Ship Shopping

A new ferry will be wearing the Bay Ferries Ltd funnel mark sometime soon.

According to today's news the Province of Nova Scotia has ended its relationship with Nova Star Ferries, bringing to an end a costly two year experiment in running a ferry between Yarmouth, NS and Portland, ME.

Negotiations are now under way with Bay Ferries Ltd, the winning proponent from four respondents to an invitation from the Province for next year's season. The timing is cutting it quite close. As far as I can tell it is already too late to do complete promotion for next year as it is. Then there is the issue of finding a ship that could enter service on time in the spring of 2016.

Since the ship would be trading internationally, it would not have to be registered in Canada or the United States, which might simplify things.  But there would certainly be some refitting and re-branding to do.
It took nearly six months to transform Blue Star Ithaki into Fundy Rose. Some of the work was related to Canadian regulatory compliance, but also involved engine rebuilds and new catering facilities, furnishings and other upgrades.

Let's hope that a suitable ship can be found, that it enters service on time, that it meets financial expectations and that it moves out of the political realm. (Oh and that it gets an appropriate name---Please!)

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Nova Star will be back, at least for 2015

Thanks to another cash infusion from the Province of Nova Scotia, Nova Star will be back on the Yarmouth, NS - Portland, ME run again this summer. The Province made the $13 million announcement today to the relief of many, particularly in southwest Nova Scotia.

Nova Star will have reduced fares for 2015, and thanks to lower fuel costs and a rock bottom Canadian dollar, there is every expectation that the ship will do better than it did last year.
However the Province stated that they will be calling for proposals for the 2016 season, with no guartantee that Nova Star will be back.
All we need is more uncertainly. Surely someone put together a decent 5 year plan for such a service and give it a chance to build. A year to year or short term arrangement is just not good enough. That plan must also include off season work for the ship, somewhere in the world.

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Nova Star a snowbird - NOT : Updated Post

Update: 

Original post  (see below for latest news)

The ferry Nova Star , like many Canadians, is heading to Florida for the winter. Reports indicate that winter heating a costs in Yarmouth are behind the move to Fort Pierce, FL. The ship is due to sail November 15 and arrive in Fort Pierce November 20.

Since completing a disappointing first season a bit earlier than planned, the ship has been idle in Yarmouth.
The owners have been seeking winter work for the ship, but so far have not announced any success. Various subsidies from Nova Scotia and perhaps Maine are expected to allow the ship to continue to run in 2015.

Meanwhile a group called Canamerica Cruises, which includes a number of people associated with the previous service offered by Scotia Prince Cruises, say that they will be proposing an alternative for the 2015 season. They have secured a ship which they are calling Scotia Prince II, a 30 year old ship with a passenger capacity of 700 (versus 1,120 on Nova Star). They are not revealing its present name.
Canamerica claims that they can run the service profitably with the smaller ship.

Scotia Prince, built as Stena Olympia in 1971, operated a seasonal Yarmouth -Portland service from 1982 to 2004. Its passenger capacity was 886 berths and 634 deck passengers. That service ended when a dispute with Portland could not be resolved. 
After emergency duties as an accommodation ship in New Orleans in 2005-2006, it worked in the Mediterranean. A plan to use it as a duty free ship in Sri Lanka fell through, and it arrived off  Chittagong, Bangladesh April 2, 2012. It was beached April 10 and broken up.

Perhaps with time to build up more publicity, lower gasoline prices and a lower Canadain dollar, 2015 may be a better season for Nova Star. After all the money poured into it I don't see governments entertaining an alternative or competing service. I give the Scotia Prince II a snowball's chance in Florida.


Latest:
Last night's post was correct at one point, but plans change!. Apparently under pressure from the Province of Nova Scotia to keep the ship within the Province's legal jurisdiction, the decision was made to go move the ship to Shelburne instead of Florida. Today's Chronicle Herald states that the agreement with Nova Star Cruises, the operator of the ferry, has expired. The Province has been in talks with the ferry's owners, ST Marine, but is not saying what the future may be, including whether a different operator may be sought.
As I understand it ST Marine is an offshoot of the ship's builders, who were unable to sell the ship.It was chartered to Nova Star, but no one is saying if that charter is still in effect.

