Famille Dufour II - slow speed to Halifax

The high speed catamaran tour boat Famille Dufour II arrived in Halifax last night at 8.5 knots instead of its cruising speed of 30 knots.

Famille Dufour II tied up at Connors Diving's base adjacent to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.

Built in 1995 the 340 passenger tour boat was intended to make speedy day trips out of Montreal and Quebec City to Tadoussac, QC, at the mouth of the Saguenay River where the Dufour family had acquired the Hotel Tadoussac, formerly owned by Canada Steamship Lines. The high speed cruise would also make stops on the way in such places as Ile-aux-Coudres, where the Dufours were based and started their hotel business. Riders were treated to majestic scenery and wildlife including whales.

Like most Ile-aux-Coudres families, seafaring and shipbuilding is a way of life, and following the design by Réjean Desgagnés, the Dufours built the boat adjacent to their hotel at Cap-aux-Pierres at the eastern tip of the island. Throughout its service the boat also wintered there, even though there is no dock and no port facilities. The boat and its fleet mates would approach shore at high tide where they maneuvered onto  wheeled cradles to be hauled up the beach. After spring maintenance the process was reversed and the boats took to the water once again.

Like all high speed vessels Famille Dufour II was intended to cover the high cost of fuel by efficient hull design, light weight and fast passages. In its first few years it certainly did that but as oil prices skyrocketed, the fast cruising was reduced and operations restricted to the Montreal - Quebec City range. Extensive renovations to the public spaces and the addition of a sun deck in 2010 made the boat more suitable to for harbour cruises with dining and entertainment. It has recently been marketed under the Crosières Le Montréalais banner.

In June 2015 Famille Dufour II was fitted out and ready to go back in the water at Ile-aux-Coudres. The upper sun deck was added in the 2010 refit.

A shakeup in the St.Lawrence tour boat business in 2014 saw Croisières AML acquire the boats of several other operations and to re-assign their older boats to crewing duties in Newfoundland for the construction of the giant Hebron Gravity Base in Bull Arm.

AML acquired the Dufour boats and put Famille Dufour II on the market soon after. In December 2015 new owners Riverside Marine BC Ltd of Vancouver re-registered the boat in their name. A subsidiary of Riviera Marine of Brisbane, Australia, they  intend to operate a new service from the Vancouver Convention Centre to the Victoria Inner Harbour. The trip is expected to take only three hours, and at $80 provides a speedy alternative to float planes or BC Ferries.

Rocket like acceleration from twin Hamilton water jets and 5600 bhp of Cat diesels, had the boat up to cruising speed in very short order. Top speed was 35 knots.

Famille Dufour II has no sleeping accommodation and is built for relatively sheltered waters, so its arrival in Halifax was on the end of a tow line. The one time Halifax based tug Point Vim (ex Foundation Vim) picked up the tow in Tadoussac, QC and made very good time towing at 8 knots or better since departing January 6.

The tug and tow arrived off Halifax late Saturday evening, and proceeded in to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron on the Northwest Arm. Point Vim is certainly one of the rare commercial vessels to enter the Arm in many years, and certainly the first sizeable tug in decades. The Arm is almost exclusively a haven for pleasure boats and harbour tour craft. The occasional Coast Guard boat used to make an icebreaking or buoy laying trip, but that has not happened for many years. The last CCG ships I am aware of were Simon Fraser and Provo Wallis.

Point Vim is owned by Davis Shipping of Wesleyville, NL and has been upgraded and reconditioned and is in superb condition for a tug built in 1962. Under Davis ownership it has traveled widely towing the company barge and has been used for harbour tug work in St.John's. (It can be glimpsed in a photo of St.John's in Maclean's magazine this week.)

The next step of Famille Dufour II's trip to BC remains to be discovered, but my guess is a heavy lift ship will pick the boat up and transport it to its new home.

For more on Famille Dufour II  see my blog Navigation Quebec Post #19 - here.

There are also numerous references to the tug Point Vim on the Tugfax blog, including this October 2011 post.The tug sailed from Halifax again early in the morning of January 10 and was well off to sea before sunup.

Over Christmas 1979 Point Vim was hard at work in Halifax harbour , here seen assisting Oremar. [see previous post from December 28on that busy week.]

In March 1981 Point Vim had just completed berthing the bulker Canadian Highlander and was returning to base. 

For twenty-five years these 1,000 bhp single screw tugs were the workhorses of Halifax harbour

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Quiet Saturday

There was very little activity in Halifax harbour today, with only one daylight arrival, and that was the regular caller NYK Demeter for Fairview Cove.

The 55,534 grt, 66,000 dwt ship has been calling here since 2014. It was built in 2007 by Hyundia, Ulsan and has a container capacity of 4922 TEU, putting on the small side these days. Flying the Panama flag, it is operated by Hachiuma SS Co Ltd for NYK Lines.

