similar in size and performance to both the SLICE 'demonstrator' and SLICE 250. The demonstrator is the only SLICE that has been built and the 400 and 600 concept designs were judged the best available for commercial purposes at the time of the report's preparation. It should be pointed out that, at the completion of this report, improved and more detailed commercial service SLICE designs had been completed; none, however, has proceeded to the newbuilding stage. The analysis proceeded flowing field study of several high speed operations in the United States, acquisition and organization of market data, and organizing and conducting a session titled 'To Buy or not to Buy: The Operator's Fast Ferry Decision' at the Fast Ferry International Conference (Boston, Massachusetts). The main point was to determine which high speed types can demonstrate appreciable performance and economic advantage relative to the competition. An essential component therefore was a comparative performance study, whose focus was seakeeping and passenger comfort, powering nod fuel consumption and principal particulars as they relate to practical matters of navigation and infrastructure. The resulting high speed vessel data bases were the foundation of a service needs assessment whose aim was to identify the best opportunities for SWATH/SLICE in the current market. The main finding of this assessment was that people are the highest value, and most universally available, 'commodity' for any high speed operation, which came with high capital and operating costs regardless of the vessel employed. The approach called for regional and metropolitan market case studies. The emphasis was placed on itinerant common carrier ferry service (five case studies) because of the importance of schedule reliability, relative likelihood of year round service requirements, and the new impetus for fast ferry services provided by the Transportation Act for the 21st Century (TEA21) recently passed by Congress. Two additional case studies were selected: crew boat for offshore oil rig personnel; and a high revenue excursion boat, i.e., offshore gaming service.