Nova Star is a big ship to tie up in Shelburne, but not the first troubled passenger vessel to reside there. Pearl Mist resided there until the dispute between Irving Shipbuidling and Pearl Seas Crsuises was resolved.
But before that the Mercator One was brought to Shelburne in March 1978 after the Province's first attempt to enter the cruise ship business flopped.The converted ferry was heavily financed by the Province, but only had one short season of cruising in the Caribbean before it was put up for sale.       

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Nova Star -what did LDA know that we don't

1. LD - for Louis Dreyfus - is a prominent French vessel operator. Their funnel mark appears on the cable ship Ile de Sein that was in Halifax last week.

In 2007 the French ferry operator Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) ordered a new ship for their recently acquired Le Havre to Portsmouth ferry crossing. To be called Norman Leader, the 1200 passenger ship was to be delivered in late 2009 or early 2010 but the delivery date kept stretching. In the meantime LDA consolidated routes and some observers believe that the new ship was no longer needed. On March 17, 2011 LDA cancelled the order for the ship citing the builder's failure to meet specifications and delivery dates. The coincident  economic downturn and drop off in traffic were not cited, but might have added to the situation.

The builders, ST Marine, a division of Singapore Technologies, along with Bureau Veritas as classification agency, meanwhile had put the ship through trials in October 2010 for delivery in April 2011. By October 2011 LDA and STMarine had settled their differences out of court. STM reportedly paid LDA 10% of the purchase price of the ship.(The original contract price was quoted by most sources as US$100mn).

STM was left with the ship. They teamed up with Quest Navigation of Eliot, Maine to form STMQuest and in August 2013 they were the winning proponent for the new Yarmourth, NS to Portland, ME ferry service to start in 2014. The ship, to be renamed Nova Star, will run under the Nova Star Cruises banner, but will be managed by International Shipping Partners of Miami. The Province of Nova Scotia is fronting the company $10.5mn  to start up and $1.5mn per year over seven years for promotion, but has insisted that the operation must be self-supporting and have not committed to any operating subsidies.

Press reports today brought up the "deadweight issues" that LDA had with the ship. (Deadweight tonnage being the total weight of cargo, passengers fuel and stores that a ship can lift.)
Historically, deadweight issues on cross Channel ships were quite serious as they effected design draft and thus freeboard. One ship, Barfleur, had to be lengthened 5 meters, basically to spread its deadweight out over a larger area, so that it could sail fully loaded at its design draft and with safe freeboard.
Having sailed on the Le Havre to Portsmouth service myself (when it was operated by P+O), I am aware that the ship is usually full, and there is heavy truck traffic. Neither is likely to be the case on the Yarmouth-Portland run, which is aimed mostly at tourists.
Press reports in 2007-2009 said the ship was to have a deadweight tonnage of 4,000 tonnes at design draft and 5,250 tonnes at maximum draft. The latest data I have says the ship's deadweight tonnage is 4,145 tonnes. 
 
Therefore I agree with the various commentators that there is no deadweight issue here.

If there were other failures to meet specs that we don't know about that might be concerning. However Bureau Veritas certified the ship for "short international voyages" which would seem to indicate that the ship could be suitable for Gulf of Maine work, with perhaps some modifications and freeboard restrictions.
Therefore it seems to come down to late delivery - which is irrelevant now. (The cross chaneel run from Le Have to Portsmouth was a five hour trip at 20 knots in May 2000.) The Gulf of Maine is perhaps noted for more severe weather than some part of the English Channel, and the compensation for that is usually greater freeboard.

The "deadweight issue" may just be a grab at sensationalism, and I don't want to be seen as piling on, so my conclusion is - wait and see, give them a chance. 

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