The offshore supply boat Skandi Flora was exercising in Bedford Basin, and trhe bulk carrier CSL Atlas remains at anchor there after arriving January 6. It bunkered soon after arrival, but has been idle ever since.

Anchored well up in the Basin off Prince's Lodge, the ship is showing signs of wear and tear.

Built in 1990 by Verolme do Brasil in Angrados Reis, it was the world's only Panamax self-unloading bulk carrier. That is no longer the case, and the ship is certainly beginning to show its age. One has to wonder, with CSL acquiring many newer ships recently, what is next for this once innovative ship. It has recently been been involved in transshipment operations in Africa and now appears to be awaiting orders.

For a more complete description of the ship see Shipfax April 27, 2011.

The only other action in the harbour was the installation of another new deck section on the Angus L.Macdonald bridge. After a hiatus of many weeks, work resumed again last night when workers cut out the old section. It was lowered to a waiting barge this morning and the new section raised into position this afternoon.

Workers lower an old deck section to the waiting barge where a new section is ready to lift. This is fourth section of the project which will install an entirely new deck over a period of a year and a half. The bridge will reopen again Monday morning.

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Atlantic Progress for Nirint - Part 1 and Part 2

The much traveled Atlantic Progress arrives Friday morning for Nirint Shipping. To my knowledge it is the first time the ship has called in Halifax, but it has operated in this area under six different names.
It was built as Atlantic Pride by Jianjiang Shipyard in 2000, and the next year became Seaboard Rover before reverting to its original name in 2002. In 2005 it became Seaboard Chile II for another two years. In 2007 it took up a charter with Fednav as Federal Pride. Under that name it was a frequent sight on the St.Lawrence and into the Great Lakes carrying break bulk and bulk cargoes.
Then in 2010 it was sold by original owners Pontium Pro Nav Panama (managed by Athena Marine Co Ltd of Limassol) to Intership Navigation Co Ltd, also of Limassol under the management of Hartmann Project Lines of Germany.  From 2010 to 2013 it carried the name HAL Pride. It then adopted its current name.

I first saw the ship on the St.Lawrence River as Federal Pride.
 

As Federal Pride, downbound on the St.Lawrence with a full cargo in 2009.

The ship measures 12,993 grt, 17,541 dwt and has two 45 tonne cranes serving three holds. It has portable tween decks which can be stowed on deck when not in use, and can accommodate 984 TEUs, including 30 reefers. For Nirint, it is arriving from Cuba with bagged nickel sulfides and containers.

In 2008, upbound on the St.Lawrence in ballast with its portable tween decks stowed on deck just forward of the deckhouse.

Part 2

 At sunup this morning the ship was alongside with cranes rigged and ready as soon as Canadian Border Services completed their inspection. A string of gondola cars on the pier were ready to take some of the cargo.

The ship has a large deck load of  containers. The ship's designers had this kind of versatility in mind, and specified the cranked crane bases to clear the large hatch cover fit between the container stacks.

 

By early afternoon cargo work was well along and the crew was taking on stores using the small stores crane mounted on the stern. 

The ship will sail this evening direct to Rotterdam. (Some Nirint ships call in Matane, QC on the return leg.)

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Atlantic Star - in business

 
Whatever problems Atlantic Star had with its stern ramp yesterday were overcome and the ramp was down and in use today.

The high angle view also shows how secure containers are when nestled in the massive cell frames. The frames also have built in walkways for longshoreman to access the lashing points to tie the boxes down into position.

The ship has completed container operations, and is scheduled to sail this evening.  

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General Updates on Atlantic Star and HMCS Fredericton, etc.,

Atlantic Star will remain in port overnight January 6. Although it was still working containers late in the afternoon, the stern ramp was in the up position. This is most unusual since it is usually left down until the ship is ready to sail.
I have once learned that there is a mechanical problem with the ramp itself. I noted when the ship was inbound that an alarm was sounding from the stern of the ship in the area of the car deck. On tying up it was discovered that they could not lower the ramp. A new ship teething problem no doubt, but most inconvenient nevertheless since there is usually a lot of RoRo cargo for Halifax.

Atlantic Star gives a broadside view as it emerges from the Narrows into Bedford Basin.  The Seaview Point buoy is forward of the tug.

The ship's overnight stay resulted in fleetmate Atlantic Cartier going to anchor until morning, since the other berth at Fairveiw Cove was occupied by NYK Delphinus. Now we will see the old and new tied up together tomorrow.

HMCS Fredericton's send off from HMC Dockyard on Tuesday January 5 was ceremonial only. Although the ship went to sea it returned to port to transfer personnel and worked the dynamic sound range inside Meagher's Beach. It was in and out again several times during the day Wednesday and into the evening transferring personnel back and forth.
The ship never tied up at the HMC Dockyard, but instead transferred people and perhaps parts and pieces - by small boat.

