Cat in the News

 Bay Ferries Ltd (BFL) resumed its Yarmouth / Bar Harbor service July 1 using "The Cat" high speed catamaran. The 3.5 hour daily service will run until October 9. Media reports indicate that in 2022 it made 113 trips with 12 cancelled due to weather. It carried 36,151 passengers using 14,972 vehicles. (There was no service in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.)

The service has been controversial with questions about the cost of government subsidies versus the benefit to the local economy. With the current contract to end in 2025, the Province of Nova Scotia has issued a request for proposals to conduct an economic impact study. 

The ship used for the BFL service is officially called HST-2. Leased from the United States Maritime Commission, it is the former USNS Puerto Rico and Alakai. Built in 2007 by Austal USA in Mobile, AL, it operated a ferry service between the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui. When that service was discontinued in 2010 (another controversy) the ship was auctioned off and purchased the the US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (US MarAd). In 2012 they transferred it, and a sister ship to the US Navy for troop and equipment transport. It was renamed USNS Puerto Rico to be operated by the Military Sealift Command (US MSC).

However it was little used and in 2016 US MSC renamed it HST-2 and chartered it to Bay Ferries Ltd. Upon starting the charter however it reverted to Alakai and that is the name painted on the bow.  It remains registered in the United States under the ownership of US MSC. When built it was rated for 866 passengers and 282 sub-compact cars. It can be converted for heavy trucks and other military vehicles.

It is not the first high speed ferry out of Yarmouth to be marketed as "The Cat" - there have been three if my records are correct. 

Re-using the names of previous ships has been a common feature of the ferries operating from Yarmouth. See a following post about the "Bluenose".

.