HMCS Fredericton scoots out of harbour at dusk Wednesday - one of several arrivals and departures since its official sailing. Its gun barrel doesn't have the same jaunty angle it had on departures, so perhaps there were some firing exercises at sea too.

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Atlantic Star - ACL's G4 makes its debut

The first of five new fourth generation (G4) ships for Atlantic Container Line made its Halifax debut this morning. (The large letter G on the funnel casing stands for the Grimaldi Group, owners of ACL since 2007.)

Built by Hudong-Zhongua in Shanghai, the 100,530 grt Atlantic Star sailed into Halifax in broad daylight to tie up at Fairveiw Cove for the first time. Its predecessors of the G3 class have been the most dependable sights in Halifax harbour since the mid 1980s, and so ships of this class will eventually become commonplace, but the startling appearance of this first one will not soon be forgotten.

At 296m over all length, 37.6m beam and 11.5m maximum draft, it has been specially designed to serve the same ports as as the G3s, but with an impressive increase in capacity. 3817 TEU (versus 2908), 1307 cars (versus 1000) and 28,900 m2 of RoRo space (versus 18,500) are among a few of the statistics which single out these ships. The G3s were already the world's largest ConRos (ships with CONtainer and ROro capacity), but these represent a huge leap ahead. All this is done with a decrease in crew size from 21 to 16 and a reduction in fuel burn to 70 tonnes per day from 75 tonnes per day. One figure of note its that it has the economies of scale of a 6500 TEU container ship but with lower operating costs.

Containers are stowed on deck in huge fixed cell guides, which should ensure that ACL maintains its record of never having lost a container overboard. Seven fixed and four hoistable car decks with a maximum deck height of 7.4m and a 420 tonne capacity stern ramp will allow it to carry an even broader rage of wheeled, oversize and heavy cargoes, ranging form cars, trucks, buses and construction equipment to aircraft components, wind farm devices and all range of manufactured goods and machinery.

The four remaining G4s to be named Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Sky and Atlantic Sun will be phased into service over the coming year, as the remaining G3s are phased. There will be an interesting event this evening as Atlantic Star sails and Atlantic Cartier arrives on its eastbound leg. The passing will occur after dark, preventing a photographic comparison.

ACLs sequence of port calls for these ships (its A Service) is:Hamburg, Goteborg, Antwerp, Liverpool, Halifax, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, New York, Halifax,  Liverpool, Antwerp, Hamburg. ACL also operates in conjunction with other lines on four other transatlantic services, called B, C, F and J.

Since its founding in 1965 by five leading European shipping companies ACL has always carried a mix of containers and RoRo, and was one of the early container lines to call in Halifax and the first RoRo service. But before that they serviced the Volvo assembly plant in Halifax.

 Hother Isle was converted from a cargo shisp to a container ship in 1968-69 and serviced the Volvo assembly plant for ACL for a short time until the first generation of ACL ships began to call in Halifax in 1970.

 The G1 ACL ship Atlantic Saga unloads at pier 36 in 1970. A Mafi trailer at left and a yard tractor, some special steel pallets for Volvo, and a Triumph TR3 I believe, were typical RoRo cargos of the day.

 The first Atlantic Star initiated RoRo service to Halifax March 3, 1967 with 200 Volvo car "kits" for assembly in Halifax and 200 completed cars for the US market. It was lengthened in 1975 (with hull blisters or sponsons added for strength) and was finally broken up in 1987. 

Atlantic Song, another of the G1s after it was lengthened approaches Halterm.

 Atlantic Service, built as Atlantic Span, was the first ever ConRo ship when it was built in 1967. On July 24, 1987 it lost power while approaching Halifax and drifted aground off Sandwich Point (below York Redoubt). It was not severely damaged, but headed off the scrappers in November of that year.

The first Atlantic Star's stern ramp was an impressive sight in 1970, but fades in comparison the current ship's massive stern portal, which I doubt I will able to photograph.

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HMCS Fredericton sails for NATO

It was a bitterly cold afternoon in Halifax, with temperature at the -10C mark, with a very brisk breeze making it feel more like -20 something, as HMCS Fredericton got away from HMC Dockyard for a six month deployment with NATO.

  Fredericton wheels away from the Dockyard shortly after 1300 hrs AST.

This will be the ship's second posting to Operation Reassurance, a NATO response to the Russian occupation of Crimea, the first was in 2014. With NATO's SNMG2 it is expected to operate some of the time in the Black Sea.

The ship passed west of George's Island heading for sea.

Fredericton arrived in Halifax for the first time February 23, 1994 fresh from the builders in Saint John and was commissioned September 10, 1994. It entered the FELEX mid-life refit program at Halifax Shipyard October 6, 2011 and returned to the Dockyard January 2, 2013.

In its original pre-FELEX configuration, on a relatively balmy day in 1999.

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